Edmonton police say two Sikh worshippers were injured after a man entered a temple on Friday and stabbed them with a screwdriver. Charges are pending against the suspect.
Police say the accused was released from federal prison the day before, and investigators, including members of the hate crimes unit, are working to establish what motivated the attack.
The confrontation at Nanaksar Gurdwara Gursikh Temple happened around 5 a.m. on Friday when a 27-year-old man was confronted by staff when he attempted to access the prayer area.
The man attacked two male worshippers, aged 51 and 75, when the confrontation escalated, while two others in the Sikh temple intervened to restrain the man. The two victims were treated with non-life-threatening injuries, and the accused was also taken to hospital.
Zora Grewal, the temple’s vice-president, said witnesses told him that one victim was stabbed twice and that both are recovering.
“I don’t know why he came in here,” Grewal said in an interview Friday outside the temple. “We are not involved in any politics and this temple is only for prayer and peace of mind for everybody.”
The accused will remain unnamed until charges are officially laid.
The accused had been released from a federal institution on Thursday, roughly 20 months into a 31-month sentence for aggravated assault and assaulting a peace officer, police chief Warren Driechel said. He said the man had not reported to the halfway house he was required to attend, and investigators are looking into his motives.
Staff Sergeant Eric Stewart said the man has a “significant history of violent offences dating back to 2015.”
The World Sikh Organization of Canada said in a statement that it is “deeply troubled” by the incident and said it involved the desecration of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji, the central holy scripture of Sikhism. Mr. Driechel said investigators were looking into potential damage to the scripture.
“We are deeply troubled by what has happened at Nanaksar Gurdwara this morning, but unfortunately we cannot say that we are surprised,” Danish Singh, president of the WSO, said in a statement.
“We have been warning for quite some time that anti-Sikh hate is rising in Canada and that, if it is allowed to continue unchecked, hateful rhetoric can translate into threats and actual violence.”
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, in a statement, disavowed the violence and said the attack underlines the importance of bail and parole reform.
“We stand with the entire Sikh community across our province against recent acts of despicable violence over the last few days,” Ms. Smith wrote.
Six days before the attack, two Sikh temples in Calgary reported threatening phone calls. No arrests have been made, Calgary police told The Globe in a Friday statement.
Also last week, a member of the Alberta Prosperity Project, a prominent separatist group, said while speaking at event that in an independent Alberta, “every citizen has the right to life, liberty and security to the person – your own security, not some flip flop, towel-headed police officer who doesn’t even speak Canadian.”
The Prosperity Project, the next day, said the speaker, Ian Parkinson, had resigned from the organization and would no longer appear at its events.
Governments and police agencies’ attempts at responding to hate crimes have, at times, provoked bitter fights over freedom of speech and religious freedoms over the past year.
Bill C-9, a federal anti-hate law, passed its final parliamentary stage in June, but not after facing staunch opposition from Conservative MPs and religious groups who warned certain provisions could lead to people reading from religious texts being prosecuted for hate crimes.
In Alberta, Ms. Smith and scores of cabinet ministers criticized Edmonton police earlier this month for a social media post encouraging residents to report hate crimes to police.
“Free Speech is a foundational Alberta value. We don’t believe in policing unpopular or religious-based statements even if they are controversial,” Ms. Smith wrote on social media on Aug. 4.
She said Alberta Public Safety Minister Mike Ellis would be writing to policing agencies “to ensure they understand Albertans’ policing priorities should focus on violent crimes, illegal drugs, theft and vandalism … not people’s free speech.”
On Friday, Mr. Driechel, Edmonton’s police chief, declined to address the government’s criticism but stood by the police force’s campaign to address hate crimes.
“We want people to report things so that when they see it, we can investigate it, determine if it’s a crime and proceed with an investigation,” he said.
With reports from The Canadian Press