Canada Post has released a stamp to celebrate Baisakhi, Sikh New Year.
Sikhs are the largest South Asian ethnic group in Canada. With more than a quarter million members originally from the Northwest region of India and from what is now Pakistan.
The first Sikh immigrants were soldiers with the British Indian Army who migrated to British Columbia at the turn of the 20th Century to work in lumber mills and on the railway.
In the 1960's and 70's tens of thousands of Sikhs settled across Canada, most in the urban corridor between Toronto and Windsor.
Founded in 15th century Punjab, Sikhism is a religionfocused on worship of the one Universal God, the work ethic, philanthropy and service to the community.
1999 marked the 300th anniversary of Baisakhi, which commemorates the Khalsa, the most important event in the Sikh faith.
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