In January 2022, CivicAction Project Officer Maddie sat down virtually with Jaskaran Sandhu, 2019 Fellow, Public Affairs Consultant with State Strategy and Co-Founder of Baaz News, to talk about storytelling, power, and responsibility, as well as staying connected to community in challenging times.
You were part of the 2019 DiverseCity Fellows Program. What were the biggest take-aways for you, both during and post-program?
The Fellowship helps anchor a way of seeing the world and navigating it. But the real value is in the people you meet. It’s hard finding like-minded people outside of your bubble. Programs like the DiverseCity Fellows are powerful in connecting people who otherwise may not have crossed paths. Leaning on those contacts and people has already proven to be powerful and really great.
Last year, you worked with the World Sikh Organization of Canada to launch a vaccine clinic inside one of the largest Sikh places of worship in North America. How did you become a part of that initiative, and what has been the lasting impact on you as a leader and your community?
The reality is that it was born out of frustration. We were a couple of months into the pandemic and experiencing stubbornly high COVID-19 transmission rates in Brampton, and there was a lot of folks with hot takes that were not reflective of ground realities, and there was a lot of baseless finger-pointing. There were undertones of racism coming from people outside the city, it was incredibly unfair and often maligning.
In a moment of frustration, I took to Twitter and shared data suggesting that transmissions were high here due to workplace outbreak, and I just did this long thread explaining that this city is made up of individuals who work the front lines and are exposed to the virus, and that instead of having empathy for these people, they were being chastised. Instead of pointing fingers, public health should be engaging in inclusive decision making with these communities. And so that post went absolutely viral. I was getting messages from city and regional councillors and staff within City Hall saying, “Oh my God, someone finally said it!”
As part of those conversations about bringing the table to community rather than having them fend for themselves with uncontextualized guidelines and communications we started asking, why aren’t we doing vaccine clinics inside places where people are comfortable? Then at the same time, you can build a degree of trust in public health institutions with vaccines and mitigation strategies. So that’s how everything came together. We worked with provincial and regional governments, and we launched that clinic. And since then, they’ve launched a bunch of different clinics at a bunch of different gurdwaras, and it’s become a somewhat successful mechanism to deliver vaccines.
Resilience has become a bit of a buzzword over the past few years. What would you say that’s come to mean for you?
I think over the last two years, I’ve realized that on a personal level that it’s easier to be resilient when you have people to lean on, when you have friends and family supporting you, when you have other engaged citizens that you work with on a constant basis.
It’s easier said than done for a lot of folks. I’m very fortunate to have an incredible family and an incredible wife, and a job that allows for flexibility.
It’s been just over a year since you launched Baaz, a news outlet featuring Opinions, ideas, and original reporting for the Sikh and Punjabi diaspora. With over 200 articles written, as well as a podcast and social media, what have you learned about storytelling over the past year?
Baaz was born out of frustration of the lack of storytelling that diaspora communities – like the Sikh and Punjabi community is looking for. I wanted to create something that goes into the nuances and shares news in a very authentic and genuine way, which traditional media outlets have failed to deliver as our community grows around the world. As far as storytelling goes and what have I learned is that in the case of news, it’s really difficult to tell stories. You have to be very careful to ensure that you’re providing all the layers to a perspective. That compassion is such an important ingredient. At the end of the day, every story is a human story. Being able to have the compassion and patience to piece that together is important. Which is why I believe Baaz has been so successful so quickly.
I think the other part of storytelling that I’ve learned to appreciate because of Baaz is that the story is so much better when you’re not trying to embarrass anyone with one-dimensional storytelling. The goal is to move with the characters and piece together a holistic picture of what’s actually going on. Storytelling is incredibly powerful and comes with immense responsibility. And that’s what keeps me up at night a bit too. Storytelling is a deep privilege. You can’t take it lightly, especially when you’re working with people that otherwise don’t have many outlets to share their voice.
As leaders, we’re often asked to lead in times of urgency and crisis, and sometimes this can result in us putting our own needs last. How have you approached taking care of yourself throughout these challenging times? Have you experienced burnout?
I’ve done a very poor job of that, and I won’t lie. It’s very difficult to balance all those things. Between family responsibilities, work obligations, launching my own public affairs agency, community activism, the pandemic, and co-founding a digital news outlet, 2021 was non-stop. I think by the time December 2021 rolled in, I was done. I completely shut off and disengaged from a lot of stuff, kind of went off the grid a little bit and just needed that mental reset. I’m very poor at managing my own time and kind of disengaging and thinking about my own health, quite frankly.
I really appreciate your honesty. I think there can be a tendency or a need to appear like you have it all covered. But I think most of us are just trying to get through.
Yeah. I am really just stumbling through.
This year’s cohort has a curriculum theme of power, identity, and leadership. Could you tell us a bit about your relationship to the concept of power, are there ways in which you see yourself holding it? Seeking it? Transferring it?
I think to an earlier point, I’ve been given some really great opportunities to speak on behalf of communities and advocate and that’s very powerful. To be able to shape the story that’s being told goes a long way and helps to shape people’s perceptions. That power is sourced from knowing who you are, and what you care about. For me, it has always been about my community and my city. Speaking unapologetically for it, which has over time opened many doors.
I am also mindful that having power for the sake of power is pointless. I do not believe in gatekeeping, so I am constantly trying to uplift youth and share opportunities with others as well so that we can continue building capacity within the community. This is one of the reasons I helped launch the Sikh Youth Leadership Institute with the WSO over 5 years ago.
The floor is yours. We have a growing network of over 300 incredible alumni. What message would you like to share with your DiverseCity Fellows alumni peers?
My message to alumni would be this works when we work together; when we open doors for one another and we lean on one another to do really interesting, cool work in the region. We must make sure that we’re providing those opportunities for one another and being open to random emails from alumni five years ago. That shouldn’t be odd! That should be encouraged, and I think that’s something that we all need to be doing more often.