Indo-Canadian Friendship Society of B.C. gala honours visionary Dr. Gurdev Singh Gill

Former federal minister Herb Dhaliwal (right) presents a “Lifetime Achievement Award for Community Service" of the Indo-Canadian Friendship Society of B.C. to its Founder, Dr. Gurdev S. Gill.

WHAT does an Indo-Canadian community icon do when he retires from a four decades-long medical practice? There was no sitting back in any easy chair for Dr. Gurdev Singh Gill of New Westminster.

Early in his retirement from medicine in 1974, Gill, who in 1957 was the first Indo-Canadian new immigrant graduate doctor from a Canadian university (U.B.C.), founded a local organization initially focused on building good relations between resident Canadians who originated in India and the Canadian mainstream. Then from 1999 to date that organization focused especially on raising funding to help bring about improvement projects for the ancestral villages of Indo-Canadians mainly in the Punjab.

The non-profit organization is called the Indo-Canadian Friendship Society of British Columbia (I.C.F.S.B.C.)

Gill, who received the Order of British Columbia in 1990, has always invested limitless time and energy over the years demonstrating leadership in his ethnic community. The 2nd Avenue Gurdwara plus the Ross Street Temple, both in Vancouver, plus latterly the No. 5 Road “Gurdwara Nanak Niwas” (India Cultural Centre of Canada) in Richmond benefitted from his vision and his dedication about improving and advancing; making a difference meeting challenges across the South Asian/Sikh communities.

To date, the I.C.F.S.B.C. under Gill’s presidential leadership has been a major force in providing some 27 rural villages in India with initiatives focused upon sanitary living conditions, access to clean drinking water, sewage disposal systems, increased public health awareness and infrastructure upgrades.

“Doc”, as his friends and admirers like to call him, leaned on many fellow immigrants to share their success in Canada by helping underwrite infrastructure improvements in and for their ancestral villages. The results from his actions to implement village improvement ultimately drew the attention, as well as collaboration, from the Punjab State Government and from major Indian corporations in the context of their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

What Gill accomplished by dint of diligent work combined with a determined, “can-do” attitude has become a template for other non-profits making a difference across the subcontinent landscape. Like Teddy Roosevelt’s historic “Chicken in every Pot” ambition, Gill has made a noticeable dent pursuing the mantra: “A toilet in every village home!”  With 600,000 villages in India, while his ambition has made notable progress, he still has a considerable distance to go.

Having reached his 90th birthday last November, and with an amazing legacy of 25 completed village improvement projects on the subcontinent, Gill recently passed the baton to former federal minister Herb Dhaliwal, and remains active as Chairman Emeritus of the I.C.F.S.B.C.

To honour Dr. Gill for his selfless service in and towards both the Indo-Canadian Community as well as the many thousands of villagers in the Punjab and Haryana states in India who have benefitted from his tireless work, and in recognition of his considerable philanthropic accomplishments over the decades here in Canada as well as in the country of his birth, the I.C.F.S.B.C. hosted a gala dinner.

Approximately 200 people are gathered on September 15 to salute Gill and raise funding designed to contribute towards the attainment of the Society’s continuing goals, those to which Doc has been devoted so much for so long, at Burnaby’s Riverway Clubhouse.

Speakers giving tributes at Burnbay’s Riverway Clubhouse Dinner, attended by 200 people, included former B.C. Premier and federal cabinet minister Ujjal Dosanjh, past BC provincial cabinet minister Moe Sihota and former BC Supreme Court Justice Wally Oppal.

Premier John Horgan, B.C. Legislature Speaker Raj Chouhan, B.C. Opposition Leader Kevin Falcon and current federal Minister for International Development, Harjit Sajjan, sent messages complimenting Gill for his active commitment to community service.

 

(Information and photo contributed)