WINDSOR, Ont. — Longtime Sikh community leaders have been hit with trespass notices and expulsions from their own society as a feud at the city’s majestic $6.5-million temple degenerates, with allegations of violent threats, disruptions and attempts to overthrow the current leadership.
“It broke my heart, big time,” said Avtar Singh Kooner, 59, as he described the humiliation suffered since receiving a trespass notice on July 9 from the Sikh Cultural Society of Metropolitan Windsor, a society he presided over for a decade. He owned the land on County Road 42 where the 26,000-square-foot temple, the Gurdwara Khalsa Parkash Windsor, was built 10 years ago. But now he is not allowed past its imposing gates, he can’t bring his 95-year-old mother to religious services and he can’t use it for a ceremony to mark the 30th anniversary of the death of his father.
“I’ve been in Windsor since 1975,” said Kooner. “We built this place all together, to go there every Sunday or whenever we feel like it, and now it’s a very big shock to me. Now, everybody knows, all over, this guy was kicked out of the temple.”
But the current members of the temple’s executive committee — acclaimed at the end of last year after the same group ran it for 16 years — say they’re only trying to stop the defamations, badmouthing, and disruptions of religious ceremonies by disgruntled members who can’t accept they’ve lost power. “We cannot have, every week, a fight within the temple,” said treasurer Gurbax Singh Wahid.
Secretary Harjinder Singh Kandola said: “Within the temple the situation is very tense, very stressful.”
Wahid says he was attacked and punched in the driveway of his home the night of July 5 by two white males who fled on foot. Two days later, four bullets were fired into the home Gian Singh Chadan and his wife Pritam Kaur, the committee members say. They don’t know who’s behind the attacks. They say the previous weekend there was a great disturbance in the temple when one disgruntled man attempted to forcefully take control of the podium.
The animosity started late last year when a new slate of people were acclaimed to the committee, which had been led for many years by Windsor allergist Dr. Sukdev Singh Kooner, who is said to have donated $2 million to construct the new temple.
When the new group was acclaimed, conflict with the old guard arose almost immediately. The old group attempted to expel president Mohinder Singh Kandola and his son Harjinder from the society, effectively removing them from office. The Kandolas sued, and a judge earlier this year ruled the Kandolas were the legitimate leaders.
“And now they’re using their newfound authority to keep people away from the temple who they perceive as being not of the same mind as them,” said Patrick Ducharme, who represents Dr. Kooner, Avtar Kooner (they’re very distantly related) and the rest of the deposed Sikhs. “Sadly they’re going to run out of notices of the Trespass to Property Act, because essentially about 75 per cent of the congregation, as I understand it, does not like this (new) group.”
In April, when the two factions were in court, Dr. Kooner was not allowed into the courthouse after the judge ruled he couldn’t wear his kirpan, the ceremonial dagger worn in devotion to his faith. The Sikh society has about 700 members and the congregation has between 1,000 and 1,100.
“It’s almost laughable what they’re doing,” Ducharme said. “It would be laughable if it weren’t so serious to the people who simply want to go to their temple to worship.”
Inderpal Singh Dhanoa, 40, was issued a trespass notice March 31 signed by the elder Kandola, who stated Dhanoa had “threatened to cut off the head” of a fellow member of the congregation.
Kandola writes that such conduct is “repugnant to Sikh values.”
Dhanoa said he didn’t mean what he said, and it was not directed at a specific individual. “It’s like an expression in my language, that you’ll stop them using whatever means.” Because of the trespass order, he said he drives to London to attend religious services.
Windsor police have investigated the threat allegations.
“And we’ve found no criminal behaviour,” said Deputy Chief Jerome Brannagan. “There are obviously two factions in the temple. Some are getting along, some are not getting along.” But he added that to the best of his knowledge the disputes aren’t religious in nature.
He said that on occasion Windsor police officers have been hired by the temple Windsor as contract duty officers to keep the peace. Surveillance cameras have also been installed.
On July 7, vice-president Jasbir Kaur Shokar, had her membership in the society revoked, and hence her vice-presidency, for “provoking the congregation members by making false allegations” against fellow committee members.
She claims she was only sticking up for the congregation members who were being treated unfairly.
“I couldn’t take it anymore,” she said. You just can’t ban people from their beloved place of worship because of personal differences, she said. “What are the kids going to learn from this? It’s sad, very sad.”
The current leaders say the disgruntled members should allow them to serve out their two-year term, then let the voters decide who should be running things. They contend the majority support them.
Read more: http://www.windsorstar.com/health/W...+from+temple/3306803/story.html#ixzz0uRptPmON
“It broke my heart, big time,” said Avtar Singh Kooner, 59, as he described the humiliation suffered since receiving a trespass notice on July 9 from the Sikh Cultural Society of Metropolitan Windsor, a society he presided over for a decade. He owned the land on County Road 42 where the 26,000-square-foot temple, the Gurdwara Khalsa Parkash Windsor, was built 10 years ago. But now he is not allowed past its imposing gates, he can’t bring his 95-year-old mother to religious services and he can’t use it for a ceremony to mark the 30th anniversary of the death of his father.
“I’ve been in Windsor since 1975,” said Kooner. “We built this place all together, to go there every Sunday or whenever we feel like it, and now it’s a very big shock to me. Now, everybody knows, all over, this guy was kicked out of the temple.”
But the current members of the temple’s executive committee — acclaimed at the end of last year after the same group ran it for 16 years — say they’re only trying to stop the defamations, badmouthing, and disruptions of religious ceremonies by disgruntled members who can’t accept they’ve lost power. “We cannot have, every week, a fight within the temple,” said treasurer Gurbax Singh Wahid.
Secretary Harjinder Singh Kandola said: “Within the temple the situation is very tense, very stressful.”
Wahid says he was attacked and punched in the driveway of his home the night of July 5 by two white males who fled on foot. Two days later, four bullets were fired into the home Gian Singh Chadan and his wife Pritam Kaur, the committee members say. They don’t know who’s behind the attacks. They say the previous weekend there was a great disturbance in the temple when one disgruntled man attempted to forcefully take control of the podium.
The animosity started late last year when a new slate of people were acclaimed to the committee, which had been led for many years by Windsor allergist Dr. Sukdev Singh Kooner, who is said to have donated $2 million to construct the new temple.
When the new group was acclaimed, conflict with the old guard arose almost immediately. The old group attempted to expel president Mohinder Singh Kandola and his son Harjinder from the society, effectively removing them from office. The Kandolas sued, and a judge earlier this year ruled the Kandolas were the legitimate leaders.
“And now they’re using their newfound authority to keep people away from the temple who they perceive as being not of the same mind as them,” said Patrick Ducharme, who represents Dr. Kooner, Avtar Kooner (they’re very distantly related) and the rest of the deposed Sikhs. “Sadly they’re going to run out of notices of the Trespass to Property Act, because essentially about 75 per cent of the congregation, as I understand it, does not like this (new) group.”
In April, when the two factions were in court, Dr. Kooner was not allowed into the courthouse after the judge ruled he couldn’t wear his kirpan, the ceremonial dagger worn in devotion to his faith. The Sikh society has about 700 members and the congregation has between 1,000 and 1,100.
“It’s almost laughable what they’re doing,” Ducharme said. “It would be laughable if it weren’t so serious to the people who simply want to go to their temple to worship.”
Inderpal Singh Dhanoa, 40, was issued a trespass notice March 31 signed by the elder Kandola, who stated Dhanoa had “threatened to cut off the head” of a fellow member of the congregation.
Kandola writes that such conduct is “repugnant to Sikh values.”
Dhanoa said he didn’t mean what he said, and it was not directed at a specific individual. “It’s like an expression in my language, that you’ll stop them using whatever means.” Because of the trespass order, he said he drives to London to attend religious services.
Windsor police have investigated the threat allegations.
“And we’ve found no criminal behaviour,” said Deputy Chief Jerome Brannagan. “There are obviously two factions in the temple. Some are getting along, some are not getting along.” But he added that to the best of his knowledge the disputes aren’t religious in nature.
He said that on occasion Windsor police officers have been hired by the temple Windsor as contract duty officers to keep the peace. Surveillance cameras have also been installed.
On July 7, vice-president Jasbir Kaur Shokar, had her membership in the society revoked, and hence her vice-presidency, for “provoking the congregation members by making false allegations” against fellow committee members.
She claims she was only sticking up for the congregation members who were being treated unfairly.
“I couldn’t take it anymore,” she said. You just can’t ban people from their beloved place of worship because of personal differences, she said. “What are the kids going to learn from this? It’s sad, very sad.”
The current leaders say the disgruntled members should allow them to serve out their two-year term, then let the voters decide who should be running things. They contend the majority support them.
Read more: http://www.windsorstar.com/health/W...+from+temple/3306803/story.html#ixzz0uRptPmON
