Sikh Raptors Fan Gets Roughed Up By Security At Toronto’s Air Canada Centre

[torontosikh]

My brother, Gagandeep Singh Saluja and I, Simran Kaur Saluja attended a Raptors game at the Air Canada Centre on the night of Friday, January 30, 2009. I witnessed something which disturbed me tremendously. After a great night of getting two of the Raptors’ players to sign our jerseys and getting Jermaine O’Neal’s wristband, my brother and I make our way out to see the post-game show.

He tells me he has to use the washroom. Entering a public washroom is not unlawful in any way. I witnessed many people entering and exiting the same washroom my brother wished to use. A security guard approached my brother, out of all people as he is a visible minority that stands out. The security guard told my brother to get out. For what reason? Well, let me describe my brother to you all. He is a third-year student studying Business Management at UTSC and a proud Sikh youth who wears his turban with pride and joy…A huge Raptors’ fan as well. Gagan asks him “for what” while he tries to make his way to a stall and the security guard starts pushing him and saying “You don’t want to start with me!” He then calls back-up. Gagan finds himself with 4 to 5 security guards on him trying to kick him out. Police officers get involved during this time and start tackling him.

I sensed something wrong while I was standing outside watching the post-game show. I was hesitant in terms of if I should check on my brother in the washroom but I thought it wouldn’t be appropriate for me to do that. I decided to wait for him as I thought that the security guard had let him use the washroom. I wait for about 10 minutes for my brother…I was getting a bit edgy and started looking around for him. I had not seen anything.

Later, the security guard is out of breath and sweaty and attends to the location where I had seen him prior to the whole washroom catastrophe. I ask him “Aren’t you the one who was in the washroom?” He said “yeah.” He knew that I was there waiting for Gagan and after another 10 minutes he tells me, “You might want to make your way out as to whoever you were with is being arrested.” I race outside to find my brother without his turban on, in pain and suffering. When I saw his face…I don’t know how to explain such regret. I keep thinking to myself ‘had I gone into the washroom?! Maybe, just maybe they would not have used such force against him.’ I love my brother a whole lot and I never want to see him hurt. This whole ordeal that happened in Toronto, Canada out of all places is just sad.

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News source: LangarHall

[Kaljug Singh]

Sad story, veer ji.

I hope your brother is well and recovering after his ordeal.

My advice is to contact a good lawyer, involve any Sikh organisations in the area and lodge a complaint against the police, the security men, the venue that you were in and the team you were supporting (the latter to get maximum publicity). I would also contact your local newpaper with the story.

From personal experience, two people involved in a confrontation with security or police doubles the probability of having a bad outcome. You did the right thing by staying out of the washroom.

Regards,

- K.

[AK47 JATHA LION]

File a report to the police , detailing how u were wronged by the security guards initially.

If they take no action, Then launch a racial lawsuit against the police and the security firm. It will be costly but there are various sikh organisations which will be willing to help you in this. They're allways ready to help in racist cases. SIkh organisations have good lawyers at their disposal ready to help/.

If all of those means fail, then as a last option get together a group of sikhs and confront the security guard/guards if u can find them. You can use your immagination for the rest.

But i think you will find result in approaching this matter legally.

[buddasingh]

Don't waste any time. There may be video evidence that you need to secure. Get a hold of a sikh attorney in your city to handle this or refer you to someone who can handle this. Advise the police that you intend to file a report, but only file a police report after you have consulted an attorney. An attorney may take this kind of case on a contingency, that is they will not charge you anything up front, but only from the proceeds.

[S1ngh]

I strongly agree with buddasingh.. Act urgently and get the opinion of lawyer.

[auguniaar]

your brother shouldve knocked out that bloody toy cop

[Bored]

no publicity. and in toronto?? dam

[TruSoul]

This really vexes me out, hope your brothers okay. It wil only make him stronger.

Like everyone has said, you need to take action, get a lawyer that knows what they are doing. Dont tell the police, until you get legal advice. You want to obtain a warrant to secure the cctv footage asap. Document any injuries / take photos etc. Go to your doctor get them to document any injuries. Just say your brother was attacked dont give too much details as you want a non bias report.

Also get your brother to write down as much detail about what the security guard looked like, as it will come in use later on. What he said, where he was standing etc etc. How many people saw the whole thing. The duration of the whole incident.

You need to document it like a time line. From the time you woke up in the morning to the time you got home. Everything needs to be in as much detail as possible. If your unsure about any detail, just put a question mark, dont make up or assume anything.

Go the legal action route first, but try to find out about this security guard, name, age, where he lives, etc etc. Give it a year and go pay him a visit!!.

[Harpreet_Singh]

This is a very disturbing situation, and the fact that his dastaar was knocked off hits the heart of any Singh, or Sikh for that matter.

However, at the risk of a backlash from everyone, especially the 1700 people in that facebook group (extremely impressive by the way) I have to take issue with something stated in that explanation of what happened.

"A security guard approached my brother, out of all people as he is a visible minority that stands out"

That statement turns this into a race issue, and there isn't much to support that from that explanation. Now the fact that he might have been beaten for no apparent reason, and had his dastaar knocked off is reason enough to make this into a VERY big issue, I would expect the same support if it happened to me. But to turn this into a rallying cry against racism at raptor games! or racism in Toronto! might be absolutely baseless.

Everybody at Raptor games is a visible minority, Toronto is the most multicultural city in the world and that is clearly on display at every single Toronto Raptor game. I have been to many raptor games, and not once have I witnessed anything close to discrimination, if anything Sikhs are recognized as a huge fan base. The raptors dubbed 'superfan' is a sardar, and there is even a 'vaisakhi game'. Last year Singhs made the front page of the Toronto Star during the raptors playoff run under the title "Move over Maple leafs, Raptor fans strut there stuff and they are as diverse as the city" Something along those lines.

This could very well be some stupid overzealous security guard who deserves a beatdown, or a miscommunication between the Singh and the security staff. Personally, from the Raptor games I have been too I feel very at home and there is little evidence (so far) to suggest this was race related.

I do want to note that I wasn't there so I could be completely wrong, and in that case I apologize a million times. But to say 'in all places this happened in toronto" is exactly why it might not be a race issue at all. It is toronto! And security at places like Raptor games don't normally beat on others based on race, maybe another issue but not race.

[dass]

Veer harpreet singh, don't kid yourself about this not being about race, I agree with most of what you have written but the reality is one security guard had an issue with the race/religion of the victim, it doesn't matter about the rest of the facts, in the UK there are many sikh fans who support football teams, I would argues that some place's in the UK there are more apanea than gorea in the area.. that doesn't mean you cannot get a racist incident.

Don't let the love of your team or city blind you from the fact that racism doesn't happen, whether or not you feel at home isn't the point.. from everything I've read it does seem a case of racial profiling which led to the attack on the victim by the security guards.

I suggest you pursue the case for what it is, a case of a racist attacking our dear brother, for god's sake he was only going to use the restroom !!!! it is sad that our generation of youth who actively try to intergrate with society's sport fever and then are subjected to the above. I have been to game's in the UK and admittedly do feel consicous about the fact I am sikh, in the UK the majority of fans who go to games are gorea, simple as, even in the cities where there are hughe asian populations.. the irony in the UK is that gorea will even be racist to there own players if they play poorly but in normal day to day life show no racism whatsoever, hence I put that down to the excitement, frustration, anger a sports fan can feel when their team is doing badly...

I hope and pray veer ji recovers and can continue to support the team he love's in the same way, I also hope the case get's some justice for him and anyone else who may have suffered from such pathethic racists !!!!