For those who don’t know, now you know. Mandeep Dhaliwal is YOUR official candidate for city councillor Wards 9 & 10. That means if you live in/around the :

• Springdale (North Side of Bovaid, between Airport and Heart Lake)
• Castlemore (East of Airport, South of Mayfield. and West of Highway 50)
• Everywhere else (East of Airport, and in between Highway 50 and before Steels)

Then its your duty, no, its your obligation, no, its the sole purpose of your existence to go out and vote Mandeep Dhalwail. NOT Vic Dhillon, NOT Stella Ambler, NOT Iqbal Dhillon, NOT Daljit GILL,

BUT MANDEEP DHALIWAL!!!

Now in all seriosness Mandeep is your Candidate, he is my candidate, he is every constituents candidate. He is the peoples champ..

Reasons to get Mandeep into Brampton City Hall

1. Sports. If you play hockey, basketball, football, baseball then you must vote Mandeep. He will make sure you get the parks, the rec centers that Springdale and Castlemore so desperatly need so that you can go out and play, compete and have fun.
2. Libraries. Not all of us are athletes. Some of us like to read, other things besides this blog. For that you can always go online, but when you feel like reading something worth reading you need to goto the library, and this my friends is where Mandeep Dhaliwal thats right MANDEEP DHALIWAL will help you. He will work hard at opening a REAL library not the excuse for one that they got on the corner of the Fortino’s plaza, a REAL library the type that those folks from Brampton South enjoy, the same type that those in Bramlea enjoy, a library better then 4 corners, that my friends is what Mandeep Dhaliwal will work hard at getting for YOU.
3. Say no to Nukes. Mandeeps against Nuclear Radiation in our backyard, he’s against accidents or the risk of them happening. He’s against us going to Jot Parkash matha teking and worrying about potentially harmful chemicals and radiation waves coming from the proposed nuclear incinerator down the street Mandeeps against the opening of a Nuclear Incernator in Wards 9 & 10, so voting for him is a vote for a clean environment, a radiation free environment, its a vote in the right direction.
   
4. Respect. Mandeep was raised to respect his elders, a trait that seems long gone amongst our youth today. Mandeep WILL work hard to make sure the seniors of Wards 9 & 10, don’t share the neglected fait of the elders in Malton, who are left with no options but to sit around in Westwood mall. Mandeep will work to get them the community centers the drop in centers the clinics, whatever they need Mandeep is there for them. WHY!?!? Because Mandeep respects his elders Mandeep loves his elders, its the elders who help shape tomorrows leaders, Mandeep knows that and he respects that, and he will work to prove that to you!

Now I could go on I could list you a million other reasons why Mandeep deserves to be in city council. Hes worked in the community. He’s worked for the community. He knows the community. That my friends is why Mandeep deserves to represent the community.

So make sure come November, that you do whats right, whats needed and vote Mandeep Dhaliwal. None of the others, will do what Mandeep can do. Mandeep can read write and speak English, Punjabi, Hindi, Patwa, the others might try, but they’re not Mandeep. So vote genuine, vote the truth vote with whats right, vote MANDEEP DHALWAIL for your City Councillor Wards 9 & 10 to represent the diversity that is our community.

**Note**
This message has not been authorized or endorsed by the Official Agent of Mandeep Dhaliwal or the Mandeep Dhaliwal campain. This site is independent of Mandeep Dhaliwal, and this piece is written as a personal opinion on Mandeep Dhaliwal.

Thank you.

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Campaign84 and AKAAL Productions have organised a Poetry Competition in commemoration of the Victims of the Massacre of Operation Bluestar - 1984.

If you enjoy writing poems and have been hurt or feel the need to inspire others, by raising awareness of the terrible slaughter of Operation Bluestar, then we urge you to write your feelings down and submit them to us so we can come together to raise awareness for a better society.

The Dead Have No Voice, But The Living Do - Lets Use It!

• Poems MUST be original and cannot be copied from anyone else.
• All poems MUST be submitted via email to: 84poems@neverforget84.com
• Poems MUST be submitted by 11:59pm (GMT) 28th May 2006. Late entries may not be counted.
• If your entry is successful you will be contacted via telephone and email, asked to collect your prize and read your poem to the Sangat on Sunday 4th June. So please make sure you are available to attend. If transport is required let us know in due course.
• An example of a submission can be found here: http://www.neverforget84.com/poetryexample.doc
• If there are any other questions or problems please contact us at: 84poems@neverforget84.com

- AKAAL Productions & Campaign84

Somethings that’s been rumored to be happening in Toronto this summer is “an ever so needed Sanjha Smaggam”, and from what I’ve heard a similar one will be happening in BC also. What is a Sanjha Smaggam? Its an everyone can come and do kirtan smaggam, a “neutral ground” where everyone can get together regardless of Jatha and sit down and do Kirtan together.

Amazing, you must be thinking. A Sanjha Smaggam what could be more perfect? A Kirtan where everyone for one day sits together regardless of jathabandi and listens to and enjoys kirtan.

Now I don’t know about UK, from what I hear things are pretty messed up; in that there’s a lot of hostility between different groups, Nihangs getting jumped by AKJ’s, Taksalis getting jumped by Nihangs the whole circle of violence.So a day of peace where everyone can sit together and listen to Kirtan, what could be better? Making the Sanjhaa Smaggam into a Peace rally of sorts, what could be better.

Now I don’t know if BC is like the UK, if there is the whole divide between groups, last I heard and from what I know there isn’t, but I don’t live there, so who knows. Sure you got Jatha’s but they all co-exist as far as Toronto, I know that not everyone agrees with everyone, and people have there differences, but nothing to the point where two groups can’t exist in the same place at the same time.

Leading me to my real question, a Sanja Smaggam, why?!? Its like holding a day of Peace where we ask all the street gangs to put away there guns and knives, in a suburb where their is no gang, let alone violence.

But SINGH!!! A venue where all Jatha’s can sit together and do Kirtan, regardless of the Maryada they follow!!

Last I remember there was no bar on people from doing kirtan on an AKJ stage, as long as they were amritdhari and had an keski (and could actually do Kirtan) they were good to go, just had to get in line. I’ve also been to programs done by Taksal, where I’ve seen people from various groups sit on the same stage and do Kirtan.

“But those programs all have titles, they are jatha affiliated programs”..

Fair enough. But what about the programs that happen at almost every Guru Ghar everyday? Most Gurdwara Sahibs have various individuals representing a wide array of jatha’s on any given day. Take Dixie from a few years back (been awhile since I last went there). In the mornings a Keertan Jatha repping Jwadi Taksal does kirtan/asa dee vaar. In the afternoon a kathavahic from Taksal does Katha. Then at night AKJ leads the Sangat in simran. How can you get more Sanjha then that? Or you can even take Malton, from when I remember, Dharnaa styled Simran in the morning, popular kirtan style kirtan through out the day, Lareevar katha in the afternoon, AKJ style Simran at night. From what I know things are still like this, so whats not “Sanjha” about that? Or even more obvious what about the Kirtan Darbaars done by various SSA’s and COSS like Western, Waterloo and York in the past year? Last I remember, kirtanis ranged from all over the place, from classical raag kirtanis with their “sa re ga maa’s”, AKJ’s with there “groo grooo” intensified simran, and even Dodra Kirtani’s with their trademark “Dharn Guru Nanak” line, shouldn’t all these be labelled as Sanjha also?

I don’t know maybe I’m ranting over nothing, but it just doesnt make sense to hold a big ol’ peace rally when no ones at war. Instead you enjoy the peaceful atmosphere, since isn’t that what these Sanjha Smaggams hope to accomplish anyways?

Like I said, don’t believe the hype. In my eyes all these Sanjha Smaggams are really doing is putting a negative light on a situation that doesn’t even exist. Trying to say that there’s problems when there are none.

Be warned, don’t fall victim to the hype.

Looks like Ottawa choked once again, and this year it didnt even take the Leafs to bring them to their knees.

I could go on, but I think I’ve said more then enough. I’d also like to take this moment to dedicate this post to the entire Ottawa fam’ who spent the entire year trying to convince me on Ottawas greatness, (pshh so great they lost the series in 5..)

Now I could go on, but I think the truth and the reality of things speaks for itself.

- PS I look forward to your excuses.

Post 9/11 attacks against Sikhs and Guru Ghars, became a common headline. Living comfortably in the punjabi ghettos of Brampton, Malton, Rexdale, Surrey etc. its often hard to connect and or even relate to the racist environment many Sikhs live in these days. Sure our parents went through it when they themselves were starting out here, but for the most part we’ve become established, which leads us to feel the way Bhagauti Soora does, that here in Canada we are not looked at differently.

Truth is, that we probably are but living in our ghettos, our safe havens, we don’t face it or get exposed to it on an ongoing basis as those who live in the small rural communities where they really are the minority.

Anyways this truth didn’t really hit home till last week when I went up to the Nagar Kirtan in Montreal. Like I said in my last post the Nagar Kirtan was awsome, but the real surprise came after when we where entering the Gurdwara Sahib and walked past one of the Gurdwara Side walls that had racist insignia pasted over it.

“Bagheads”

For the first time, since I was in elementary had I seen such blatant acts of racism. Whats even more disturbing though is the lack of “coverage”. Now I like to think that I’m up to date with the events going on within the community. I read most Sikh news sources (Sikhnet, Panthic, and SikhSangat), follow the main headlines in the Punjabi news papers (Ajit, Hamdard, Sanjh Savera), and I usually look at the Toronto Star headlines on a pretty daily basis, so its safe to say that when something big happens I’ll read about it from somewhere.

Sidewall

But, for some reason or another I never heard about any attacks against any Gurdwara Sahibs in Montreal. I know that Jewish synagogues had been attacked and spray painted on a year or two back. That some Muslims mosques had been vandalized but nothing ever about any Gurdwara in Montreal, and that included our Punjabi, and online news sources.

So when in doubt I did what we all tend to do, I turned to google. Again. I tried searching “Gurdwara Attack Montreal”. “Montreal Sikh Temple”, “Sikh Temple Vandalized”, “Sikh Nazi”, and a combination of those, and still came up short. Chullo Google isn’t perfect so I went on Canadian Newsstand, a database of all the Newspaper articles published in Canadian Newspapers, and again tried a combination of searches and still nothing, leading me to believe that no one ever reported or even mentioned that the Gurdwara’s had been vandalized to anyone, which pretty much surprised me, since as a community we tend to report everything.

Anyways, there’s not much else to say. The group who did it, clearly let it be known who they are, New Age Skins, and I doubt are hard people to find. Its surprising though as to how we can go at it with each other till our we’re all left blind (an eye for an eye), but you’d think that when things like that happen in Montreal, we’d at least regroup as a community to help out.

“Hail the New Dawn, Skin”

Anyways, enough on that, Guru Sahib Kirpaa Karn.

Last Sunday I got to hit up the mini Nagar Kirtan in Montreal. When I say mini I’m talking about the small Nagar Kirtans that go around the block type things. Apparently the main one that happens is happening this weekend.

Now comparing it to downtown I’d say this one was just as fun. Actually this had more of that Nagar Kirtan feel to it, considering that food was plentiful and that I had no problem in getting my sugar fix.

Sangat wise, I’d guess there were about 3000 - 5000 people, and got to say that Montreal Sangat was pretty friendly.Anyways there’s not much else to say about it, and even if there was I doubt that many of you care and just want to see the pictures, so without further adoo some pictures.

More will probabbly be up on COSS and Gursikhijeevan in the coming days (meaning weeks, possibly months), and others on here in the following days, in the mean time watchaa ya self.

“Shingh its not my ride, its Guru Shahibs Rides”

?? ?????? ??? ??? ?????? ?
You are our Lord and Master; to You, I offer this prayer.

Here’s looking at you kid..

??? ???? ????!!

?????? ???? ????? ??? ???? ???????
O most fortunate ones, join the Sangat, the Blessed Congregation; purchase the True Word of the Shabad.

Baba Jwaar Singh rocking the shades..

You put your left leg in, you take you left leg out, you do the hokey pokey and you give out a shout.. and thats what its all about..

Move *****. get out the way..get out the way..

Its a day late, but then again I’ve been somewhat removed from the blog world (I blame the 12 hour work days + the lack of a computer) as the main reason.Anyways now that we’ve all had a week to relax, lets get back to things.

Firstly comments about Round 1.

The biggest shocker here was Lakers taking Phoenix to Game 7. It took Phoenix a while to get over the playoff jitters, but by game 7 they settled into there Suns style of basketball. Denver was a disappointing series, some games they didn’t even look like they wanted to play.

Everything else went as per game plan, and you got to give it to Arenas for putting up the fight that he did.

As for those who left there picks lets see how yall did:

- Tejdeep 8/8
- Jason 8/8
- Gurjeet 8/8
- Mandeep 8/8
- Gagan 7/8
- Atam 7/8
- Harsimran 6/8
- Gurdeep 6/8
- Nav Gill 8/8

Now on to what really matters, round 2 picks…

San Antonio Vs Dallas
Don’t ask why, even though San Antonio took Game 1, I see Dallas having more heart, and wanting this more then SA. I put this series in 7.

Clippers VS Suns
As much as I want to see the Clippers win the championship really it is, Phoenix is just that damn good. With Thomas back and having come back to win the Lakers game the Suns are hot right now, so I see Phoenix taking this in 6 (possible even 5).

NJ Nets Vs Miami
The best series too watch for. Both teams are quick and offensively gifted, and aren’t all that bad on defense neither. Carter is the man to look for, and the one who can make or break the series for the Nets. If the Carter of old comes knocking then you can expect that he’ll get injured this series leaving Miami to bull doze right over the Nets with little problem, otherwise with Carter the Nets still have something to put up a fight with. All in all Miami is going to take this series in 6 or 7, and what its going to come down to with 2 healthy teams, is coaching, and that’s where you got to give it to Pat Riley.

Detroit Vs Cleveland
Detroit in 5. Do I really have to explain why?

As always leave your picks for this new round.