Harjit Sajjan

Sajjan was born on September 6, 1970, in Bombeli, a village in the Hoshiarpur district of Punjab, India. His father, Kundan Singh Sajjan, was a head constable with the Punjab Police in India. His father was a member of the board of the World Sikh Organization, which has been described as a radical Sikh group. Sajjan, along with his mother and older sister, immigrated to Canada in 1976, when he was five years old, to join their father who had left for BC two years earlier to work at a sawmill. While the family was getting established in their new life in Canada, his mother worked on berry farms in BC Lower Mainland during the summer where Sajjan and his sister would frequently join her. Sajjan was baptized as a Sikh when he was a teenager, seeing it as a way to get away from a bad crowd, such as his classmate Bindy Johal who became a notorious gangster. == Military and police career ==

Sajjan joined The British Columbia Regiment (Duke of Connaught's Own) in 1989 as a trooper and was commissioned as an officer in 1991. He eventually rose to the rank of lieutenant-colonel. He deployed overseas four times in the course of his career: once to Bosnia and Herzegovina, and three times to Afghanistan. Sajjan was mentioned in dispatches for the usefulness of his tactical counterinsurgency knowledge in the planning and implementation of an unnamed operation in September 2006 to secure important terrain. Upon his return, Sajjan left his position with the Vancouver police, but stayed as a reservist and started his own consulting business that taught intelligence gathering techniques to Canadian and American military personnel. Sajjan returned to Afghanistan for another tour of duty in 2009, taking another tour of leave from the Vancouver Police Department to do so. In 2011, he became the first Sikh to command a Canadian Army reserve regiment when he was named commander of The British Columbia Regiment (Duke of Connaught's Own). He was bestowed with the Meritorious Service Medal in 2012 for diluting the Taliban's influence in Kandahar Province. His Sikh beliefs require him to keep his facial hair which prevents the use of regular military gas masks, so Sajjan invented his own gas mask that worked with his beard, and patented it in 1996. == Political career ==

in 2016 and U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis in 2018 Sajjan was elected for the riding of Vancouver South during the 2015 federal election, defeating Conservative incumbent Wai Young. Sajjan was appointed minister of national defence in the federal Cabinet, headed by Justin Trudeau, on November 4, 2015. He was also briefly acting minister of veterans affairs in February 2019 following the resignation of Jody Wilson-Raybould, until the appointment of Lawrence MacAulay to the portfolio. His alleged links with the Khalistan movement have caused diplomatic friction with Punjab's former chief minister, Amarinder Singh. Harjit Sajjan also has faced allegations from New Democratic Party (NDP) that he is "playing down his connections to the detainee controversy during the [Afghanistan] combat mission [Medusa], where Canadians handed over prisoners to torture by Afghan authorities." In September 2019, Sajjan attended an event that was held to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, for which he was subsequently criticized by the Conservatives. Controversy over role in Operation Medusa In an April 2017 public speech in New Delhi, Sajjan called himself "the architect" of Operation Medusa, a September 2006 Canadian offensive to remove Taliban fighters from around Kandahar. At the time of Operation Medusa, Sajjan was a major in the Canadian Army reserve and a liaison officer to Task Force Kandahar, where large combat operations such as Medusa were usually worked upon by generals and colonels. One of the anonymous officers cited in the National Post, which first broke the story, called Sajjan's statement "a bald-faced lie", while others praised him on a personal level and for his expert intelligence work, but found his claim "really, quite outrageous" because the planning for Operation Medusa was collaborative. Brigadier-General David Fraser had also extensively praised the indispensable nature of Sajjan's role in Operation Medusa. Sajjan issued apologies in which he apologized to members of the Canadian Forces, the United States Armed Forces, and the Afghan Armed Forces in the operation, and noted that the successes of Operation Medusa were due to the contributions of all members of the Canadian Forces who were involved. Sajjan also acknowledged that describing himself as "the architect" was a mistake, and highlighted the role of Brigadier-General David Fraser in leading the team that planned the operation. Sajjan was supported by Justin Trudeau amidst calls from the opposition for him to resign. A failed vote of no confidence in Sajjan was put forth by the Conservatives in the House of Commons. He was censured by the House of Commons in 2021 for "misleading Canadians about his service record". Sajjan was moved from Minister of National Defence to minister of international development in an October 2021 cabinet reshuffle. Controversy over handling of sexual assault within the Canadian Armed Forces Sajjan has come under substantial criticism for his handling of sexual assault within the Canadian Armed Forces. According to Megan MacKenzie, a sexual assault expert and academic, "Sajjan already has zero credibility on this issue and, at this point, it's unclear what it would take to remove him from this position given the clear signs he is not capable of leading or enacting change when it comes to military sexual violence". Gary Walbourne, the military's ombudsman, told a parliamentary committee that he had privately warned Sajjan of the allegations against Vance. Sajjan was censured by the House of Commons in 2021 over his handling of the sexual misconduct issue. While Canadian armed forces managed to airlift 3,700 people out of Afghanistan, predominantly Canadian citizens and permanent residents, citizens of allied countries, and Afghans who worked for Canada, 1,250 Canadian citizens/permanent residents and hundreds of Afghans who assisted the Canadian army were left behind. An anonymous special forces officer told the Globe:“There was such furious anger that the last 24 hours were solely dedicated to getting the Sikhs out”. The Globe and Mail's editorial board wrote that "Sajjan failed Canada, and Canadians" by compromising the evacuation of Canadian citizens and people with links to Canada through his request. Bloc Quebecois MP Christine Normandin, criticized Sajjan's actions, stating: "We learned through The Globe and Mail that the minister might have provided some directives to prioritize the evacuation of Afghans of the Sikh faith to the detriment of Canadians" and "Certain individuals including [former Canadian military] interpreters were left behind because the resources to evacuate people were limited." She later moved a motion, which was unanimously adopted, calling for Sajjan along with other senior officials to testify. The Globe also reported that directors of the Manmeet Singh Bhullar Foundation, a Canadian Sikh group that sought to privately sponsor Afghan Sikhs' arrival to Canada, made multiple donations to Sajjan's Liberal riding association; the donations coincided with the foundation pressing Sajjan and the government to rescue a group of Afghan Sikhs during the Kabul evacuation. Sajjan claimed that the foundation reached out to him personally, and he relayed the information provided to him by the foundation to the military's chain of command. The donations also coincided with Sajjan seeking reelection during the 2021 Canadian federal election. In September 2024, it was reported that the House of Commons committee on national defence planned to investigate Sajjan's actions during the Kabul evacuation. The request was refused by the Canadian Forces. Sajjan's spokesman defended the request, saying that Dosanjh "is the biggest Punjabi artist in the world". ==Honours and decorations==

Sajjan has received the following honours and decorations during and after his military career. ==Electoral record==