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Of course, the Conservative motion was doing no such thing. On the contrary the motion called on the house to “value the contributions of Canadian Sikhs and Canadians of Indian origin in our national life.”

Over the night hundreds of members of these Sikh groups bombarded Conservative Party leader Andrew Scheer with phone calls and emails, threatening to bar Conservative politicians from entering Sikh temples if the motion was introduced.

Early Thursday, the Conservative resolve had dissolved. They decided not to proceed with the motion.

The Canadian Sikh Association took credit for the Tory surrender.

“Throughout the whole night, the Sikh Community has been working aggressively to refute the frivolous allegations of labelling our community as terrorists at the request of foreign and corrupt entities,” said a Facebook post quoted by the National Post.

Khalistani Sikhs in Canada were overjoyed as other Indo-Canadians shook their head in bewilderment. Considering the fact the so-called Sikh vote is securely parked with the Trudeau Liberals and Jagmeet Singh’s NDP, the Tory tumble was beyond comprehension.

In his defence, O’Toole said the party had decided not to go ahead on Thursday because “the story’s still evolving.” The motion is still on the notice paper.

Ordinary Canadians, the vast majority of us who do not belong to specific race-based advocacy groups, have witnessed with alarm the slow decline of standards in our political discourse.