Early Sikhs fought for Canada

October 10, 2008 - A filmmaker has made a historical discovery even proud Sikh-Canadians apparently weren't aware of – before their forebears were allowed to immigrate to Canada, nine of their numbers joined the Canadian Army and fought in World War I in France and Belgium.

Now David Gray is on a quest to unravel the mystery of these recruits – two of whom were Torontonians – and tell their stories. Gray, an Ottawa-based filmmaker, is chronicling their lives in a documentary called Sikh-Canadian Heroes of the First World War, to be released later this year.

It's already caused such a buzz that a portion of it will be shown at the Sikh-themed Spinning Wheel Film Festival at the Isabel Bader Theatre in Toronto this weekend.

"No one knew that Sikhs fought in the Canadian Army as early as World War I," said Guelph lawyer and writer T. Sher Singh, one of the founders of the annual festival. "It's a lesson in history for us, too."

The first Sikhs are believed to have come to Canada after British Empire soldiers travelled to London in 1897 to take part in Queen Victoria's diamond jubilee.

Sikh soldiers who made the trip returned to India via Canada and some settled here, finding work in lumber mills and later in railway building. There were a lot of restrictions placed on them – they couldn't bring their families here from India, or vote, or leave the city they lived in without permission.

The Canadian Army angle was unknown until now.

Gray stumbled on the story last year while making a documentary on labourers from China and India who worked in quarries near Victoria, B.C., from 1904 to 1920.

He wanted to find their surnames so that he could trace their later family trees in Canada. But checks of many records drew a blank. Eventually he got the idea to look up military records of the period, and struck gold.

Gray found that nine Sikhs, each with the ubiquitous Singh surname, enlisted in Canada after the imperial declaration of war against Germany and her allies on Aug. 4, 1914.

Two enlisted from Toronto, two from Smiths Falls, Ont., three from Vancouver and one each from Winnipeg and Montreal. Gray pored over military archives to learn the recruits ranged from 22 to the oldest, John Singh, 35.

Eight served overseas, with two killed in action. Another died later of his battlefield wounds. Four others were wounded, one at Vimy Ridge.

The documentary uses archival footage of Canadian troops serving in World War I to describe the experiences of the Sikh soldiers. The film follows the men from recruitment to training, travel across Canada, arrival in England and then the western front in France, going into battle, recoveries of the wounded in hospital and, for the survivors, the eventual trip back to Canada and demobilization. The trail runs cold there.

"I found that one of the soldiers joined the Canadian Corps of Commissionaires after he retired," said Gray, but could find no further records to trace his family.

Gray knows there's no chance the Sikh veterans are still alive but he'd love to talk to their descendants. "I want to find their families and tell the complete story."

He's hoping publicity for the film will produce some leads in the Sikh community.

The Spinning Wheel festival "is the first step to get the word out," said Gray, who will be on hand when a portion of his film screens on Saturday, 10 October.

-By Raveena Aulakh
Staff reporter THE STAR Toronto