Harjit Sajjan

Harjit Singh Sajjan (born September 6, 1970) is a Canadian Liberal politician, the current  Minister of National Defence and a Member of Parliament representing the riding of Vancouver South. Sajjan was first elected during the 2015 federal election, defeating Conservative incumbent MP Wai Young, and was sworn into Justin Trudeau's cabinet as defence minister on November 4, 2015. Before politics, Sajjan was a detective investigating gangs for the Vancouver Police Department and a regimental commander 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.

Early and personal life
Harjit Singh Sajjan was born to Sikh parents in Bombeli, a village in the Hoshiarpur district of Punjab, India. His family immigrated to Canada when he was five years old. He grew up in Vancouver. Harjit's father Sardar Kundan Singh Sajjan is a member of the World Sikh Organization (WSO), a Sikh advocacy group. He is married to Kuljit Kaur Sajjan, a family doctor, with whom he has a son and a daughter.

Sajjan was baptized as a Sikh when he was a teenager, seeing it as a way to get away from a bad crowd.

Police service
Sajjan served as an officer of the Vancouver Police Department for 11 years. He ended his career with the VPD as a detective with the department's gang crimes unit and organized-crime investigator.

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

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 was recognized as "the best single Canadian intelligence asset" in the Kandahar theatre by Brigadier-General David Fraser. He also served as an Aide-de-Camp to the Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia. His intelligence gathering skills were sought after. The Commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan’s southern provinces requested that Sajjan join the U.S. Command Team for a third deployment 2010, where he served as Special Assistant to then Major-General James L. Terry. He consulted for US policy analyst Barnett Rubin.

His religiously required facial hair prevents the use of regular military gas masks. Sajjan invented his own gas mask that worked with his beard, and patented it in 1996.

Political career
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.

Honours and decorations
Sajjan received the following honours and decorations during and after his military career.