For the past three years Punjabi Canadians have revelled in the ritual Canadian pastime of tuning in to Hockey Night in Canada — in Punjabi.

But they lost that small piece of cultural Canadiana when CBC cancelled the popular broadcast. The move has South Asians across the country up in arms.

“A lot of the attention that hockey received from the community has been attributed to this broadcast,” said Harnarayan Singh, who co-hosts the program with Amarinder Singh. Fans across the country tuned in with their families to support their favourite team.

“This broadcast wasn’t just any broadcast, it was really creating something special,” said Singh.

The Punjabi broadcast was cancelled last week when CBC couldn’t find a sponsor. This week community members began organizing a campaign to get it back.

A petition is circulating, lobbyists have been contacted, letters have been crafted to be sent to CBC executives and advocates are mobilizing the community to save what has become a symbol of inclusion for Punjabi-speaking people in Canada.

People are talking about it all over the country, especially in light of Vancouver’s Stanley Cup run. B.C.’s lower mainland is home to one of the country’s largest Punjabi-speaking populations.

Singh said Punjabis have come a long way in Canada since his great grandfather came to the country over 100 years ago. “The broadcast has made the community feel more Canadian,” and helped new immigrants connect with the culture.

Both announcers have become minor celebrities among South Asians.

The show faced cancellation last year for similar reasons, but was saved by a one-year sponsorship from CIBC. There’s hope the same thing will happen again this year.

Chris Ball, a spokesperson for CBC, said they tried right up until the end to get a new sponsor. If one can be found, the show can be saved. He described the audience numbers for the broadcast as “low, but loyal.”

Balwant Sanghera, president of the Punjabi Language Education Association, began the campaign that helped save the show a year ago. He relaunched that campaign this week.

It’s focused on networking, bringing attention to the issue through Indo-Canadian media and (most importantly) looking for a sponsor in the community generous enough to support the broadcast.

“It’s an extremely beneficial program for our community,” said Sanghera. There are almost 800,000 Punjabi speakers in Canada he said.

According to Statistics Canada’s 2006 census, Punjabi is the fourth most-spoken non-official language in Canada after Chinese languages, Italian and German.

A Facebook group has been set up and fans are vocal in their support for the broadcast on the site.

A link between Punjabi families and a link to the larger Canadian community has been broken said Singh.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

For Singh it’s about more than hockey.

High school students have told him they didn’t think they could be successful in mainstream media jobs because they looked different. Seeing the success of the show changed that perception.

“I think the beauty of Canada is that whatever job you want, whatever your dreams and goals are you can achieve those no matter who you are.” This show proved that.