#1. LAIBAR SINGH CASE: SHOW ME THE MONEY, GUYS!
It is really shameful that thousands of Indo-Canadians who illegally prevented the Canada Border Service Agency (CBSA) officers from taking custody of failed refugee claimant Laibar Singh at Vancouver International Airport have failed miserably in putting their money where their loud mouth is.
And Surrey's Guru Nanak Singh Temple President Balwant Singh Gill told the VOICE on Wednesday: "Those who committed to give money should do so." He said "not much" has been donated for Laibar Singh - "only small contributions."
Laibar Singh has taken refugee at the Surrey gurdwara.
Some weeks ago I had written about how Laibar Singh's supporters have been losing credibility with everyone - and now with Harpal Singh Nagra, president of the South Asian Human Rights group, openly advocating that Laibar Singh should go back to India, that level of credibility has sunk to a new low.
However, Gill told me that he has no objection to Laibar Singh staying at the gurdwara. He added: "He can stay as long as he wants."
Red FM Radio news director Harjinder Thind told The VOICE that Gill, who appeared on his highly popular talk show on Wednesday, said the same on his show, but also pointed out that if Laibar Singh were to get sick and need to be taken out for medical tests, then the CBSA officers would take him into custody and they would end up losing both him and the $50,000 bond they had posted for him.
Thind said Gill supported Nagra's position that the community reconsider their decision to keep Laibar Singh in Canada. Thind said that Gill didn't support what happened at the airport. Gill also didn't like 'some things' that took place at the gurdwara when CBSA agents were prevented from taking custody of Laibar Singh.
Well, let's wait and see what happens on Monday when Laibar Singh's supporters lose the $50,000 bond.
#2. GOOD SAMARITAN: BALWANT GILL HELPED AMRIT RAI
It's always something praiseworthy when people help others out of unselfish motives - even helping people who are or who might have been their enemies. That's what Surrey's Guru Nanak Sikh Temple President Balwant Singh Gill did when Amrit Singh Rai, a former leader of the banned International Sikh Youth Federation, was in trouble because of his drug addiction. Rai was nabbed and convicted for robbing a bank to feed his habit.
Gill did not hesitate to give Rai a letter of support for his parole and told The VOICE this week: "If anybody comes to me for help, I will help him, even if he is my enemy. Guru Nanak Devji said so. You should help the needy no matter what kind of person they are."
That was a wonderful act of forgiveness and compassion to help a fellow human who is trying to conquer his drug addiction and reach out to our youth to help them realize the dangers of drugs.
Rai has been out on parole since last December.
Journalist Gurpreet Singh did an excellent piece on Rai in a Surrey newspaper this week.
#3. READ THIS - OR 'I'LL KILLYOU'!
Yeah, right!
That expression - "I'll kill you" - is so commonly used in India in situations that range from a joke to a serious threat, but mostly as just a way of telling someone: "You had better do this."
Like telling a friend, "If you say anything about my weight, I'm going to kill you," or "If you don't come to my party, I will kill you."
However, the fact is that such expressions are totally inappropriate in Canada and constitute a death threat, a very serious offence.
I remember back in the late 1990s, Vancouver Police had to handle some tricky situations in which some Indo-Canadian deliberately took such statements out of context to get another Indo-Canadian into trouble. A Vancouver police officer even told me that they were aware of the common usage of this expression among Indo-Canadians, but then they had to follow the law, too.
Well now, in Ontario, Neelam Vir has been charged and arrested for emailing a member of Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty's staff that if she hadn't given the premier the 'gulab jamun' mix that she had sent for him, she would 'kill her.' (Gulab jamun is one of the yummiest Indian sweets - try it, if you haven't already!)
I can understand the police immediately reacting to that email - they were only doing their job. But I hope better sense prevails in court and the judge sees what that "I'll kill you" expression really means.
I don't want to get too much into Vir's background except to let readers know that she is highly educated person who (the usual story here in Canada) is still trying to get a job commensurate with her educational qualifications. She is also a freelance writer for a Punjabi newspaper in Mississauga and so has met several high-level politicians.
Here is a letter that VEDA NATH MOHABIR of Scarborough (Toronto), an Indian immigrant from Guyana, sent to the Toronto Star and forwarded to me on Friday morning on this topic:
Re. Alleged threat in email 'kind of sad', (Premier) McGuinty says - Toronto Star, Februray 27. About a dozen years ago, I worked as a Program Analyst in a very large government ministry (to remain unnamed), and was responsible for the (over one-half billion dollars) budgets for a number of programs. One Saturday, after a meeting chaired by the Deputy Minister to pare down the submissions to Management / Treasury Board, the Assitant Deputy Minister of the program areas was thanking me for the long hours put in. A director (a Caucasian woman) who reported to him approached me and 'jokingly' pretended to choke me while saying: "Make sure I get my funding otherwise I will put these boot heels on you". We, all three, laughed. But, I wondered, later, what would have happened if I had made such a remark to any other staffer.
Neelam Vir's remark is very common across cultures, as 5 of 6 of today's letters support. Only Kashmira Rustomji demurred calling Vir's alleged remark "stupidity". Similarly, in the February 27 Toronto Star, "Pakistan-born" Saima Shaik calls it "disgusting", whereas the "South Asian Jew", Jacobson, is more compassionate seeing Vir, who holds a PhD, as "hungry and desperate". Do these three comments indicate South Asian inter-cultural biases?
Unless, there are other incriminating messages in the subsequent emails, I would say that the prosecution of the case is making a mountain out of a molehill.
#4. RACISM MARS ALBERTA ELECTION
This never happened to veteran politician, NDP MLA Raj Pannu, during his three terms as one of the MLAs from Edmonton - the derogatory term for South Asians, "Paki," being spray-painted on his election sign.
But, unfortunately, some idiot(s) decided to spray-paint that on an election sign of Liberal candidate Aman Gill, 33, who came here from Punjab, India, 15 years ago and is running from the riding of Edmonton-Mill Creek.
She has worked as a real estate associate for many years. Her work in her ethnic community resulted in her being recognized with a world civil rights award by Edmonton's police chief.
Police are for now treating this as a mischief investigation but say they might treat it as a hate crime in the future, according to news reports.
I would hope that this is no organized racist group, but just some moron or morons who think they are being cool. But they are not being cool - they are being stupid because Canada has changed and this is now a multicultural not a lily-white country and even Alberta can no longer avoid that.
This is Gill's second attempt to win from this riding. She is running against incumbent Conservative Gene Zwozdesky. She came within 800 votes of winning against him (he was then a cabinet minister) in the last election.
Elections in Alberta take place on Monday (March 3). At dissolution, the Progressive Conservatives had 60 seats, the Liberals 16, NDP 4 and Wildrose Alliance 1, with one Independent and one seat vacant in Alberta's 83-seat House.
Premier Ed Stelmach took over from Ralph Klein in 2006. The Conservatives have been in power for more than 36 years in Alberta.
Other South Asian candidates:
Liberal Party:
Calgary-McCall: Darshan Kang
Edmonton-Ellerslie: Bharat Agnihotri (MLA)
Edmonton-Manning: Sandeep Dhir
Lethbridge-West: Bal Boora
NDP candidates:
Calgary-McCall: Preet Sihota
Edmonton-Manning: Rick Murti
PC candidates:
Calgary-McCall: Shiraz Shariff (MLA)
Edmonton-Ellerslie: Naresh Bhardwaj
Edmonton-Manning: Peter Sandhu
Calgray-Montrose: Manmeet Bhullar
#5. NO CHARGES IN OPPAL'S BROTHER'S CASE
Last September in a story about Attorney General Wally Oppal's brother Harry Oppal, a realtor, I had criticized a local newspaper's columnist for writing an absurd piece that tried to question Wally's honesty and openness.
In a column - titled "What happened to our honest, open A-G?" - she wrote after saying how straightforward he has been first as a judge and then as the AG: "That's why it's difficult to fathom why this guy didn't tell British Columbians that his right-hand man had retained a special prosecutor six months ago to sort through evidence amassed by the Ministry of Finance that could possibly result in criminal charges against his brother, Harry."
She had earlier reported that FICOM (Financial Institutions Commission of B.C) investigators had raided Harry's Surrey real estate office in February after a Surrey woman had complained about a possible shady land deal involving him and a broker friend of the complainant, Don Estrada.
Victoria lawyer Harold Rusk was appointed a special prosecutor in February, 2007, and in September he was replaced by Vancouver lawyer George Macintosh when the former decided to quit for personal reasons.
So did Wally do anything wrong? NO, NOT AT ALL! And I defended him by contacting Criminal Justice Branch spokesperson Stan Lowe about the matter, who in a lengthy explanation published in this newspaper showed Wally did all the right things in this case.
He said: "In the case here, I can tell you that the Attorney General received the most minimal of briefings on this matter and he assured us from the outset that he does not want to know nor would he become involved in matters at all. So he has done what he should've in this case, he's not commented on it, not released information on it, he's done everything he possibly should've on this case."
Macintosh last week in a written report to assistant deputy attorney general Bob Gillen said no charges should be laid against anyone, including Harry Oppal, associated with that land deal because there was no substantial likelihood of conviction. He noted that the two primary witnesses for the prosecution "lack all credibility and would not be believed."
- RATTAN MALL
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