Barj S. (Barjinder Singh) Dhahan is the principal founder of Canada India Education Society (CIES), though he holds many other titles (including certified yoga teacher!).
As a Canadian entrepreneur and family man, Barj has been involved in several non-profit initiatives throughout his life, and continues to be a community leader. He is regularly called on to advise and comment on politics and policy, industry and international trade, education, policing and other social issues.
His background and upbringing
Barj hails from an immigrant Sikh family from rural Punjab, India. His family traces its roots to some of the earliest Indian migrants who came to Canada and the United States in the early 1900s.
In 1967, at the age of 10, Barj joined his father, Budh Singh Dhahan, in Port Alberni, B.C., Canada, along with his mother and three of four sisters. The eldest sister joined the family in 1969. The family moved to Vancouver, B.C. in 1973.
Being the only boy in a family of four girls, Barj notes his parents were wise to treat all five children equally in their household. Barj was required to do house chores, like washing dishes. He and his sisters were all encouraged to pursue university education.
“My parents were ahead of their time,” says Barj.
His early life and career
Barj met his wife, Rita, in high school. Though, he didn’t know at the time she would be his life partner. She was a Canadian born into an immigrant, German Mennonite family. It didn’t take much to know that their love would challenge traditional boundaries. Nonetheless, the couple married in their early 20s, and had three children. Today, they are happy grandparents.
As a young parent, and while studying at the University of British Columbia (UBC) and Regent College, Barj opened his first gas station at age 22. Eventually, he founded the Sandhurst Group of companies. The business specializes in commercial real estate development, food service and convenience centres. The company is run with community engagement and economic development in mind.
“Over the years, I’ve gotten to know several hundred people who got their first jobs at my companies, before growing into their careers,” says Barj. “It’s really encouraging to see that kind of development in people, whether they are youth, or newcomers to Canada.”
Stewardship to his international and local communities
Aside from his daily business duties, Barj is passionate about creating opportunities for marginalized people through health, education and entrepreneurship.
He desired to help his father and mother’s vision of building a hospital, primary and secondary school and nursing college in rural Punjab, India. To that end, Barj led the effort to establish CIES in 1991. Since then, its projects have touched thousands of lives.
Internationally, Barj has been active in the Canada-India corridor for decades. He has built strategic partnerships between Canadian and Indian organizations. These have included non-profits and universities in the education and healthcare sectors.
Most notably, he pioneered one of the first international collaborations in nursing between Canada and India through UBC School of Nursing and CIES. This helped over 2,400 young women and some men graduate from nursing programs in Punjab, India. Approximately 350 now live and work in Canada.
Barj has also provided micro-enterprise training in rural Orissa and Bihar, India. He has launched a sanitary and water infrastructure project, and a health care outreach project in rural Punjab, India.
Locally, Barj is an avid participant in Canadian non-profit initiatives, whether through personal or business activity. For example:
Through his franchised restaurants, he regularly sponsors extra fundraising activities, such as face painting, to support Tim Hortons Children’s Foundation. The foundation helps children from financially challenged families learn valuable life skills at summer camps.
He has awarded over fifty bursaries to high school graduates in B.C., since 1993.
He created scholarships at UBC and Royal Roads University (RRU) to uplift under-served and under-represented students on campus. The former was a joint-effort to build a $400,000 academic fund for Indigenous students. It was titled the ‘Honouring the Truth, Centennial Scholars Major Entrance Award for Aboriginal Students.’
Read more: How a cabbie’s racist comment inspired a $400,000 scholarship fund at UBC
Barj is a long-term sponsor of the Adopt-A-School program through the Vancouver Sun, as well as several other charitable and community patronages, such as Education without Borders (EWB), Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA), The Khalsa Diwan Society, World Partnership Walk, Cops for Cancer – Tour de Valley campaigns and more.
In 2013 Barj founded the Dhahan Prize for Punjabi Literature in partnership with UBC’s Department of Asian Studies. It is the richest, international literary prize among South Asia’s indigenous languages. The cause garnered the support of Royal Bank of Canada, which has been its presenting partner since its inception.
In collaboration with Surrey Schools, and with Coast Capital Savings as a sponsor, Barj was instrumental in launching the Dhahan Youth Award in 2017. The program continues to encourage language development among Grade 11 and 12 students taking Punjabi classes in B.C. It also publishes a one-of-a-kind, yearly anthology, called Lofty Heights, to distribute student-written stories in two Punjabi scripts (Gurmukhi and Shahmukhi), English and French.
Barj is a co-founding board member and chairperson of the India-Canada Centre for Innovative Multidisciplinary Partnerships to Accelerate Community Transformation and Sustainability (IC-IMPACTS). The organization, launched in 2012, is housed at the University of British Columbia (UBC). He is also a founding member and major donor to the Canada-India Centre for Excellence (CICE) at Carleton University, which launched in 2010.
He has served, and continues to serve on several boards of institutions and organizations in Canada. For example, he was a member of the Vancouver Police Board from May, 2015 to May, 2021, serving as vice chair for two years. He has been a part of the Commissioner’s Diversity Advisory Committee (CDAC) with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) since May, 2018. He sat on the Royal Roads University (RRU) board of governors from May, 2013 to May, 2015. He served as a director for the Industry Training Authority of British Columbia, from 2014 to 2015.
In his board member roles, he contributes his business expertise to address organizational needs such as communication, financial management, governance, risk mitigation, information analysis, human resources and more.
Barj has worked with provincial and federal governments to advance relationships with India. Advisory topics include trade, research, investment and higher education. He has been a member of federal and provincial trade missions to India.
Barj has been a keynote speaker at various economic development and trade conferences. He has written op-ed pieces for the Vancouver Sun, the Ottawa Citizen and the Courier newspapers. He is a regular commentator on radio and television news.
The above examples are only a snapshot of Barj’s extensive, ongoing work and activities to support collaboration, create jobs and foster equality in Canada and India.
Why he does what he does
Barj works long hours, whether it be for his business or social endeavours. He is inspired to improve society at large, especially where it ‘hits home’ the most.
Barj worked since he was 11 to support his family. He is all-aware of the struggles that most people face when they are in financial hardship.
Barj lives with a core belief that his time, skills, knowledge and wealth should be used to create prosperity for others.
“Unless you’ve come from marginalized and underserved groups, most of us don’t know what it’s like,” he explains. “In India, it’s hard for young people to find employment, despite India’s recent economic boom in the last 20 years. Girls are last to be educated. We do what we do because we believe in equality. And that means equality of opportunity for everyone.”
But, he says, his work is about more than social justice.
“When we want to create equality, we also have to address economic challenges, both in Canada and abroad. We can do this by first building caring, compassionate, inclusive communities – whether in the business or nonprofit sectors.”