Canada is a compassionate country.
T’was not always thus: ask our Japanese citizens who were treated awfully during the Second World War and who had their homes and property stolen from them; ask the descendants of the Jewish victims who were turned away and died in the Holocaust; ask the families of the would-be Indian immigrants on the Komagata Maru who were turned away because of their race.
But Canada today is more open, more welcoming, more compassionate: true, not yet perfect, but much better than it used to be. And there are those who now try to take advantage of that … ignoring our laws; twisting our arms; and generally embarrassing, deceiving and lying to us to support illegal immigrants who think they can just arrive here … and stay. To hell with any rules.
Such was the case of the militants who supported Laibar Singh’s apparent farcical demand or belief that he be able to arrive, stay and live in Canada without entering by or obeying the rules that thousands of other immigrants respect and follow.
Let’s not forget: Singh came to Canada in 2003 with a totally phony passport … and later applied to say here, claiming refugee status, reportedly telling the Immigration and Refugee Board he would be tortured if forced to return to India. The board did not believe him and after several appeals he was ordered out.
But in 2006, while fighting deportation and while working in Canada, he suffered a spinal infection. His militant supporters then claimed he MUST be allowed to stay in Canada on compassionate grounds because he could not afford and would not get, in India, the essential medical treatment he needed.
Pretty compelling stuff: tugged right at our hearts. And when officials still tried to enforce Singh’s deportation, all hell broke loose … repeatedly … and Singh took sanctuary refuge in a Sikh temple.
Anyone who knows my work is well aware of how I supported and for two years continually kept front and centre the case of sanctuary refugee Amir Kazemian, who eventually DID win the right to stay in Canada. So I believe I am a compassionate person.
But I always saw the Singh case as bogus: I felt his whole story was being overly hyped and outrageously distorted by his supporters … many of whom I would describe as reverse racists, supporting Singh just because he was “one of them” … and used lies and deception aimed at ignoring and flouting Canadian rules and just pushing him ahead of the line of all the others who apply to immigrate to Canada legally and legitimately.
Singh has now proven me right.
He left Canada Monday night for India … because, according to reports, he simply missed his kids and family back home.
What about facing all that torture? Apparently bullsh*t. What about not being able to get or afford the medical treatment he needs to stay alive? I heard no reports that he was cured, but clearly he’s not facing a life-threatening crisis that can’t be cared for back home.
He missed his kids and family. So he’s gone.
But I don’t think that should be the end of it.
Laibar Singh cost the BC health system $500,000; the federal government spent more than $60,000 trying to send him back; and his militant supporters quite apparently lied and tried to pressure and defraud Canada into keeping him here and taking care of him just because he just happened to be “one of them”. (Would most of those same people have campaigned, demonstrated and disrupted so much to stop the deportation of a lying, deceiving illegal Filipino or Nigerian immigrant? I think not.)
Laibar Singh’s supporters owe Canada an apology.
And they should raise and refund every cent the Canadian health system and government spent on him, so that money could be used to help REAL refugees and LEGAL immigrants, who deserve a lot more help than Singh’s supporters have ever provided them.
7 responses so far ↓
1 b f // Nov 5, 2008 at 1:17 am
Once again Harve…bang on! But…you’re a veddy veddy bad man
2 David in North Burnaby // Nov 5, 2008 at 6:39 am
Great piece, Harvey. One wee quibble, though, this term “reverse racists” implies that bigotry is the exclusive province of one particular group. Its not.
A bigot’s a bigot for a’ that.
(Response: Of course, I do not think reverse racism is limited to any particular group: I have seen it in many communities … men aganist women and women against men; Christians against others … others against Christians, gays discriminatinig against straights, etc etc … but I think it’s wrong to point it out when it happens against a minority, but stay silent when that minority practices it to its own perceived advantage. ho)
3 Ron // Nov 5, 2008 at 7:00 pm
Good stuff. Right on the mark.
4 BC Mary // Nov 5, 2008 at 8:22 pm
It has always bothered me, that the Basi Boys (allegedly) used The Race Card as an election campaign technique. Perhaps other political parties do this, too. It consists of gathering up busloads of “their own” and allegedly driving them to ridings where they (allegedly) were told how to vote. Somehow that just doesn’t seem right. That , I think, is “reverse racism”.
There’s another example. Early in the Basi-Virk / BC Rail affair — there was an effort made to blame racism for the problems of Basi & Virk. Why arrest the brown guys, and none of the white guys? they said.
Well, if they had left off the colour designations, I certainly would agree with them. After all, it’s a crime under the Criminal Code to offer a bribe as well as to accept a bribe. But only those who allegedly accepted the bribes were charged, who just happened to be brown guys on the Campbell government payroll. The guys who said they paid the (alleged) bribes (white guys) have never been charged.
I figure Basi and Virk would be instant heroes in B.C. if they were to start telling their story and about what happened to BCRail.
We all know that ministerial aides aren’t the ones who decide to sell a railway. Ministerial aides can’t negotiate the sale of Canada’s 3rd largest railway. Aides don’t dictate the terms of sale on a railway. Aides do not sign off on such an Agreement.
Whoever did these things — and then kept the agreement secret — has a lot to answer for. And it has nothing whatever to do with skin colour.
Basi and Virk undoubtedly know the ins and outs of all that … so why not tell us, without further delay.
5 Grant g // Nov 6, 2008 at 12:00 am
After a serious injuryI had in 2002 ,I spent a lot of time at surrey memorial, my surgeons assistant and I had many long chats,I don`t know how the subject came up but he imformed me that the hospital was extra crowded, apparantly it is/was/still is common practice in the east Indian community to have grandma or grandpa to come for a visit once they become very sick.
Many of these visitors show up at the hospital needing transplants or having such major promblems that if the hospital sent them away would be like sentencing them to death!
There was another story I read about last year–Again in the east Indian community–There was a rash of (arranged marriages) –Men from India were coming to BC to marry BC east Indian woman, the females here in BC had to sponser these men, but shortly after they got married the females claimed abuse,violence,booze and had these men leave their homes.
Well apparantly all these men(who couldn`t speak english) went to social services and were receiving maximum welfare rates,rent supports etc etc etc.
The BC Liberal goverment caught on to the scam and ended up sending these females bills from social services,some of these woman were sent bills for –20.000.00—30.000.00–40.000.00–50.000.00–60.000.00 or more
These females then went crying to their MLAs for help, there were dozens of cases from the edmonds area alone.
The NDP MLA for that area was fighting the cause to “save” these females from paying these bills!
It definately was a scam that backfired/ no I am not a bigot/the story speaks for itself!
Oue Canadian laws are a joke to many of the people that arrive here—Especially the criminal element–I expect it to get a lot worse before it gets better!
6 Patrick Bell (NOT the MLA) // Nov 6, 2008 at 12:43 am
Great read as usual Harvey
7 Jes G // Nov 6, 2008 at 8:10 pm
Spot on, Harvey.
I agree that there is no “reverse racists”, but simply bigots who support only their “own” kind. If this had been somebody from Tanzania, would these supporters have cared one bit? OF course not.
This whole case shows how spineless the Canadian government and their Immigration department really is. The guy was supposed to leave the country, so why not simply drag him on a plane and send him home? Why should we have to have spent half a million on his health care?
Protestors? Simply ignore them and get on with your work. No church or temple should be able to prevent somebody from facing the consequences of their crime.
You can expect more cases like this as Canada’s borders are quite soft.
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