Sikhs lent help in birth of nation. Do Canadians know?

By banning a 93-year old Veteran, the Newton Legion broke faith with the very
spirit the Queen’s grandfather sought to achieve.
By Lt Col Pritam Singh Jauhal (Retd) World War II Veteran
ON A 100-hectare site in Vimy, France, stands a monument to Canadians at the site
that many Historians claim to be the very place that Canada became a nation - on
April 9, 1917. Proving covering fire that cold Easter morning were turbaned Sikhs
from the Lahore Heavy Field Artillery.
This fact alone should make the members of the Newton Legion Branch of the Royal
Canadian Legion hide their faces in shame, but it doesn’t. These guys not only
managed to insult the “glorious dead” of the Great Wars and the living Veterans of
the Sikh Community, they also managed to insult the Queen three times in one day.
Legions came into being in 1919. Lord Byng of Vimy was commanded to oversee the
dispersal of the United Services Fund, a vast amount of money that represented
profits made from purchases by the men of the British Empire Forces out of their
own pay. Thus the Legions came into being and the honorific Royal was applied. The
organization then spread throughout the Commonwealth, providing Ex-Servicemen with
a place of refuge in hard times, a place to meet fellow Veterans in good times.
By banning a 93-old Veteran, the Newton Legion broke faith with the very spirit
the Queen’s grandfather sought to achieve when he became the first patron.
Secondly, removal of headgear in the “Mess” was not, and never was, out of the
respect for the Queen or King, but simply a battlefield practicality. With the
old-fashioned headgear of the British Army, it was impossible to enter a” Mess
Tent” in the field,. Much like the tradition in the Royal Navy to toast Her
Majesty while seated was a measure of practicality, so is the tradition of
removing headgear in a “Mess”.
We Now see the Newton Legion hiding behind a woman’s skirt. The Queen’s at that,
trying to uphold its tacky little bylaw.
Assuming that the Newton Legion members were ever in the Armed Forces, they would
have sworn allegiance to Her Majesty to uphold the Constitution of Canada, which
is now a written document and quite plainly states that discrimination on racial
and religious grounds is illegal.
One must wonder if the Newton legion on New Year’s Eve and Robbie Burn night
requires the Highland Piper to remove his Glengarry before playing his Pipes.
Something Her Majesty would never expect, just as she would never insult a Sikh by
requesting removal of his headgear.
Lt Col Pritam Singh Jauhal (Retd) World War II Veteran