Born in Toronto, Ontario to a Sikh father and a Catholic mother, Jaggi Singh is one of Canada's most outspoken activists in the anti-globalization movement.
Singh seized the public spotlight during the protests outside the 1997 APEC conference held in Vancouver. Already known to police and security officials around Vancouver, Singh was arrested the day before the conference he was planning a protest around, for allegedly shouting in the ear of a security guard. He spent the duration of the conference in jail, and was then released with all charges dropped.
However he becomes a mainstay at Canadian rallies and protests, arrested another three times over the next four years. In 2000, he is arrested while participating in a non-violent demonstration outside Montreal, later that fall at a G-20 protest in Montreal he was again arrested, later to be acquitted of charges stemming from that protest.
Then, in 2001, he was arrested once again at the Quebec City Summit of the Americas, this time for breaking bail conditions (not to attend political protests or rallies) and weapons charges for a mock catapult (which he had no role in building or operating) that threw teddy bears. This time he was held for a total of 17 days without bail before being released.
In 2002, he was present again at a Palestinian protest at Concordia University, which degenerated into a riot.
On January 8th, 2003, Singh was arrested by Israeli police after being invited to Jerusalem by the International Solidarity Movement. He had been denied entrance to the country upon his arrival that December, but fought the decision in court and won, though he had promised to leave the country by the end of December. After being held briefly at the Maasiyahu Prison, he was deported back to Canada.
In 2004, the New York Daily News drew reference to Singh in an article about protesters against the Republican National Convention, the article erroneously, or maliciously, spoke of Singh being Muslim (he's an atheist, from a Sikh family), prone to violence (he is a self-avowed pacifist), claiming that the teddybears he supposedly threw in jest at the 2001 protest were molotov cocktails soaked in gasoline, that he was proficient in firearms and received training from Kazi Toure (whom he's never met). The article also carried a fake photograph they claimed was Jaggi Singh, throwing a rock through a window.
A self-described anarchist, Singh lives in Montreal where he operates a small independent bookstore.