OVER two hundred guests, including a large number of family members, celebrated the 90th birthday of Harchand Singh Dhaliwal on Friday night at Quilchena Golf and Country Club in Richmond.
Harchand Singh Dhaliwal, born in 1933 in Dhingrian village in Nawanshahr District of Punjab, is the first son of Dharm Singh Dhaliwal (1880-1961) who was one of the first immigrants to British Columbia from Punjab, in 1908. Harchand Singh Dhaliwal landed on Canadian shores in 1954, at age 21.
Herb Dhaliwal, former M.P. and federal Cabinet Minister, paid homage to the role of his father Harchand Singh Dhaliwal and late mother Tej Kaur in facilitating the immigration and settlement of countless migrants from India, family and friends alike, who now call Canada home.
Attendees included Harchand Singh Dhaliwal’s children – son and five daughters, 11 grand-children and nine great-grandchildren. Also present were MPs Harjit Singh Sajjan, Sukh Singh Dhaliwal, Parm Singh Bains and Wilson Miao, as well as Richmond Mayor Malcolm Brodie.
Former prime minister Jean Chretien, who himself turns 90 next January, sent a special video message saluting Harchand Singh Dhaliwal while noting the important role Herb Dhaliwal played as a three-portfolio minister in his government (1997-2004).
In recognition and appreciation of the 115 years since the arrival of the first Punjabis to Canada, the Dhaliwal family announced a gift of $125,000 to be divided equally among the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (a favourite charity through whose programs Harchand Singh Dhaliwal was a beneficiary since he lost his sight at only age 40), the Richmond Hospital Foundation, the Canadian Cancer Society, the Indo-Canadian Friendship Society of B.C. and Maison Aline-Chretien, a palliative care facility in Shawinigan, Quebec.
To the surprise and applause of the crowd, as a spontaneous gesture, attending Dhaliwal relatives from California – the Kooner Family – revealed their intention to match with another $125,000 donation towards those same beneficiaries.
