Harjit Sajjan

The Honourable
Harjit Sajjan
PC OMM MSM CD MP
Minister of National Defence
Assumed office
November 4, 2015
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
Preceded by Jason Kenney
Member of the Canadian Parliament
for Vancouver South
Assumed office
October 19, 2015
Preceded by Wai Young
Personal details
Born (1970-09-06) September 6, 1970
Hoshiarpur, Punjab, India
Political party Liberal
Spouse(s) Kuljit Kaur, MD
Children 2
Religion Sikhism
Military service
Allegiance  Canada
Service/branch  Canadian Army
Years of service 1989–2015[1]
Rank Lieutenant Colonel

Harjit Singh Sajjan PC OMM MSM CD MP (born September 6, 1970) is a Canadian Liberal politician, the current Minister of National Defence and a Member of Parliament representing the riding of Vancouver South. He is the first Sikh to become Minister of Defence. Sajjan was first elected during the 2015 federal election, defeating Conservative incumbent MP Wai Young, and was sworn as defence minister into the Cabinet, headed by Justin Trudeau, on November 4, 2015. Before politics, Sajjan was a detective investigating gangs for the Vancouver Police Department and a regimental commander in the Canadian Armed Forces decorated for his service in Afghanistan. Sajjan was also the first Sikh-Canadian to command a Canadian army reserve regiment.

Early and personal life

Harjit Singh Sajjan was born on September 6, 1970[2] in Bombeli, a village in the Hoshiarpur district of Punjab, India.[3] Sajjan's father, Kundan Sajjan, was a police officer in India,[3] and is currently a member of the World Sikh Organization (WSO), a Sikh advocacy group.[4] Harjit Singh, along with his mother and older sister, emigrated to Canada in 1976, when he was five years old, to join their father who had left for British Columbia two years earlier to work at a sawmill.[3][5] 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 Harjit Singh and his sister would frequently join her.[5] Harjit Singh grew up in a neighborhood in South Vancouver.[5]

Harjit Singh married Kuljit Kaur, a family physician, in 1996, and they have a son and a daughter.[5][6]

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.[3][7]

Military and police career

Sajjan joined the The British Columbia Regiment (Duke of Connaught's Own) in 1989 as a trooper and was commissioned in 1991. He eventually rose to the rank of lieutenant-colonel. He was deployed overseas four times in the course of his career: once to Bosnia and Herzegovina, and three times to Afghanistan.[4] Sajjan was wounded during his service in Bosnia.[3] Sajjan began his 11-year career as an officer of the Vancouver Police Department after returning from his Bosnian deployment.[4][5] He ended his career with the VPD as a detective with the department's gang crimes unit specializing in drug trafficking[4] and organized-crime investigator.[5][7]

Sajjan's first deployment to Afghanistan was right before Operation Medusa in 2006, during which he took leave from his work in the Vancouver Police Department's gang squad.[5] He deployed with the 1st Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment Battle Group in Kandahar and worked as a liaison officer with the Afghan police.[3] His fluency in Punjabi, his first language, allowed him to be understood by Urdu-speaking Afghans without translators, especially by village leaders who were invaluable to his intelligence gathering.[3][5] Sajjan found that corruption in the Afghan government was driving recruitment to the Taliban and managed to uncover most Taliban defensive positions in the Kandahar region.[3] After reporting these findings to Brigadier General David Fraser, Sajjan was tasked with helping the general plan aspects of Operation Medusa.[3]

During Operation Medusa, four Canadian soldiers under Sajjan's command were killed in the fighting.[3] Fraser evaluated Sajjan's leadership during the operation as "nothing short of brilliant."[3] When Sajjan returned to Vancouver, Fraser sent a letter to the police department calling Sajjan “the best single Canadian intelligence asset in theatre,” and stated that his work saved “a multitude of coalition lives.”[5][8]

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.[3] He also consulted for US policy analyst and Afghanistan expert Barnett Rubin, which began as a correspondence over Sajjan's views on how to tackle the Afghan opium trade and evolved into a collaboration as advisers to American military and diplomatic leaders in Afghanistan.[5][9]

Sajjan returned to Afghanistan for another tour of duty in 2009, taking another tour of leave from the VPD to do so.[5] Having already taken two leaves of absence, Sajjan had to leave the VPD for his third tour of duty in 2010, during which he was assigned as a Special Assistant to then Major-General James L. Terry, the commander of American forces in Afghanistan.[5][8]

In 2011, he became the first Sikh to command a Canadian Army reserve regiment when he was named commander of the The British Columbia Regiment (Duke of Connaught's Own).[4][10]

He was bestowed with the Meritorious Service Medal in 2012[11] for diluting the Taliban’s influence in Kandahar Province.[4] He has also been awarded the Canadian Peacekeeping Service Medal.[4] He also received the Order of Military Merit award. He also served as an Aide-de-Camp to the Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia.[12]

His Sikh beliefs requires 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.[7][13]

Political career

Sajjan was elected for the riding of Vancouver South during the 2015 federal election, defeating Conservative incumbent MP Wai Young.[14][15][16] Sajjan was appointed Minister of National Defence in the federal Cabinet, headed by Justin Trudeau, on November 4, 2015.[17]

Honours and decorations

Sajjan received the following honours and decorations during and after his military career.




Ribbon Description Notes
Order of Military Merit (OMM)
  • Officer October 17, 2012
  • Invested June 20, 2014
  • [18]
Meritorious Service Medal (MSM)
  • Awarded August 22, 2012
  • Military Division
South-West Asia Service Medal
  • With Clasp "AFGHANISTAN"
General Campaign Star
  • South West Asia Ribbon
  • 2 Rotation Bars
Mentioned in dispatches
  • Awarded June 4, 2008
NATO Service Medal
  • Former Yugoslavia
Canadian Peacekeeping Service Medal
Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal
  • 2002
  • Canadian Version of this Medal
  • [19]
Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal
  • 2012
  • Canadian Version of this Medal
  • [20]
Canadian Forces Decoration (CD)
  • 1 Clasp
Commendation Medal
Chief of Defence Staff Commendation
Deputy Minister Award

Electoral record

Canadian federal election, 2015: Vancouver South
Party Candidate Votes%∆%Expenditures
LiberalHarjit Sajjan 21,773 48.81 +15.05 –
ConservativeWai Young 15,115 33.88 -8.55 –
New DemocraticAmandeep Nijjar 6,230 13.97 -7.10 –
GreenElain Ng 1,149 2.58 +0.38 –
Marxist–LeninistCharles Boylan 178 0.40 – –
Progressive CanadianRaj Gupta 166 0.37 – –
Total valid votes/Expense limit 44,611100.0   $202,339.96
Total rejected ballots 259––
Turnout 44,87064.04–
Eligible voters 70,062
Liberal gain from Conservative Swing +11.8%
Source: Elections Canada[21][22]

References

  1. ↑ Pugliese, David (10 November 2015). "Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan released from military — so he doesn't have to take orders from generals". National Post. Postmedia Network Inc. Postmedia News. Retrieved 11 November 2015.
  2. ↑ "Military camaraderie cuts across political lines for two B.C. candidates". Vancouver Sun. April 18, 2015.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Bramham, Daphne (18 September 2012). "Who are we? Part 12: In defence of the rights of others (with video)". www.vancouversun.com. Vancouver Sun. Retrieved 2015-11-05.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Baluja, Tamara (5 November 2015). "Harjit Sajjan: Meet Canada's new 'badass' defence minister". CBC News. Retrieved 5 November 2015.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Geddes, John (2016-03-08). "Behind the sunglasses: Harjit Sajjan's rise to cabinet". Macleans.ca. Macleans. Retrieved 2016-03-08.
  6. ↑ "Harjit Sajjan: Meet Canada's new 'badass' defence minister". cbc.ca. November 5, 2015.
  7. 1 2 3 "Canada's New Defense Minister Made His Own Gas Mask to Work With His Sikh Beard". Foreign Policy.
  8. 1 2 "You have no idea how badass Trudeau's Defence Minister really is". National Observer.
  9. ↑ Rubin, Burnett; Sherman, Jake (2008). Counter-Narcotics to Stabilize Afghanistan: The False Promise of Crop Eradication (PDF). New York University. pp. 57–58. Retrieved 6 November 2015.
  10. ↑ Garima Goswami, Taking Command - Lieutenant-Colonel Harjit Singh Sajjan, Darpan Magazine, April 20, 2013.
  11. ↑ "The Governor General of Canada > Find a Recipient". gg.ca.
  12. ↑ Meet Harjit Sajjan, Liberal.ca.
  13. ↑ CA patent 2189378, "Protective hood"
  14. ↑ Jon Azpiri (October 19, 2015). "Liberal Harjit Sajjan defeats Tory incumbent Wai Young in Vancouver South". Global News. Retrieved October 19, 2015.
  15. ↑ "Canada election 2015: List of elected B.C. candidates". CBC News. October 19, 2015. Retrieved October 20, 2015.
  16. ↑ "19 Indian-Canadians elected to Canadian parliament". The Economic Times. October 20, 2015. Retrieved October 20, 2015.
  17. ↑ "Full list of Justin Trudeau's cabinet". CBC News.
  18. ↑ "The Governor General of Canada > Find a Recipient". gg.ca. Retrieved 20 November 2015.
  19. ↑ "The Governor General of Canada > Find a Recipient". gg.ca. Retrieved 20 November 2015.
  20. ↑ "The Governor General of Canada > Find a Recipient". gg.ca. Retrieved 20 November 2015.
  21. ↑ "Voter Information Service". elections.ca. Retrieved November 4, 2015.
  22. ↑ "Elections Canada Online - Final Candidates Election Expenses Limits". elections.ca. Retrieved November 4, 2015.
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