In a blow to Canada’s Indian community, Hockey Night in Canada will no longer be offering their broadcasts in Punjabi.
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation said that the viewership of the Punjabi version of HNIC has decreased, as more viewers have switched to the English version. A Punjabi version has been broadcasted for the past two seasons.
Balwinder Marwaha, an Indo-Canadian from Calgary, told the Toronto Sun that having the broadcasts in Punjabi helped Punjabi-speaking Canadians connect to their country.
“It was almost like a religious thing — on Sunday morning we go to the temple and every Saturday night, we’d watch Hockey Night in Canada in Punjabi,” Marwaha told the Sun.
Marwaha is hoping that other sponsors will fund a Punjabi HNIC if the CBC follows through with the cancellation.
Canada’s Indian population has grown to over a million people, with large Indo-Canadian communities in Toronto, Vancouver and Calgary. Punjabi is Canada’s fourth-largest language.
