The fatal shooting of a 22-year-old man on the highway near Leduc, south of Edmonton, last weekend should be investigated as a hate crime, according to a Sikh group in Canada.
The World Sikh Organization of Canada (WSO) wants Alberta RCMP to investigate the March 14 killing of 22-year-old Birinder Singh, who came to Canada from India three years ago, as motivated by hate.
The WSO says the daytime shooting, in which police have yet to identify a suspect or motive, comes amid what they call a “disturbing rise in anti-Sikh hate across Canada.”
“The facts surrounding Birinder Singh’s murder are deeply troubling,” WSO president Danish Singh said in a news release. “This appears to have been a sudden, unprovoked act of extreme violence. Given the current rise in anti-Sikh hate we are seeing, it is critical that investigators and the RCMP examine whether Birinder Singh was targeted because of his Sikh identity.”
The two friends who were in the car with Singh when he was shot dead also expressed to CityNews the shooting may have been a case of discrimination. They say the passenger of a pickup truck fired at them unprovoked and completely at random.
“Why they are shooting us? Because we did nothing,” one of the friends told CityNews Tuesday. “We didn’t even try to overtake them. We weren’t doing any race, we didn’t do anything. We were just enjoying our own company.
“Nobody knows. Even though we can think (it’s) due to brown skin, if we can say, because on our perspective, this is the only reason, only possibility.”
More coming.
