Vol. 72/No. 2      January 14, 2008

Protest actions to support Singh were held the same day in Toronto and Montreal, reported Harsha Walia from the organization No One Is Illegal, one of the groups that has led the antideportation actions.

Singh entered Canada in 2003 applying for refugee status. In 2005 the Indian-born worker suffered a stroke that left him a paraplegic. Despite his health and pending legal appeals, the Canadian government issued a deportation order against him for July 8, 2007.

Rally organizer Harpreet Singh, who works for Radio India in Vancouver, noted that as a result of community pressure Singh received two stays of deportation. A petition with 40,000 signatures was presented to Canadian parliament in support of his right to remain in Canada.

Organizations that have supported Singh include the Canadian Labour Congress, British Columbia Hospital Employees’ Union, BC Coalition of People With Disabilities, and the Association of Chinese Canadians for Equality and Solidarity Society.

On his arrival in Canada, Singh said that he had used false documents for travel. International and Canadian refugee laws recognize the reality that refugees are often forced to travel with false papers.

“We will continue to organize further activities which will be announced,” Walia said. “We encourage people to support this fight by writing to Canadian immigration minister Diane Findlay in Ottawa, calling on the Canadian government to grant Laibar Singh refugee status.”

Protesters at the airport surrounded the taxi carrying Singh, chanting slogans demanding that Ottawa let him remain in the country. In face of this outpouring, border police said Singh would be allowed to temporarily stay in Canada.

The action in support of Singh took place two weeks after a demonstration of 1,000 at the Vancouver airport protesting the cop killing of Robert Dziekanski, a Polish immigrant.

Last March defenders of South Asian immigrants held a rally in Surrey, a Vancouver suburb, to protest the unsafe conditions that led to the deaths of three Punjabi farm workers. A company van carrying 17 women workers to their jobs flipped over on the highway. To jam more workers into the vehicle, the boss had taken out the regular seats and replaced them with wooden benches without seat belts.  
 
 
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