MISPRINT: ‘Peace’ in Punjabi printed upside down on MP’s holiday greeting card

NDP MP for Burnaby-New Westminster Peter Julian said the responsibility for the blunder on the card lies with him because he signed off on it. Submitted photo

Punjabi-speaking constituents who get NDP MP Peter Julian’s Christmas card in the mail over the next few days may be grateful he included their language in a list of multi-language renditions of the word “peace.”

But they’ll flip when they realize the word was printed upside down.

“That’s not the way to get the support of a community,” said Mannai Sandhu, one of 40,000 constituents in Julian’s constituency of Burnaby-New Westminster.

When Sandhu received the mailout, she immediately noticed the upside-down Punjabi script of the word, which is pronounced “shanti.”

“Sikhs have been in the country for years and they still don’t know our language,” she said.

When she called the constituency office, she said, staff was shocked and apologized.

“They said they ran it past the people in the translating department and they were supposed to notice,” she said.

“That was my fault,” said the woman who answered the phone Friday in Julian’s parliamentary office in Ottawa and would only give her first name, Mounia.

“It’s just a human error and it’s not really a media thing,” she said.

“I don’t know why you folks are spending time on this. It was a print error.”

Sandra Bell of Julian’s constituency office blamed it on the printer, claiming the original was correct.

At any rate, only three people have complained and none were angry, Bell said.

Julian himself said the responsibility lies with him because he signed off on the card.

“It’s me — the buck stops with me,” he said. “That’s my fault for not proofing it.”

The word “peace” was published in 35 languages to reflect the multicultural diversity of the riding.

“It’s not a typo that’s important — it’s the work we’ve been doing with the community,” said Julian, who added he’s learning the Punjabi language.

Julian said it’s too late to reprint the cards but he will apologize to anyone who’s offended.