Harjit Sajjan

In September 2019, Sajjan attended an event that was held to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, for which he was subsequently criticized. A spokesman for Sajjan said that he appeared in his capacity as a candidate for his riding and did not stay for long.

In an April 2017 public speech in New Delhi, Sajjan called himself "the architect" of Operation Medusa, a September 2006 Canadian offensive to remove Taliban fighters from around Kandahar. In July 2015, Sajjan had made the same claim during an episode of the B.C. program Conversations That Matter, stating that General Jonathan Vance, the Chief of the Defence Staff at the time the story broke in 2017, saw him as "the architect" in the 2006 offensive. At the time of Operation Medusa, Sajjan was a Major in the reserves and a liaison officer to Task Force Kandahar, where large combat operations such as Medusa were usually worked upon by generals and colonels.

Sajjan was elected for the riding of Vancouver South during the 2015 federal election, defeating Conservative incumbent MP Wai Young. Sajjan was appointed Minister of National Defence in the federal Cabinet, headed by Justin Trudeau, on November 4, 2015. He was also appointed acting Minister of Veterans Affairs on February 12, 2019.

He was bestowed with the Meritorious Service Medal in 2012 for diluting the Taliban's influence in Kandahar Province. He has also been awarded the Canadian Peacekeeping Service Medal. He also received the Order of Military Merit award. He also served as an Aide-de-Camp to the Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia.

In 2011, he became the first Sikh to command a Canadian Army reserve regiment when he was named commander of The British Columbia Regiment (Duke of Connaught's Own).

Sajjan returned to Afghanistan for another tour of duty in 2009, taking another tour of leave from the Vancouver Police Department to do so. Having already taken two leaves of absence, Sajjan had to leave the Vancouver Police Department for his third tour of duty in 2010, during which he was assigned as a Special Assistant to then Major-General James L. Terry, the commander of American forces in Afghanistan.

Sajjan's first deployment to Afghanistan was shortly before the start of Operation Medusa in 2006, during which he took leave from his work in the Vancouver Police Department's gang squad. He deployed with the 1st Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment Battle Group in Kandahar and worked as a liaison officer with the Afghan police. Sajjan found that corruption in the Afghan government was driving recruitment to the Taliban. After reporting these findings to Brigadier General David Fraser, Sajjan was tasked with helping the general plan aspects of Operation Medusa.

Fraser evaluated Sajjan's leadership during the operation as "nothing short of brilliant". When Sajjan returned to Vancouver, Fraser sent a letter to the police department which called Sajjan "the best single Canadian intelligence asset in theatre", stated that his work saved "a multitude of coalition lives", and noted that the Canadian Forces should "seek his advice on how to change our entire tactical intelligence training and architecture". Sajjan was mentioned in dispatches for the usefulness of his tactical counterinsurgency knowledge in the planning and implementation of an unnamed operation in September 2006 to secure important terrain.

Harjit Singh married Kuljit Kaur, a family physician, in 1996, and they have a son and a daughter. Their son's name is Arjun Sajjan and their daughter's name is Jeevut Sajjan.

His Sikh beliefs require him to keep his facial hair which prevents the use of regular military gas masks, so Sajjan invented his own gas mask that worked with his beard, and patented it in 1996.

Sajjan joined The British Columbia Regiment (Duke of Connaught's Own) in 1989 as a trooper and was commissioned in 1991. He eventually rose to the rank of lieutenant-colonel. He was deployed overseas four times in the course of his career: once to Bosnia and Herzegovina, and three times to Afghanistan. Sajjan was wounded during his service in Bosnia. Sajjan began his 11-year career as an officer of the Vancouver Police Department after returning from his Bosnian deployment. He ended his career with the Vancouver Police Department as a detective with the department's gang crimes unit specializing in drug trafficking and organized-crime investigation.

Harjit Singh Sajjan, PC OMM MSM CD MP (/ˈ h ɑːr dʒ iː t ˈ s ɪ ŋ ˈ s æ dʒ ən / , HAR -jeet SING SAJ -ən; born September 6, 1970) is an Indian–Canadian politician and retired Canadian Army officer. A member of the Liberal Party, he is the current Minister of National Defence and a Member of Parliament representing the riding of Vancouver South. He is Canada's first Sikh Minister of National Defence. Sajjan was first elected during the 2015 federal election, defeating Conservative incumbent MP Wai Young. Sajjan was sworn into Cabinet as Minister of National Defence, headed by Justin Trudeau, on November 4, 2015. Before politics, Sajjan was a detective investigating gangs for the Vancouver Police Department and at the same time a lieutenant-colonel in the Canadian Armed Forces decorated for his service in Afghanistan. Sajjan was also the first Sikh Canadian to command a Canadian Army reserve regiment.

Harjit Singh Sajjan was born on September 6, 1970, in Bombeli, a village in the Hoshiarpur district of Punjab, India. Sajjan's father, Kundan Sajjan, was a Head constable with the Punjab Police in India, and is currently a member of the World Sikh Organization (WSO), a Sikh advocacy group. Harjit Singh, along with his mother and older sister, immigrated to Canada in 1976, when he was five years old, to join their father who had left for British Columbia two years earlier to work at a sawmill. While the family was getting established in their new life in Canada, his mother worked on berry farms in BC Lower Mainland during the summer where Harjit Singh and his sister would frequently join her. Harjit Singh grew up in a neighbourhood in South Vancouver.