#1. POLICE HUNT FOR WHITE COUPLE THAT ASSAULTED SOUTH ASIANS
Surrey RCMP Sgt. Jean Hamm told The VOICE this week that police are still investigating the August 11 assault by a white couple on a South Asian family. The attack was the lead story in this newspaper last week.
Hamm provided an updated description of the two suspects on Wednesday. The white male is approximately 5 ft 10 in, 170 lb, with dark brown hair in a brush cut. He has tattoos apparently on the right arm - "some kind of symbol."
The female is described as being approximately 5 ft 4 in, with a heavy build, sandy blonde hair that was in a ponytail, and possibly a European accent.
On August 11, a South Asian boy, Ahmed Bajwa, whose father, Tariq Bajwa is a well known realtor, confronted some white boys who were fighting on a dirt pile in the front yard of his Newton house. He said that one of them threw a handful of dirt at him and he retaliated by throwing some dirt right back at him. The boys then ran away.
A little while later, apparently the parents of one of the boys came to their house and, according to the boy's grandfather, Riaz Hussain Chaudhry, the woman gave him a karate-style kick in the thighs and also punched one of his sons, Maqbool, in the face.
The man punched the grandmother, Ghulam Zohra, in the face and the belly. She had earlier had an eye operation.
Then the attackers pepper-sprayed or bear-sprayed the family. The spray filled the house and a three-month-old baby had to be rushed to the hospital in an ambulance for treatment.
#2. LAIBER SINGH GETS A BREAK
Failed refugee claimant, Laiber Singh, 48, who is paralyzed, got a reprieve this week when Immigration and Refugee Board member Mark Tessler showed compassion and ruled on Wednesday that he could return to Abbotsford's Kalgidhar Darbar Gurdwara from the North Fraser Pre-trial Centre provided he posted a bond or $50,000, produced a statement from the gurdwara officials that he would be turned over to the Canadian Border Services Agency if he was ordered deported, and reported to the CBSA every week by phone.
Singh's lawyer Zool Suleman told the media that though he was happy about his client being released, he found the terms somewhat harsh.
Last Saturday, Singh got a last minute respite when thanks to Conservative M.P. Nina Grewal's intervention, Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day granted a 60-day stay of deportation. Meanwhile, Suleman has filed an appeal with the immigration minister on humanitarian grounds.
Singh, who had taken refuge at Abbotsford's Kalgidhar Darbar Gurdwara on July 7, was arrested by Canadian Border Services Agency and Abbotsford Police on August 13 at Abbotsford MSA Hospital when he left the gurdwara sanctuary for treatment.
Immigration Refugee Board member Otto Nupponen had ruled that Laiber Singh would remain in detention until his deportation in view of his long history of misleading authorities since his arrival in Toronto in November, 2003, on a false passport.
An impressive number of Indo-Canadians turned up at the deportation hearing to show support.
#3. ABBOTSFORD ANGELS' RAJIN NEGER DOES A GREAT JOB
Pitcher and first baseman Rajin Neger's outstanding performance at Baseball Canada championships in Quebec City helped the Abbotsford Angels Pee Wee hardball team bag the bronze.
The Angels blew away the Saskatoon Blue Jays 15-8 last Sunday to claim third place. And indeed, they could have been first because they thrashed the gold medallists, Ontario, 3-0 in round-robin play and they lost narrowly (4-3) to the silver medallists, Quebec, in the semi-finals. In the round-robin, the team lost only one game.
In one of the games, Neger, the only Indo-Canadian on the team, along with another player, Jon Bauer, struck out 10 between them.
#4. VETERINARIANS SAY ENOUGH IS ENOUGH
Apparently exasperated by the B.C. Veterinary Medical Association's decision that it could not inquire into discriminatory remarks made by Dr. Robert Ashburner, three Indo-Canadian veterinarians - Hakam Bhullar, Arminder Singh Brar and Teij Paul Bhatia - have approached the B.C. Supreme Court to order the association to conduct an inquiry in the matter.
It has been alleged that Ashburner made the remarks to Heather Ashburner who took her cat to him for treatment back in September 2005. She said in her affidavit that she had a hidden camera with her. She claimed that when she complained about the treatment her cat received at Bhullar's clinic, Ashburner said: "They are innocent until proven guilty. And what can you do? You have to let the system do it. Gone are the days when we could go there with a torch and burn it down, a quicker way."
Back in April, 2006, The VOICE had reported that a raft of Indo-Canadian veterinarians had filed a joined human rights complaint against the B.C. Veterinary Medical Association with the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal.
According to their complaint (none of which has been proved in court), they alleged, among other things, that "the BCVMA has recently attempted to limit the operation of the low-cost community clinics run by the Indo-Canadian veterinarians by imposing unreasonable English language proficiency requirements that were purposely and specifically aimed at blocking prospective Indo-Canadian, foreign-trained vets intending to practice at these low-cost clinics.
"These standards that are currently being imposed by the BCVMA are more stringent than any other veterinary association in Canada, none of which have any separate language requirement for foreign veterinarians, aside from the ability to pass the practical and qualifying veterinary examinations which, outside of the province of Quebec, are mainly in English. The new BCVMA standards are also higher than for any other veterinary association in the U.S. and even higher than those used for other types of medical service professional associations, such as for physicians, nurses, dentists or pharmacists."
The complaint also stated: "The BCVMA has been discriminating and retaliating against them by unfairly and unequally targeting many of them through the BCVMA disciplinary process" and mentioned specific instances.
#5. RACISM AGAINST TAXI DRIVERS GOES ON
The West Vancouver Police Department said this week that it will not be recommending any charges after a commotion in a taxi resulted in one of the passengers being hit on the head by the driver with a credit card machine.
On Friday, August 17, at about 3 a.m., a taxi picked up three men downtown and headed to the British Properties.
Police said: "Apparently, during the trip the three passengers began to verbally and racially abuse the taxi driver. At the end of the trip one of the passengers then exposed his genitalia to the driver who responded by hitting the passenger about the head three times with a credit card machine.
"The driver was uninjured; however, the man who exposed himself received cuts to his head, hand and ear.
"After reflecting on his own actions the victim of the assault has decided that he does not wish to pursue any allegations of assault against the driver. The driver has also decided not to pursue the matter further."
Rather strange, eh!
West Vancouver Police warned the public that "when offences are committed against any person and during the commission of that offence if any racial or derogatory profanity is used, that offence may be investigated as a hate related offence. The penalty for conviction of a hate crime can be severe."
#6. INDIA'S FOREIGN AFFAIRS MINISTRY NEEDS TO WAKE UP!
The poor staff at India's foreign missions in Canada are really frustrated because the Indian Foreign Affairs Ministry bureaucrats in New Delhi are living up to their notorious reputation of dragging their feet. For quite some time now, irate people of Indian origin who have been filing applications for Overseas Citizens of India (a form of dual nationality that India has introduced) have been confronting the Indian Consulate General in Vancouver and at other Indian missions in Canada about the higher amount that they have to pay in Canada (CDN$421) as compared to what people of Indian origin have to pay in the U.S. (US$275).
This week yet another angry Indo-Canadian came over to The VOICE office to show the draft of US$275 he had made out to the Consulate General, only to be told that he would have to cough up CDN$421. He said that he now had to get the draft cancelled and have a new one made. Yet when he had printed out the form, the instructions that also got printed out automatically clearly stated: "Application fee by way of demand draft (US$ 275 for each applicant or equivalent in local currency …)
Indian officials in Canada have sent several messages to the Foreign Affairs Ministry officials in New Delhi to get the website information rectified - but they are still waiting for the changes to be made.
In any case, no one can explain why Canadians have to pay more than Americans!
#7. WRONG ADDRESS OR SENDING MESSAGE?
Surrey RCMP are investigating Wednesday's drive-by shooting in the 12700 block of 96th Avenue in which two houses were hit at about 2:40 a.m.
RCMP Sgt. Jean Hamm said: "Upon attendance police discovered numerous shell casings … One residence sustained the majority of the shots, breaking one of the windows of the house. No injuries were sustained by any of the residents in either of the houses. Witnesses report hearing a vehicle fleeing the scene, but at this time there is no description of the vehicle or the suspect(s) involved."
Police are trying to determine a motive for the shooting. The residence that seemed to have been the one targeted belongs to realtor Jag Bhandari.
Was he targeted or did the bad guys get the wrong address?
In any case, it seems that most drive-by shootings in the Lower Mainland remain unsolved.
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