Sikh TikTok influencer decries racism for being asked to leave gym while wearing dagger
Gurpartap Singh Khalsa, a Sikh TikTok influencer, has gone viral for alleging he was “racially singled out” by a Goodlife Fitness employee who asked him to leave due to having a weapon on his person.
Author: Clayton DeMaine
A Sikh influencer on TikTok has gone viral after recording an interaction with a Goodlife Fitness employee and alleging that the employee had “racially singled” him out after she asked him to leave the gym due to him wearing a ceremonial dagger while working out.
Gurpartap Singh Khalsa posted the video on Wednesday, decrying racism after the employee at the Windsor Douglas Goodlife Fitness centre in Windsor Douglas told him to leave for bringing a weapon into the gym.
The video shows “Khalsa” arguing with the employee who was alerted to the weapon after a customer raised concerns about their safety.
The TikToker mocked the staff member attempting to clarify whether she was “scared” he was going to “kill somebody” with his “religious symbol.” This comes nearly two months after the murder trial of a Sikh man in the U.K, Vickrum Digwa, who murdered teenager Henry Nowak with a Kirpan, a Sikh religious dagger.
The TikTok channel has nearly 20,000 followers, and his page shows multiple videos of him in the gym wearing the dagger.
The video, which now has over half a million views on TikTok, shows the man arguing with the employee who told him that he needs to leave for her safety and the safety of the other customers at the gym.
When he accuses her of being “scared” that he’s going to kill somebody with his “religious symbol,” the employee said the man has a weapon on his person, and that another member brought it to her attention.
“We’re a private gym, we are allowed to deny access,” the Goodlife staff member can be heard saying in the video.
When he started accusing her of not doing her job for telling him not to come into the gym with the dagger in the first place, the staff member said the TikToker was harassing her.
Commenters on social media platforms where the video was shared suggested that the 23-year-old Sudanese Sikh migrant, Vickrum Digwa, who killed 18-year-old Henry Nowak in Southampton last year, has made people nervous about the ceremonial daggers, despite repeatedly being told the ceremonial weapon would never be used to attack innocent people.
“Gurpartap Singh Khalsa” is controversial to some Canadian Sikhs. Several Sikh commentators have distanced themselves from Gurpartap Singh Khalsa for his many videos espousing his perspective on his faith.
In one video from his “dreambodygurp” account, Khalsa says that “everybody should be equal under the law” while “white people” commit crimes against Sikhs, but insists that he was singled out due to racism for bringing his dagger into the gym.
Other videos show him working out with the kirpan.
Another has him gesturing that he’s slashing a throat while calling himself a “Soormas,” which means warrior in Punjabi.
It has nothing to do with racism. A knife is a weapon. So it’s a religious symbol in his culture. In India. He’s not in India is he? Plus he’s on private property and if safety is an issue, the owner of the property has the right to ask him to leave. One thing I have noticed is that a lot of people coming to Canada are ignorant of our laws and enforcement policies and basic human rights and when they are called on it they cry racism. It’s getting old.
The employee was right.