The 23-year-old devout Sikh, raised in Kampung Pandan, Kuala Lumpur, refused to exchange one tradition for another.

He argued that the wearing of a turban and beard was part of the Sikhs’ religious rights.

Baltej fearlessly challenged the limits of Canadian acceptance.

What followed was an age-old Canadian tradition colliding head-on with the country’s growing cultural mosaic.

Canadians turned against him.

As Baltej trained, he received hate mail and threats.

A petition calling for the exclusion of turbans in the RCMP gathered thousands of signatures. Newspapers were filled with opinions.

Many believed that the distinctive “Red Serge” uniform, including its flat-brimmed Stetson hat, had been a strong cultural symbol since the inception of RCMP in 1920.

Baltej went on to rock the RCMP and spark a stormy national debate – and won.

He wore his turban and beard as a RCMP cadet, establishing a precedent of great symbolic power.

Soon, many other young Sikh officers followed suit.

Last week, the crime buster who declared he fought the system for “survival for my soul, for my spirit, for who I was,” was appointed a senator.

In announcing Baltej’s appointment to the senate, Canada’s prime minister Justin Trudeau described the retired career police officer and community leader as an exemplary advocate of diversity and inclusion.

In an e-mail interview with FMT, Baltej, 58, said he was grateful for the opportunity to serve in the RCMP as a turbaned Sikh, a Malaysian and a Canadian.

He said: “As a senator, I am dedicated to representing the interests and voices of all Canadians.

“Together, we will strive to build a more inclusive, prosperous, and equitable nation.

“In these uncertain times, it is crucial that we unite as a nation to confront the challenges before us.”

Second Malaysia-born Canadian senator

Baltej joins Malaysia-born public policy maker and Asian affairs expert, Yuen Pau Woo, in the upper chamber of Canada’s parliament.

Yuen was born in Johor Bharu and his family moved to Singapore shortly after. He immigrated to Canada in 1988 and was appointed to the senate in 2016.

Both men were recommended by the independent advisory board for senate appointments, created in 2016, said former Malaysian journalist, Fabian Dawson, now a media practitioner in Vancouver.

Dawson said Baltej was part of Trudeau’s plan to fill 10 vacant positions in the senate before stepping down as prime minister in a few weeks’ time.

He added Canadian senators were appointed positions that can be held until the age of 75.

In 2008, Baltej and Dawson, the former deputy editor of the Province newspaper, were among the Top 100 Asian leaders in Canada recognised for diversity and inclusiveness.

When the turban rocked Canada

Throughout the country, racial tensions had swelled as Canada stretched its multicultural landscape in the latter part of the 20th century.

For years, Canadian immigration policy had openly victimised non-white immigrants.

But in 1967 and 1976, Ottawa broadly revised the Immigration Act to remove most of the racist barriers.

Thousands of Sikhs, from the Punjab in northern India, were among the deluge of newcomers.

In 1983, 16-year-old Baltej and his family emigrated to Canada, bringing with them their Sikh customs and beliefs.

Later while studying criminology, he volunteered to act as an interpreter for the RCMP so that it can communicate with recent Asian immigrants.

Dawson said the use of volunteer translators highlighted the RCMP’s need for a more socially diverse recruitment pool.

As demographics in Canada changed in the 1980s, the authorities were slow to keep pace, he added.

In 1987, the RCMP began to actively recruit visible minorities, and soon realised that certain cultural practices might collide with its traditions.

For seven years, Baltej was the only Mountie to wear a turban, until another Sikh man was posted in Burnaby, British Columbia, in the late 1990s.

Dawson said Baltej’s dress code victory was but one in a continuing line of cultural clashes in Canada.

In 1993, Pritam Singh Jauhal, who fought for the British Empire in World War II, was denied entry into a Royal Canadian Legion hall in Surrey for refusing to remove his turban.

And the RCMP only made an exemption for hijabs in its dress code in 2016.

All forgiven

Asked whether he was still upset with those who used harsh words against him and his religion, Baltej said it was all in the past.

“I hold no ill will towards them and many over the years have shared with me that they were wrong.

“They acknowledged that the decision to allow Sikhs to serve RCMP with their turbans and articles of faith was the right decision,” he said.

Diversity, according to Baltej, is now more noticeable in the RCMP, and racism isn’t as prevalent, either in the force or in the broader community.

As of 2021, there were 771,790 Sikhs living in Canada. This makes Canada the second largest Sikh community in the world, after India.

Baltej said: “Canada has come a long way with strong diversity and inclusion mandates, and hate groups or hate-based language are not tolerated.”

Baltej himself offers diversity and inclusion talks that are built around his own life journey and experiences.

He retired in 2019 and during his 30-year career with the RCMP, Baltej worked as a major crime investigator, police interrogator, polygraph examiner, intelligence officer, and emergency planner.

He was also part of several high-profile cases, including investigations into the 1985 Air India bombing that was blamed on Sikh separatists seeking revenge for the Indian Army’s deadly storming of the Golden Temple in Punjab state a year earlier.

The boy from Kampung Pandan

Baltej’s mother, Sardarni Jaswant Kaur, worked from home as a seamstress, raising six children.

His father, Sardar Nachatar Singh, worked two jobs, a salesman at a sports store in Kuala Lumpur and then as a watchman at the Dato Lokman school in the evenings.

Baltej went to Pasar Road elementary school and then over to Dato Lokman until Form 5.

He said: “We were not well-to-do growing up, but mum and dad worked hard to give us all we needed.

“Dad was the bread winner in the family and when he passed away, things became difficult financially .

“Thankfully my brother had already settled in Canada and was able to sponsor us on compassionate grounds.

“My mother had to borrow money from friends and relatives to pay for our tickets and clothes as we left for Canada.”

Baltej recalled that they did not have much money left after all the expenses and arrived in Canada with about US$400 in hand.

“When the immigration officer heard that’s all the money we had he remarked ‘good luck’ in a facetious way, implying that we are in trouble.

“But I had full trust that as a family we will be fine,” he said.

Baltej and his wife Suroj, who live in Surrey just outside Vancouver, have a son, Onkar, and daughter, Rasna.

When he returns to Malaysia, he visits his older sister, nephews and nieces in Kuala Lumpur, and his aunt and cousins in Seremban.

“I still speak Malay and often speak it with my siblings in Canada, and also get to practise it when I visit Malaysia,” he said.