"I believe God saved me. God saved my life. Nothing happened to me. Nothing happened to my house. Everything is going good."

"I just called the cops. I know who this person is."

"This person belongs to Khalistan."

"I feel scared. He tried to give me a warning. 'Shut your mouth. Don't raise your voice about this topic."

"I'm a Canadian citizen, but I don't feel safe in this country right now." 

Nancy Grewal, 46, deceased, Windsor, Ontario

"I don't feel safe here," Nancy Grewal said at her Windsor home in late February. (CBC)

"Investigators are confident this was not a random act of violence. Ms. Grewal's murder is being investigated as an intentional act against her."

"All information is being considered. While we recognize the significant public interest in this case, we will not share information that will compromise the investigation, including leads, tips, and investigative avenues."

LaSalle Police Chief Michael Pearce 

 

"It is very sad to hear about the loss of Nancy Grewal's life."

"We are not in the position to make any comment. Thank you."

India Canada Association Windsor and Essex County 

Nancy Grewal was stabbed to death at a home in LaSalle, Ontario Tuesday, where she was engaged as a personal support worker. She was also a social media influencer. She had a very large following on Instagram and YouTube where her postings were mostly in Punjabi with only a scant few in English. One of her English posts detailed an incident where a man poured gasoline on her front door to set her house on fire. She wanted all 'white Canadians' to know what was happening to her, as a fierce opponent of Sikh-Canadians known as 'Khalistanis'. A group agitating for a homeland carved out of India that they call 'Khalistan'.

 

As a Sikh herself, and one who opposed the violent separatist movement, she had been warned and threatened in relation to her involvement in the anti-Khalistan group. Ms. Grewal had reported the attempt to burn down her house to police, along with other complaints she had against the man she was able to identify to Windsor police. Police did not immediately reveal whether they had a suspect in custody over her murder, only that they were involved in a homicide probe.

 

Paramedics alongside LaSalle police had responded to a stabbing report on Tuesday evening where they found Nancy Grewal with stab wounds and rushed her to hospital. At the  hospital she "succumbed to her injuries". The news of her death quickly spread to India and elsewhere internationally. That her activism was the reason for her death seems indisputable. She is by no means the only Sikh-Canadian who had spoken out publicly and vehemently against the Khalistanis whom India considers a national security threat for their violent outbreaks.

 

The worst terrorist plot ever devised on Canadian soil was carried out by Sikh-Canadian Khalistanis in the bombing of Air India Flight 182, causing the deaths of 329 people in 1985. In 1998 Tara Singh Hayer, the editor of North America’'s largest Punjabi-language newspaper, was murdered. Ujjal Dosanjh, a former Sikh-Canadian premier of British Columbia was outspoken in his condemnation of the Khalistani movement in Canada for their violence, and himself became a victim of a dreadful beating. A visiting Indian parliamentarian was the victim of an unsuccessful plot to assassinate him on Canadian soil.

 

New Delhi has been exasperated that Canada refuses to deport Sikh Khalistanis wanted in India to stand on trial for violent crimes committed in India. While Khalistanis from time to time mount large, vocal public demonstrations against India and celebrate murderous Khalistanis who lost their lives in the commission of vile crimes, iconizing their photographs as 'national' weapons-carrying heroes, they also carried large posters of former Indian president Indira Gandhi, who was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards, in jubilation of her murder.

 

Hardeep Singh Nijjar was a gurdwara leader who advocated for an independent Sikh state, known as Khalistan, in parts of present-day India. He was killed at the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara in Surrey in 2023, in a high-profile case that strained relations between Canada and India. Four Indian nationals have since been charged with first-degree murder in relation to the death. Still from video, CBC

 

Recent tensions between Canada and India over accusations that India had an involvement with the assassination of a prominent Vancouver-based Sikh Khalistani-agitator outside his gurdwara, saw the former allies at odds with one another. Nancy Grewal spoke out against that situation as well. She criticized former prime minister Justin Trudeau's crude diplomacy in accusing India of being responsible for the murder of the man, standing in Parliament to deliver his condemnation. Indian officials for their part, accuse Canada of failing to address "Sikh extremism".

 

Images  inside Gurdwara Khalsa Parkash in Windsor include images of martyrs with guns. (CBC)

 

The Sikh gurdwara in Windsor came under criticism from Nancy Grewal, for its prominent display of posters of revered dead Khalistanis known for their courage in fighting for that Khalistan 'homeland' by murdering opponents of separatism. "When we [are] going in the gurdwara, we need a peace and prayer. But everywhere you look at the gurdwara … all pictures with the AK-47s, guns", she said of the images of martyrs and their weapons in what should have been a peaceful space for prayers only. She spoke of her concern over the gurdwara's children's exposure to those posters' sentiments.  

 

Nancy Grewal, shown here with her dog, said she had received 40 death threats. (CBC)

 

"The radicals objected to her content and had an enmity with her."

"Two months ago unidentified miscreants set her house on fire [and she] reported to the police."

"I am grateful, she had so many people who loved her all over the world. She was so blessed to have so many people who loved her and the best thing was she never lied." 

Shinderpal Kaur, 70, Nancy Gerewal's mother, India