Here are 5 things you should know about the 44-year-old former Canadian soldier and Vancouver police officer:
BORN IN INDIA: Sajjan was born in Bombeli, a small village in the Hoshiarpur District of Punjab State. He was two years old when his father, a police officer in India, left for Canada to pursue a better opportunities. In 1976, his father returned to collect his wife, daughter and son, and bring them Vancouver. Sajjan was five. He was raised in Vancouver South.
HIGH SCHOOL: In a 2012 profile by Vancouver Sun columnist Daphne Bramham, Sajjan said when he was a 16-year-old student at Charles Tupper Secondary, he started travelling in the wrong circles. His classmates included future gangster Bindi Johal, who was murdered in 1998, and others who Sajjan later helped arrest as a member of the VPD. It was during this period that Sajjan chose a different path and become a baptized Sikh. “It wasn’t really a religious thing. It was an identity thing. I needed the commitment because I knew it would keep me on the right path. I found the true meaning of Sikhism and I loved the warrior aspect of it … When I was fighting to understand who I am, that (warrior) aspect was something that I really identified with.”
OFFICER SAJJAN: He was a member of the Vancouver Police Department for 11 years. His last assignment was as Detective-Constable with the Gang Crime Unit specializing in organized crime. In 2006, Sajjan took time off from the VPD to join the 1st Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment Battle Group in Kandahar.
COMBAT VETERAN: A Lt.-Colonel in the Canadian Armed Force, Sajjan completed three tours in Afghanistan and another in Bosnia. He was awarded with both the Meritorious Service Medal and the Order of Military Merit, among other recognitions, for his service. “He was the best single Canadian intelligence asset in theatre, and his hard work, personal bravery, and dogged determination undoubtedly saved a multitude of Coalition lives. Through his courage and dedication, (then) Major Sajjan has singlehandedly changed the face of intelligence gathering and analysis in Afghanistan,” said Brigadier-General David Fraser in a letter to then Chief Constable Jamie Graham of the Vancouver Police Department.
FAMILY MAN: Harjit is married to Dr. Kuljit Kaur Sajjan, a UBC-educated family doctor. They have two children.
