First Sikh officer with Greater Sudbury police sworn in

Shankey Dahiya is one of the Greater Sudbury Police Service’s newest officers and the first Sikh to wear the uniform.

Dahiya moved to the northern Ontario city in 2019 to study project management at Cambrian College.

After working several jobs, including with Canada Revenue Agency and at a local CIBC bank branch, he wanted to spend less time sitting in front of a computer monitor and more time interacting with people.

He decided to follow in his family’s footsteps — both his father and uncle were police officers in India — and apply with Greater Sudbury police.

“That was the main reason I got interested in being a police officer,” Dahiya said.

Dahiya has followed in his parents’ footsteps in becoming a police officer. They were both officers in India. (Markus Schwabe/CBC)

He said being the first Sikh with the police service will give him some advantages when working with community members from India and Southeast Asia.

“I think I’m going to be an asset too because I will be a person who will be a middleman for the Sikh community,” Dahiya said.

“I would say not just the Sikh community, but Hindu community too because my dad is a Hindu and my mother is a Sikh.”

Dahiya said he is still completing his training and has already learned a lot, especially around community policing practices.

“The things that I learned here, I think I never even thought about before, like community awareness.”

Dahiya said he has already received phone calls from others in the Sikh community who want to become police officers and are looking for advice.

Gurpreet Singh Broca, chair of Greater Sudbury police’s diversity advisory committee, said Sikhism has a long tradition of service in the military and policing.

He said it comes from the concept of a Sant Sipahi.

“It’s to make sure that we’re always the first people to try and put ourselves in harm’s way. Of course, it’s to defend ourselves or others and to fight against injustice and fight for justice everywhere we can,” Broca said.

He added having Dahiya sworn in as the city’s first Sikh officer is a great start.

“I firmly believe this is the first officer, but surely many more to come,” Broca said.