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04-04-2023
Bureau Report + Agencies
LONDON/ NEW DELHI: A leading Canadian public policy thinks tank’s director has said there is no evidence that Pakistan is funding pro-Khalistan groups such as ‘Sikhs For Justice’ (SFJ), as the Sikh community living outside India generously supports groups standing up against New Delhi.
Terry Milewski, veteran CBC journalist and a senior figure at conservative-leaning public policy think tank Macdonald-Laurier Institute (MLI), spoke within hours after the SFJ and its counsel general Gurpatwant Singh Pannun started defamation proceedings against UK Conservative Party’s pro-BJP Lord Rami Ranger at the UK High Court for making false accusations that Pakistan’s spy agency funded the SFJ and its leading figure Pannun.
Terry Milewski is considered close to India’s ruling BJP and he is known for carrying out extensive research on the Sikh diaspora, the Khalistan movement and various pro-Khalistan groups. During a public online debate, he was asked if he believed that the SFJ received funding from Pakistan.
The Canadian author and think-tank head replied that he did not believe that Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) funded the SFJ and its activism. He said there was plenty of evidence that Sikhs generously donate to the causes they like. Terry Milewski said: “I have seen no evidence that Pakistan funds the SFJ, considering the fact that the SFJ raises money through its own sources.
“I don’t think the SFJ has to go to Pakistan for money. Sikhs have been supporting the SFJ generously. They (the SFJ) don’t have to go to Pakistan begging for money as Pakistan doesn’t have enough money.”
Terry Milewski has a long history with the SFJ. In November 2021, the SFJ won the first round of a major defamation case at the Superior Court of Ontario, Canada, against Terry Milewski and the think tank Macdonald-Laurier Institute (MLI) over allegations that the SFJ and its Khalistan referendum campaign was a project run, controlled, funded, influenced and financed by Pakistan.
Terry Milewski had attempted to get the defamation case of SFJ dismissed by the Superior Court of Ontario, but the presiding judge Justice William Black, after reviewing the extensive evidence, ruled that the claim of defamation brought by the SFJ would be allowed to proceed to a trial and ordered the defendants Terry and MLI to pay to the SFJ the cost for the legal fee.
