{"id":198559,"date":"2026-09-06T22:45:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-06T22:45:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/198559\/"},"modified":"2026-09-06T22:45:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-06T22:45:13","slug":"thousands-of-manitobans-gather-for-nagar-kirtan-sikh-procession","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/198559\/","title":{"rendered":"Thousands of Manitobans gather for Nagar Kirtan Sikh procession"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Thousands of Manitoban Sikhs came together in Winnipeg for the annual Nagar Kirtan Parade Sunday undeterred by threats against the event in recent days.<\/p>\n<p>Harbans Singh Brar, president of the Sikh Society of Manitoba, said the event was very meaningful to the Sikh community.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll of the families come here and enjoy the day and enjoy the food and we walk behind our gurus, so we feel so proud,\u201d Brar said.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Image-2026-09-06T180224.439-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-589989\" style=\"width:785px;height:auto\"  \/>Nagar Kirtan Parade in Winnipeg on Sept. 6, 2026 (Koby Mitchell, CityNews)<\/p>\n<p>Winnipeg has hosted a parade since 2003. However, this year\u2019s event followed vandalism and threats.<\/p>\n<p>Winnipeg police said they received reports on Sept. 4 of several transit boards being defaced with graffiti displaying hateful symbols, including swastikas. There were also threats made against Sunday\u2019s event.<\/p>\n<p>Police say the incident is being treated as a potential hate-motivated crime and will be investigated by the major crimes unit\u2019s hate crime coordinators.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Image-2026-09-06T181640.601-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-589998\" style=\"width:797px;height:auto\"  \/>Harbans Singh Brar, president of the Sikh Society of Manitoba, at the Nagar Kirtan Parade in Winnipeg on Sept. 6, 2026 (Koby Mitchell, CityNews)<\/p>\n<p>Attendees at the parade told CityNews that community came together despite the recent threats.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat makes us stronger,\u201d Brar said. \u201cIt makes us unite because we\u2019ve seen this previously \u2014 a thousand years ago, 500 years ago, hundred years ago \u2014 we\u2019ve been through this kind of hate crime. We know this.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dinesh Pershad, one of the attendees of the parade, said, \u201cWe have respect for all cultures and are proud to be Canadians as well. At the same time, we like to follow our culture as well.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Image-2026-09-06T180204.969-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-589988\" style=\"width:798px;height:auto\"  \/>Nagar Kirtan Parade in Winnipeg on Sept. 6, 2026 (Koby Mitchell, CityNews)<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe hate is always going to be there,\u201d said Gurpreet Sidhu, who is also part of the Royal Riders Group. \u201cOur job is to spread love and kindness.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201c(We want) peace and happiness only. We are not hurting anyone. Safety is our first priority,\u201d said another attendee, Yanika Pershad.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Image-2026-09-06T180359.161-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-589993\" style=\"width:774px;height:auto\"  \/>Dinesh and Yanika Pershad with their two children at the Nagar Kirtan Parade in Winnipeg on Sept. 6, 2026 (Koby Mitchell, CityNews)<\/p>\n<p>Premier Wab Kinew reacted to the incident on social media Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHate and threats have no place in Manitoba,\u201d Kinew said. \u201cThe Nagar Kirtan procession has happened annually in Winnipeg for decades. It is a beautiful expression of faith, Sikhism, and community. That spirit is stronger than any hateful graffiti.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\t\tKeep it Factual<\/p>\n<p>Add CityNews Winnipeg as a trusted source on Google to see more local stories from us.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=winnipeg.citynews.ca\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"add-trusted-source-badge\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1788734713_201_google-trusted-badge.png\" alt=\"Add as a preferred source on Google\" width=\"198\" height=\"63\"\/><br \/>\n\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thousands of Manitoban Sikhs came together in Winnipeg for the annual Nagar Kirtan Parade Sunday undeterred by threats&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":198560,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[84],"class_list":["post-198559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-winnipeg","tag-winnipeg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198559"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198559\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/198560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}