INDO-CANADIAN AWARDED FOR SAVING SON

An Indian man in Canada who lost his life while saving his son from drowning has been bestowed with the Governor General's bravery award. Prakash Mulchand, 44, and his eight-year-old son were fishing in the Assiniboine River in Portage La Prairie, Manitoba on August 3 in 2005 when the boy slipped into the raging waters and swept away by the current when he was fishing with his father and cousin. Mulchand immediately jumped into the water to save his son from the pounding waves, all the while calling for help.
The boy managed to swim to his father and grab on to him but the two were soon separated and carried away by the swirling current. The unconscious child was eventually recovered by a man who pulled him on to his personal watercraft and brought him to shore, where he was revived. Sadly, Mulchand, however, had disappeared under the surface and could not be saved. Governor General Michaelle Jean announced that the 44-year-old Winnipeg resident would be the only one of 13 new recipients of the Medal of Bravery to receive his decoration posthumously. Mulchand's family will be handed the Medal of Bravery at a later ceremony.

INDIANS HELD FOR DRUG TRAFFICKING IN MALAYSIA

Two Indians, charged with drug trafficking in Malaysia, have been produced before a High Court judge for the trial. Trader Sheikh Dawood Usman Gani, 35 and Anwar Ali Usman, 45, who owns an electrical shop in Chennai, were brought before High Court Judge KN Segara on Friday. The judge fixed April 17-21 as the next date for the trial. They were arrested by the immigration police at the Kuala Lumpur International airport on February 14 after 54 kgs ketamine was allegedly recovered from their possession. In another incident, a college student from Saudi Arabia pleaded not guilty to trafficking and possessing 2,614 grams of heroin. The 20-year-old IT student faces the gallows for drug trafficking.

INDIANS HELD FOR DRUG TRAFFICKING IN MALAYSIA

Two Indians, charged with drug trafficking in Malaysia, have been produced before a High Court judge for the trial. Trader Sheikh Dawood Usman Gani, 35 and Anwar Ali Usman, 45, who owns an electrical shop in Chennai, were brought before High Court Judge KN Segara on Friday. The judge fixed April 17-21 as the next date for the trial. They were arrested by the immigration police at the Kuala Lumpur International airport on February 14 after 54 kgs ketamine was allegedly recovered from their possession. In another incident, a college student from Saudi Arabia pleaded not guilty to trafficking and possessing 2,614 grams of heroin. The 20-year-old IT student faces the gallows for drug trafficking.

KOMAGATA MARU WILL BE RECOGNISED

A memorial in Vancouver and a commemorative stamp are among the options the Canadian government is considering as part of the official recognition of the 1914 Komagata Maru incident, in which 354 Indian migrants were turned back from the country’s shores. But a section of Indo-Canadian community is insisting on its demand that Prime Minister Stephen Harper make a formal apology in Parliament for Canada’s rejection of Indian migrants, mostly Sikhs. It is an emotional issue with the Indian origin community here and Oscar nominated director Deeepa Mehta has announced her new film Exclusion based on the incident.
Conservative MP Jim Abbott, who spent the past four months consulting on the issue for the government, presented a report with his findings to members of the community over the weekend. The Department of Canadian Heritage helped Abbott put together a summary of what happened to the passengers aboard the Komagata Maru after a six-week study of historical documents. “I think it’s a celebration, I think it’s where we were and where we are now,” Abbott was quoted as saying by Canadian Press. “Where we were was excluding (354) people from Canada in a process that was completely legal at the time but that process wouldn’t be reflective of where we are as a nation now.”
The government is now considering a memorial in Vancouver’s Stanley Park and a commemorative stamp among the options as part of an official recognition of the incident. The Komagata Maru ship was chartered out of Hong Kong to carry Indian passengers. When it arrived in Vancouver, it carried 376 passengers, most of them of Sikh origin.Twenty-two of the migrants were deemed to be returning residents and allowed to disembark, but the rest were barred entry because of Canada’s immigration laws.

RESPECTING CANADA'S CULTURAL MOSAIC

The small community of Hérouxville, Que., about half the size of Pemberton, was at the centre of a storm of controversy recently over a set of community “standards” issued by its town council for immigrants who might be thinking of moving into the community.In so doing, they managed to offend just about everyone — Muslims with an expressed prohibition on stoning, live burning and disfiguring of women, not to mention advice about when it’s acceptable to cover one’s face in public (only at Halloween, they said), Sikhs with a rule prohibiting children from carrying weapons “real or fake, symbolic or not,” even born-again Christians with the reminder that biology is taught in local schools.

Ham-fisted though the Hérouxville effort may have been, it is symptomatic of an issue with which Canadians, and to an even greater degree Europeans, have been struggling for some time: How, in a supposedly multicultural society, does one ensure that civil order is maintained and the lifestyles of established communities respected without greatly offending the sensibilities of immigrants from distinctly different cultures? In post-9/11 Europe, fears that allowing large numbers of immigrants — especially Muslims — is creating an ever wider us-vs.-them divide have sparked laws and practices that threaten immigrants’ civil liberties — the banning of hijabs (Muslim head coverings) in French schools, even a requirement by the Netherlands that immigrants undergo tolerance training aiming to gauge their reaction to scenes of homosexuals kissing and nude beaches.

In Canada, where the current policy is to allow some 250,000 immigrants per year using only job skills and the ability to speak English or French as criteria, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms provides a set of rules for living in a multicultural society. The charter, however, was only adopted in the 1980s and its boundaries are still being tested — witness last year’s Supreme Court of Canada ruling regarding the wearing of ceremonial kirpans (daggers) by Sikhs in schools.In spite of some discomfort with such practices, a poll last fall found that some 68 per cent of Canadians reject the notion that immigrants should have their religious beliefs and values screened before being admitted into the country. But is it possible to be too tolerant?

At what point does it become necessary to curb religious or cultural practices in the interest of harmony and order?It has become de rigeur in some circles to bash the policy of multiculturalism as having failed because it tends to pull countries apart, not bring them together. However, we would argue that what some perceive as those societies’ weaknesses are really strengths — that immigrants are part of the lifeblood of Canada’s social fabric and that homogeneity is no longer possible or desirable. The question is how far society should go to ensure that immigrants understand the community to which they are moving. “Rules” such as some of those laid out in Hérouxville are far too patronizing because they’re already included in the laws of the land.

“Guidelines” or “advice” run the risk of being patronizing as well. But without a doubt, it’s important to provide information to help new immigrants fit in.The answer, it seems to us, is for everyone to give something — immigrants a lot in most cases, established communities a little. While it’s not always possible to accommodate the sensibilities of everyone, it is possible for Canadians to change accepted practices to fit the new cultural mosaic.Remember the debate a few years ago over the wearing of turbans by RCMP members? As former governor general Adrienne Clarkson told Maclean’s, “The last time I saw the Musical Ride, there were two turbans, and no one seemed to care.”

HINGLISH SHOULD BE PART OF ENGLISH: STUDY

Hinglish - a random mix of English and Hindi words - and Chinglish - a fusion of Chinese and English - should be made part of the British curriculum, suggests a British think tank. The suggestion has come from Demos, one of Britain's influential leftwing think tanks that said Britain was in danger of being marginalised due to an "outdated" attitude to the language. "English can no longer be seen as a single language, but more as a family of languages," said Sam Jones, co-author of the report. The report said that instead of naughty, pupils could be told to stop being a badmash and canteens might advertise machi-chips besides the conventional description of fish and chips.
But the proposal has already come under some sharp criticism with language experts, saying it would worsen matters, according to the Daily Mail newspaper. "It is important there is a standard set of English we all understand, whatever children might use in the playground or new words appear on the Internet," The Queen's English Society said. "Schools are already having difficulty teaching standard English because of a growing international influence, and they don't need to be further sidetracked," the society added. In Britain, Hinglish has been used on TV programmes such as The Kumars at Number 42".

CANADA TO RECOGNISE KOMAGATA MARU INCIDENT

The inquiry into the 1985 Air India bombing has been delayed for about a month due to the ongoing wrangling over the public release of government documents. Retired Supreme Court Justice John Major, who is leading the inquiry into the bombing that killed 329 people, on Friday asked the lawyers of the commission and the federal government for a progress report on the effort to resolve the dispute by March 26. He said he would reassess the matter after getting the report and try to set a more precise timetable. It now appears that the hearing, which was to resume on March 19, will be put off till April 10.
Justice Major on Monday had said he might not be able to conduct the probe unless the government made public all documents. He had halted the proceedings on February 19 over the matter. Under his threat of shutting down the probe, Prime Minister Stephen Harper ordered his national security adviser to inform officials to be less restrictive with the documents. Meanwhile, Justice Major called witnesses for whom he did not require documents. Commission counsel Mark Freiman said on Friday they have identified about 800 documents so far where they consider federal secrecy claims to be excessive.
He added, however, that negotiations in the last three weeks have produced agreement with government lawyers to make more information available in about 100 of those cases, and work is continuing on the rest. "The first returns are encouraging, the documents are in much more usable shape," Freiman told Justice Major. "If that process continues, then we will be able to hold public hearings with adequate information." Federal lawyer Barney Brucker said the government is taking "as unrestrictive a view as we can" of the disputed papers and thousands of others demanded by the commission lawyers.
"We are working industriously, we are working tirelessly, we want to make this commission a success and help you do the best job you can," Brucker told the justice. Justice Major agreed to put off public hearings that he had intended to start on March 19 and asked for a progress report from both sides by March 26 on the dispute. Jacques Shore, a lawyer for the families of the bombing victims, said he appreciates it is a monumental task to collect and review all the documents needed. "Whatever has to be done must be done," he said. "The families have waited almost 22 years at this point. They're certainly prepared to wait a few more weeks."
Justice Major was named by the Conservative government a year ago after the country's longest and costliest investigation and a two-year trial ended in acquittals in March 2005. Relatives of the victims were devastated by the verdicts and demanded the inquiry. Air India Flight 182 from Toronto to London, originating in Vancouver, exploded and crashed off Ireland on June 23, 1985.

AIR INDIA BOMBING PROBE GETS DELAYED

The inquiry into the 1985 Air India bombing has been delayed for about a month due to the ongoing wrangling over the public release of government documents. Retired Supreme Court Justice John Major, who is leading the inquiry into the bombing that killed 329 people, on Friday asked the lawyers of the commission and the federal government for a progress report on the effort to resolve the dispute by March 26. He said he would reassess the matter after getting the report and try to set a more precise timetable. It now appears that the hearing, which was to resume on March 19, will be put off till April 10.
Justice Major on Monday had said he might not be able to conduct the probe unless the government made public all documents. He had halted the proceedings on February 19 over the matter. Under his threat of shutting down the probe, Prime Minister Stephen Harper ordered his national security adviser to inform officials to be less restrictive with the documents. Meanwhile, Justice Major called witnesses for whom he did not require documents. Commission counsel Mark Freiman said on Friday they have identified about 800 documents so far where they consider federal secrecy claims to be excessive.
He added, however, that negotiations in the last three weeks have produced agreement with government lawyers to make more information available in about 100 of those cases, and work is continuing on the rest. "The first returns are encouraging, the documents are in much more usable shape," Freiman told Justice Major. "If that process continues, then we will be able to hold public hearings with adequate information." Federal lawyer Barney Brucker said the government is taking "as unrestrictive a view as we can" of the disputed papers and thousands of others demanded by the commission lawyers.
"We are working industriously, we are working tirelessly, we want to make this commission a success and help you do the best job you can," Brucker told the justice. Justice Major agreed to put off public hearings that he had intended to start on March 19 and asked for a progress report from both sides by March 26 on the dispute. Jacques Shore, a lawyer for the families of the bombing victims, said he appreciates it is a monumental task to collect and review all the documents needed. "Whatever has to be done must be done," he said.

"The families have waited almost 22 years at this point. They're certainly prepared to wait a few more weeks." Justice Major was named by the Conservative government a year ago after the country's longest and costliest investigation and a two-year trial ended in acquittals in March 2005. Relatives of the victims were devastated by the verdicts and demanded the inquiry. Air India Flight 182 from Toronto to London, originating in Vancouver, exploded and crashed off Ireland on June 23, 1985.

MUKHTIAR PANGHALI ARRESTED

Mukhtiar Panghali's arrest today evening came as no surprise. Somehow everybody in the community knew he is responsible for his wife Manjit Panghali's murder. But the Delta Police was just waiting for the right time - I guess. After his wife's murder, every public appearance he made, he would shed a tear or two, and the more often he did that the lesser the people believed in his innocence. The latest "foul crying" was experienced at his daughter's visitation rights case. He refused to let their daughter meet up with Manjit's family, who then went to the court and a trial was announced.

Manjit's family knew it all along who murdered Manjit, and they mentioned it unofficially to a lot of people, including me, in so many words. But they didn't want to go officially public with it, not until the police had completed their investigation. According to a Radio India report, Mukhtiar was arrested from his residence at about 5.30 PM. Although the Delta Police have not confirmed the arrest, they have not denied it either. The have called a press conference on Monday.

MAJOR OPTIMISTIC AIR INDIA INQUIRY TO CONTINUE

OTTAWA — Air India Inquiry Commisioner John Major expressed cautious optimism today that his probe into Canada's deadliest experience with terrorism won't sink into oblivion due to government secrecy. Major, who threatened to shut down the inquiry last month because not enough internal documents were being made public, was responding to the government's commitment today to release more uncensored documents to the commission and victims' families by the end of this week.
The government of India, Vancouver police, and a senior RCMP official involved in the ongoing Air India probe were consulted as Ottawa sought ways to release more information without compromising national security, government lawyer Barney Brucker told the inquiry today. But he warned that excessive openness might be "potentially disastrous" by compromising important government sources in the fight against terrorism. "It would be like switching off a light and attempting to defend ourselves in the dark," Brucker said. Major said he's grateful the government is taking extra steps, though he said he's uncertain whether bureaucrats are as willing to open up the process. "I will have some skepticism about the troops behind you being able to follow your command," he said.
Major resisted a plea from a lawyer for the families of some of the 331 who died in 1985 as a result of the terror bombings orchestrated by Sikh extremists living in B.C. Jacques Shore said he'd like an extra two weeks to study documents once they are released by Friday. But Major said he will stick to next week's scheduled one-week adjournment unless the families, after seeing what the government provides to them later this week, provide a formal written request for more time. Major said he still fears that his probe could be jeopardized by continued delays. "We've seen commissions sink below the water and accomplish nothing," he said. (Van Sun)