THE stage is all set for deportation of Satpal Singh Jhatu, 46, who is inadmissible to Canada for serious criminality having been convicted of second-degree murder and aggravated assault.
The Parole Board of Canada has decided to grant Jhatu day parole because it felt that although a psychologist noted that “there remains the potential for you to slip into your anti-social ways with a disregard, if not outright callousness, of the impact your actions might have on others,” he had made progress since his 2011 imprisonment.
The Board said he had, among other things, been through a number of programs and recognized his risk factors. He had expressed remorse for the children of the woman he murdered. He had had seven escorted absences from prison without any concern.
As soon as Correctional Service of Canada decides on Jhatu’s day parole release date, he will reportedly be taken into custody by the Canada Border Services Agency to be deported.
JHATU, who also goes by the names of Paul Singh Jhatoo, Satpal Singh Jhatoo, Paul Gill, and Satpal Jhatoo Singh, was convicted of the first degree murder of Ranjit Kaur Toore in 1987. Jhatoo’s wife tried her level best to keep him here because she argued that he had served his jail time and shown remorse for the contract killing of the Abbotsford mother of six, Ranjit, when he was 18.
Jhatoo killed the victim with a baseball bat and then doused her body with gasoline and set it on fire. He was hired by the victim’s husband, Jagraj Toore.
In 1989, the government got an order to have him deported to India after his release, but that order was stayed by the Immigration Appeal Board in 1995 because it felt he was genuinely remorseful and should be given a second chance.
On October 5, 1995, then-Reform MP Val Meredith (Surrey-White Rock-South Langley) made the following statement in the House of Commons: “Mr. Speaker, the bleeding heart mentality of the Liberal government has penetrated the Immigration and Refugee Board, appeal division. Its decision to allow Satpal Singh Jhatoo, a convicted murderer, to stay in Canada is reprehensible. The board says the killer is remorseful. It says the killer is unlikely to reoffend, so it let him stay.
“It does not matter that he beat a mother of six to death with a baseball bat, doused her body in gasoline and set it on fire. It does not matter that before being sentenced to life for this horrible crime, he was convicted of aggravated assault when he stabbed a man in the neck.
“It does not matter that he violated parole. It does not matter that he was caught smoking pot while on parole. It does not matter that he received day parole after only seven years in prison.
“It does not matter that the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration has the means and the power to declare this criminal a danger to the public and have him deported. It does not matter to the bleeding heart Liberals, but it does matter to Canadians.”
Jhatu convinced the National Parole Board that he was willing to return to India if he was granted full parole, but failed to show up for his flight after his release from prison on February 2, 2004. He had served two-thirds of his sentence. A Canada-wide warrant for his arrest was issued.
Sources told The VOICE that he had been working on a farm, leading a crime-free life and supporting his wife and kids.
In August 2011, then-federal Public Safety Minister Vic Toews urged Canadians to help identify 32 individuals, including Jhatu, listed on the CBSA website, who had failed to comply with the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act and had criminal convictions in Canada.
That led to a tip-off and Jhatu was arrested in October 2011.