The Canadian premiere of "Mistaken Identity - Sikhs in America" was hosted by Hon David Kilgour MP at House of Commons on Sep 12 to commemorate the 4th Anniversary of 9/11 and celebrate "Unity in Diversity Worldwide".

Hon David Kilgour opened the Canadian premiere with an address emphasizing that "it is only through mutual respect, understanding and support that we can create a North America which all people, religions and cultures can call their own."

Bhupinder Singh Liddar, a prominent Ottawa citizen, noted that David Kilgour is one of the two longest-serving MPs in the current House of Commons, and has been a champion of community issues over the years and has chaired the Sub-Committee on Human Rights of the committee of Foreign Affairs, and is also the designated Canadian Head of Parliamentarians for Global Action.

Ramsarup Singh, President of the Ottawa Sikh Society Gurdwara, applauded Ms Vinanti Sarkar the producer of Mistaken Identity for bringing out the story of hatred that Sikhs were subjected to after 9/11, and highlighting the different aspects of Sikh religion.

The premiere was organised by Globalom Media, exclusive Media partner in Canada for Mistaken Identity. Suresh Jaura, President (North America), emphasised that despite social, cultural, economic and political diversity and disparitites, we have to look at the similarities. The word Globalom combines 'global' and the Sanskrit word 'Om' - which emphasises that we are living in ONE WORLD. It is important that we go ahead and promote the message of the movie throughout Canada, he added.

The film was produced by two non-Sikh women, 22-year old Host Amanda Gesine from Greenwich, CT, and New York Filmmaker Vinanti Sarkar who started production six days after 9/11, having immediately researched and witnessed the racial profiling, verbal abuse and physical assaults on American Sikhs mistaken for terrorists, simply because they wore turbans and beards for religious reasons. A graduate student at Georgetown University, DC, Amanda conceived the idea as she felt this overwhelming 
reaction was "due to fear and ignorance". 

Over 200 persons from Ottawa, Montreal and Toronto, attended the evening, including a representative of the Indian High Commission and Mark Persaud, Chairman and CEO of Canadian International Peace Project. The absence of MPs and MPPs from Ontario, especially of South Asian-origin, was noticed and commented upon by viewers.