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RATTAN’S RUMBLE

 

 

#1. REMEMBERING THE ‘REAL’ TRUTH ABOUT TARA SINGH HAYER – ONCE AGAIN!

 

 

So we were back to the usual farce about slain Punjabi journalist Tara Singh Hayer on his death anniversary – thanks to the DISHONEST and DISTORTED journalism in this case of the Vancouver Sun that has gone out of the way to hide the fact that this man encouraged the Khalistan movement and even wrote a book glorifying none other than Sikh militant JARNAIL SINGH BHINDRANWALA whose armed occupation of the Golden Temple in Amritsar, India, led to the Indian Army attack on it in 1984.

This is in stark contrast to the HONEST and STRAIGHTFORWARD journalism of the Province reporter Salim Jiwa who exposed many shocking truths about a man that the Vancouver Sun has been busy glorifying for many years now.

Bhindranwala's photograph adorned the main cover of Hayer’s book with the title “Great Man Sant Jarnail Singh Khalsa Bhindran Wale" and a quote from Bhindranwala at the bottom: "I make bombs – every baptized Sikh is a bomb.”

On the back cover was another photograph of Bhindranwala with another quote: “Be ready to fight! When nobody pays attention to injustice, it is justified to pick up your weapons to fight against it." Inside, the title was repeated and beneath it was Hayer's name: "Editor: Tara Singh Hayer; Editor: Indo-Canadian Times."

On the next page, Hayer wrote: "Dedicated to Sant Jarnail Singh Khalsa Bhindranwale, who made the Sikhs proud and became a martyr while protecting the sanctity of places of worship. 23 September 1984."

At the bottom of the page, Hayer wrote: "Request: The name of the book was changed from "Eternal Martyr Sant Jarnail Singh Khalsa Bhindranwale" because some people still believe he is alive."”

When I mentioned these facts at last year’s death anniversary of Hayer, his daughter Rupinder Hayer Bains sent The VOICE a legal notice out of the blue three months later, demanding an apology and retraction in the very next edition.

Her lawyer wrote:

“I am instructed that the article at issue contained the following false allegations:

* Mr. Hayer incited violence against the Indian Consulate General officials in Vancouver in the 1980's;

* Mr. Hayer was involved in "the violent Khalistani movement" at that time;

Mr. Hayer "wrote piles of nonsense in his newspaper."

Last February, in a hard-hitting article in reply to this attempt by the Hayer family to MUZZLE this journalist – and here we have some mainstream media jokers wanting to hold a seminar on FREEDOM OF THE PRESS in connection with Tara Singh Hayer! – I exposed Hayer yet once again. Here are some excerpts from that article:

 

Well, readers, let’s go through those allegations again for Rupinder’s benefit. She had sent me a legal notice when I exposed her dad some years ago – and I replied back to her with publishing facts about the book her dad wrote GLORIFYING JARNAL SINGH BHINDRANWALE.

 

 ONE: Mr. Hayer incited violence against the Indian Consulate General officials in Vancouver in the 1980's.

 

Jiwa in his WELL RESEARCHED expose on Hayer in the Sunday, May 23, 1999 edition of The Province noted that on the day (June 6, 1984) that Indian troops attacked the Golden Temple in Amritsar, two Lower Mainland Sikhs, Sodhi Singh Sodhi and Jasbir Sandhu, attacked the Indian consulate at 325 Howe Street with swords, smashing furniture and portraits on the then prime minister Indira Gandhi and forced frightened consulate workers to jump out the windows.

Then Jiwa wrote: “Three days later, unknown to the mainstream media, Tara Singh Hayer invited prominent Sikhs to his office at 45 Kingsway -- the building where Sikh separatists had a few years earlier set up the ``consulate of Khalistan'' -- to honour the two militants.

“Among those at the meeting was Sikh separatist Gen. Jaswand Singh Bhullar, who, according to the writings of Hayer, had been sent overseas by Bhindranwale before the army assault, to propagate the separatist cause.

Sodhi, who said he was honoured for his bravery in attacking the consulate, says: ``The first thing Tara asked was: `Why didn't you beat them up?' I replied, `We smashed up a lot of things.'

“``Tara Singh handed a sword to Bhullar and Bhullar presented it to me.''

“The meeting was an example of Hayer's support for violence in support of Khalistan.

Hayer later wrote a book praising Bhindranwale.”

Not only that, but Jiwa also mentioned another incident that took place a few months later in August, 1984, in which Sikh militants attacked the Indian consul’s home in West Vancouver.

Jiwa wrote: “Militants fought with police and some were bloodied by police batons.

Hayer wrote that the Sikhs put ``Indian government dogs [consular officials] on the run'' and that ``even police could not stop the Sikhs.''

“Two months later, in October 1984, two Sikhs assassinated Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi.

Hayer published a front-page picture of killer Beant Singh, captioned: ``Sikh Faith's great martyr Beant Singh, who sent Mrs. Gandhi, the cruel killer of Sikhs, to hell.''”

 

TWO: Mr. Hayer was involved in "the violent Khalistani movement" at that time.

 

Well, all that I have written above proves this point, doesn’t it?

But let me just mention facts about how Hayer treated UJJAL DOSANJH in his writings – something that Dosanjh himself told me that Hayer stopped only after he dropped the writ on him!
This is what Jiwa wrote about this sordid situation:

“For his anti-violence crusade, Dosanjh was nearly killed by a terrorist who beat him with an iron bar.

In reporting the attack in his Indo-Canadian Times, Hayer launched a tirade against Dosanjh, labeling him a ``lackey of Indian Prime Minister Mrs. Gandhi.'' He also accused Dosanjh of being anti-Sikh.

“``When Dosanjh was beaten, Hayer cheered it,'' said Darshan Gill, a longtime friend of Dosanjh and at the time the editor of the newspaper Canada Darpan.

Dosanjh sued Hayer over numerous derogatory articles but never pushed the suit to completion. It was one of at least a dozen lawsuits filed against Hayer.”

 

THREE: Mr. Hayer "wrote piles of nonsense in his newspaper."

 

Of course, the above has already proved this. But Hayer’s list of victims is LONG as a large number of Indo-Canadians will testify. But let’s take this one case of the HIGHLY RESPECTED PUNJABI POET GURCHARAN RAMPURI, who is still alive and can testify to all these facts.

This is what Jiwa wrote, in part, about this:

“After a visit to India during the tumultuous early 1980s, with Sikh militancy on the rise, Rampuri gave a speech in which he accused the Indo-Canadian Times of supporting the demand for Khalistan.

“Based on Hayer's history and his articles, there is no doubt that this was a true statement.

“What was astonishing was Hayer's published reaction.

“He wrote: ``Gurcharan Rampuri, a half-witted, foolish protester who is trying to mouth some rhyming, has decreed that the newspaper, Indo-Canadian Times, is a proponent of Khalistan.

“``But his silly eye and many hermaphrodites like him cannot see that we publish news of all classes . . . I ask all hermaphrodites, beggarly frivolous persons and the foolish, that they should but give one example [of bias in favour of Khalistan].''

Rampuri was so offended that he filed a lawsuit, one of at least 18 relating to Hayer on file at the B.C. Supreme Court. About a dozen concern what Hayer wrote about others. The rest were filed by Hayer against people who retaliated in rival newspapers to what he had written about them.

Rampuri, now 70, said he dropped the lawsuit in 1988 after Hayer was shot by a Sikh youth from whom Hayer had extracted tawdry family secrets. The editor published the details because he believed the youth's father, a devoted Sikh, was an Indian government agent.

Rampuri says he was baffled when the mainstream media called the shooting an attack by militants against the voice of moderation. He blames a falling out among militants for the shooting, which left Hayer paralysed from the waist down.

“Moderate ``was a label of convenience you guys in the media attached to him,'' Rampuri said.”

Jiwa gave many other examples, too, but I will just mention one more here.

Jiwa reported that Vancouver lawyer Russ Chamberlain looked into Hayer's work while defending a Quesnel Sikh who sued Hayer for libel and won almost $60,000 in 1996.

Jiwa reported: “Chamberlain represented one of the victims of Hayer's poisonous pen, Quesnel motel owner Gurnek Singh Sull, who for two years beginning in 1991 was president of the Quesnel Sikh temple.

Sull's world was turned upside down when a report in the Indo-Canadian Times suggested he had taken $7,000 from temple coffers for his personal use.

“The report was a lie.

“When Sull tried in 1996 to collect the libel award, Hayer transferred his home into his wife's name, saying he was repaying a debt.

Sull eventually collected after Hayer won a settlement with a Punjabi-language newspaper run by rival Sikh separatists in Vancouver.”

 

(End of excerpts from my February article)

 

Well, here is my message to the Hayer family that has sent me such legal notices twice to SCARE me into SILENCE:

SHAME ON YOU!

And here is my message to those dishonest and / or ignorant mainstream journalists who still glorify such a character with sham seminars and awards in the name of freedom of the press:

SHAME ON YOU!

Hayer’s son, Dave Hayer, the MLA who’s been milking dry the natural sympathy that a victim draws in connection with his dad’s assassination (and I sincerely hope that the RCMP finally get the cowardly scumbags who killed a helpless, paralyzed man, whatever his character), made an utter fool of himself at his dad’s memorial service last Sunday when he told the Vancouver Sun: “Police know exactly who killed my father … still no charges have been laid” and he blamed our Canadian justice system.

Will someone tell this ignorant joker that police can only lay charges when they have sufficient evidence to prove someone guilty? That’s the law – and he should know better than anyone else since he’s an MLA.

But then again, maybe he’s right – after all, the same system tolerated his father’s shameful behaviour mentioned above – instead of deporting him back to India!

 

#2. VANCOUVER SUN AND KIM BOLAN SPECIALIZE IN NEGATIVE NEWS ABOUT OUR COMMUNITY

 

Wow, look at the RUSH to write about a “SIKH TERRORIST” by Vancouver Sun’s Kim Bolan – and the “terrific” display that story got in Saturday’s Vancouver Sun!

The guy was actually a HINDU who lied to stay on in Canada – and he should be sent back to India as soon as possible as such cases are only whipping up WHITE RACISM against the Indo-Canadian community – again, thanks to newspapers like the Vancouver Sun!

That story’s headline?

“Sikh terrorist still here despite order to leave.”

But the follow-up story – “Man admits he lied about link to Babbar Khalsa group” – was VERY CONVENIENTLY BURIED inside the newspaper.

I am SICK of constantly exposing the Vancouver Sun’s bias towards our community, so I will let our reader KANWALJIT SINGH GILL of Surrey tell you all about it.

 

This is his letter to The VOICE:

 

I was very disappointed to see the recent negative and misleading news stories made by the (mainstream) news media about our community. It case of incompetence on the part of the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), but the racist media presented it as a big Sikh terrorist story. Even the accused Baljit Ram has publicly declared that he is not a Sikh, doesn't know anything about Babbar Khalsa or terrorist activities and just followed the advice of his travel agent to declare himself as a terrorist and claim refugee status. His claim wasn't accepted and he was ordered to be deported in 2000. But all these years the CBSA didn't make any effort to find him and deport him. According to Baljit Ram, he wasn't even in hiding all these years. In fact he was charged earlier for drunk driving but the police or CBSA didn't take any action in his deportation case. Now he was recently stabbed and hospitalized. Again he was released for $5000 security deposit.

But the Vancouver Sun and Kim Bolan made it as a big Sikh terrorist front-page story. Kim Bolan has been following the Sikh stories and news for a long time since 1980's and has enough knowledge about Sikh religion to know that person with a middle name Ram is not a Sikh, but she made it as a big Sikh terrorist story anyways. She has been writing negative news about Sikhs all these years and didn't want to miss this opportunity either. It is very unfortunate that Vancouver Sun and Kim Bolan always like to write only the negative news stories about the Sikh and Indo-Canadian community.

There are lots of good positive things being done by our community but we don't see Vancouver Sun or Kim Bolan write about the good things being done by our community. Just recently the Sikh community remembered the victims of the 1984 massacre, organized blood donation camps all over B.C. and donated lots of blood to the Red Cross society, but the Vancouver Sun or Kim Bolan failed to write about this contribution by our community. And there have many cases where our community raise funds for hospitals or charities, organized food donations for the homeless and poor people, but unfortunately, the Vancouver Sun and Kim Bolan ignore all these good things being done by our community and don't write these good news stories but jump and make big headlines only when there is something negative against our community.

Another thing that bothers me a lot is to see our so-called moderate leaders play into the (mainstream) media's hands and contribute to some of these negative news stories. They think that it is only against the fundamentalists. But the one thing they don't understand is that the ordinary Canadian who reads these negative news stories about our community doesn't know the difference between moderate or fundamentalists and whenever they see these negative news headlines they look at all the Indo-Canadians in a negative way. That is why in a survey printed by Vancouver Sun last year the general public felt that 66% of the crimes here are committed by Indo-Canadians because they see so many negative stories by the news media.

Therefore I'll request to our so-called moderate leaders to talk to their friendly media reporters and ask them why they don't write the good positive news stories about our community. We need fair news reporting in the western news media and only then the common general public will have a better and fair perception about our community.

 

#3. SURREY COUNCILLOR BOB BOSE: CHARAN GILL WAS WRONG ABOUT KOMAGATA MARU MURAL

 

 

Surrey Councillor Bob Bose this week responded to charges made against him by PICS’ Charan Gill.

Here is Bose’s letter:

 

Charan Gill, who has known me for 25 years, describes me as a progressive man, an avid environmentalist, and a supporter of the South Asian community.

I still am.

So it comes as a shock and a huge disappointment that Charan Gill would make a personal attack on me only days before the civic election.

But what bothers me the most is that Charan Gill did not tell the truth about my support for PICS’ Komagata Maru mural.

I voted in favour of that project. So did everyone else on council and the motion passed unanimously. That is a matter of public record. Charan could have checked this out.

And as a newspaper, you didn’t show due diligence, and printed a personal attack with harmful inaccuracies.

Charan Gill should apologize to this newspaper and its readers for sending in a letter with false allegations. And this newspaper should apologize for printing the letter without checking the facts.

I wonder who talked Charan into this one.

 

#4. TAXI DRIVERS, KEEP YOUR COOL WHILE DEALING WITH DISHONEST PASSENGERS

 

Surrey RCMP say that last Saturday (November 8) at 10:20 p.m. they responded to a complaint of a pedestrian trapped underneath a vehicle bear 24th Avenue and 128th Street and “while still being reviewed by police, the initial investigation indicates that four youths had obtained the services of a taxi and departed without paying their fare. As the event unfolded, the taxi struck a 15-year-old youth, the teen becoming trapped under the cab.”

The youth was transported to hospital and was later released. He received minor injuries.

RCMP said a 61-year-old Surrey man is facing a charge of assault with a weapon and his next scheduled court date has been set for November 21. The event remains under investigation.

One of the clips of the incident on TV showed the taxi in the wrong lane and I was baffled about the whole incident.

So did the youths jump out of the taxi while it was still moving and one of them got hit?

If that was the case, why was the taxi driver being charged with assault with a weapon?

When I asked Sgt. Roger Morrow about this, he replied: “We have to have a reasonable, probable ground to believe for us to lay an assault with a weapon charge. If a pedestrian runs out in front of your car, it’s no offence. If I am walking down the street and I jump out in front of a car and I get hit, it’s the pedestrian’s fault. Now you take the converse of that where someone’s been charged with assault with a weapon.”

I have been told that youths and even adults attempt to run away without paying the taxi fare quite often – and that can be really frustrating for hard-working taxi drivers. But taxi drivers (and I am not saying that this taxi driver is guilty – that has yet to be decided in court) should keep their cool – because getting charged with assault and going through all the court hassles and expenses, besides the possibility of being jailed, is just not worth it.

On the other hand, this incident should prove to be a good lesson for the dishonest passenger who got injured. He’s lucky he didn’t get seriously injured or even killed. I have no sympathy for such scumbags.

 

#5. SIKHS FOUGHT FOR CANADA IN FIRST WORLD WAR

 

 

This week a reader sent me an email about Sikhs who had fought for Canada in the First World War and requested me to share it with our readers.

There was a report in a Kitchener, Ontario newspaper The Record about Pte. Bukkan Singh, one of the nine Sikhs that served with the Canadian forces in the First World War, who lies buried in Kitchener’s Mount Hope Cemetery.

The newspaper said that Sandeep Singh Brar bought a medal from a dealer in England a year ago, assuming it was for a soldier from India. But when he read the inscription along the bottom, he found that Bukkan Singh was part of the 20th Canadian Infantry.

The newspaper said: “He discovered Singh served alongside other Canadians in Flanders Fields in 1916 and was injured twice: once by shrapnel in the head, and again by a gunshot in the leg.

“He was treated in the hospital run by Guelph's Lt. Col. John McCrae.

“While recovering, Singh contracted tuberculosis and was sent to Freeport Hospital in Kitchener -- then run by the Canadian army. He died a year later, at the age of 25, in 1919.”

According to the report, Singh came to B.C. at the age of 14 and later moved to Ontario. His family in Punjab received a notice when he died.

Brar has created a website, sikhmuseum.com, to inform others about his research.

The Toronto Star newspaper carried a story titled “Early Sikhs fought for Canada” last month. It reported that filmmaker David Gray of Ottawa is chronicling the lives of nine Sikhs who fought for Canada in the First World War in a documentary called “SIKH-CANADIAN HEROES OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR.” It will be released later this year.

According to this report, Gray stumbled on the story last year while making a documentary on labourers from China and India who worked in quarries near Victoria from 1904 to 1920. When he checked the military records of the period, he came across the names of nine Sikhs – each with the ‘Singh’ surname. Two enlisted from Toronto, two from Smiths Falls, Ontario, three from Vancouver and one each from Winnipeg and Montreal.

Eight served overseas. Two were killed in action, one died later of his battle wounds, and four others were wounded, one at Vimy Ridge.

Gray said he would love to talk to the descendants of these Sikh veterans. If you can help him out, please do.

 

 

#6. IN BRIEF

 

*PARMINDER SINGH of Toronto and HARNARAYAN SINGH of Calgary are in Vancouver to cover the Canucks-Leaf hockey game on Saturday in Punjabi for CBC's Punjabi Hockey Night in Canada.

 

*Vancouver doctor PUSHPA CHANDRA, 50, who came from Fiji, plans to participate in a non-stop 100-km run across Antarctica and thus become the first Canadian to compete in this ultra-marathon. Earlier this year she participated in the Everest Marathon where she finished second in her age category.

 

*JESSIE PAUL SANGHERA, 30, of Surrey has pleaded guilty to charges related to the hit-and-run death of pedestrian Lemar Faqirzada, 18, of Surrey and will be sentenced on January 9 in Surrey Provincial Court. Faqirzada’s friend, Rochelle D'Emilio, 19, was injured. Sanghera’s dad, Major Iqbal Sanghera, 48, is scheduled to go on trial in October 2009 on charges of public mischief and fraud under $5,000 in connection with the same accident.

 

*Former Matsqui prison guard BALKAR SINGH BASRA, 30, was sentenced to two years less a day for a date rape by a B.C. Supreme Court judge. He was convicted of having non-consensual sex with a woman he met through an MSN online chat group. He’s been prohibited from accessing Internet social networking sites for three years after his release from jail.

 

 

-Rattan Mall

editor@voiceonline.com


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