Photo courtesy of CTVTWO South Asian young men are lucky to be alive after their car crashed near Maclure and McCallum Roads while travelling at about 120 km/hour on Saturday night and police suspect that they were involved in street racing.
Abbotsford Police Constable Ian MacDonald told The VOICE on Monday: “They were doing more than double the speed limit. They were doing about 120 [km/hour] in a 50 [km/hour] zone and that’s a stretch of road with a lot of S-curves. So there is never a good stretch of road to be speeding, but that’s a particularly bad stretch.”
MacDonald said: “The two occupants were South Asian but we do not what the occupants of the other car were because the other car kept going. Neither of the two men in our incident was seriously hurt. One was trapped but he was rescued using the jaws of life. He was more pinned in the car because of the amount of the damage to the vehicle. He didn’t suffer serious injury.”
Asked if they were street racing, he said: “We are still looking into the street race component and we are certainly looking at security video as it relates to that … see if we can get a plate or identification on the other car that was racing. But we certainly are going with excessive speed at this time and we are going to be looking at every violation to the Motor Vehicle Act for sure and we will see if we get enough for street racing based on the evidence we gather.”
On Thursday, MacDonald told The VOICE they were still in the process of retrieving images from the surveillance videos in the area.
Several tickets for violations, including excessive speed, were given to the driver on Saturday itself. Police are still looking for the other vehicle in pursuit of a street racing charge.
SEATTLE: Two suspects arrested by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) Office of Field Operations (OFO) made their initial appearances Thursday last week in Seattle federal court on charges they conspired to distribute more than 60 pounds of cocaine.
Harminder Singh Rai, 35, of Surrey, British Columbia, and Tuan Van Dang, 38, of San Diego, were arrested separately Wednesday following an investigation by the Blaine Border Enforcement Security Task Force (BEST Blaine).
According to court records, Rai, a known drug trafficker, was tailed by investigators after he entered the U.S. at the Blaine port of entry. Rai led HSI special agents to a Marysville motel, where he allegedly picked up a duffle bag loaded with cocaine from Dang.
Rai was stopped at the border by CBP on his return to Canada. CBP officers found 24 vacuum sealed bags containing more than 60 pounds of cocaine hidden in various locations of his vehicle. Rai was taken into custody by CBP; HSI arrested Dang near the Bellingham airport.
If convicted, both suspects face minimum mandatory sentences of 10 years in federal prison.
ICE said that the charges contained in the complaint are only allegations. A person is presumed innocent unless and until he or she is proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
The HSI-led BEST is composed of full-time members from U.S. Customs and Border Protection Offices of Air and Marine, Field Operations and Border Patrol; the Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office; the U.S. Coast Guard Investigative Service; the Drug Enforcement Administration; the Canada Border Services Agency; and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Washington is prosecuting the case.
Photo courtesy CBCROBBERS wearing ski masks and blue jumpsuits used a truck to smash into Bharti Art Jewellers on Main Street and East 50th Avenue at 2:45 p.m. on Thursday and made off with a bag of valuables, according to witnesses in Vancouver’s Punjabi Market.
At least one of the robbers was carrying a gun as two of them dashed into the store while the third stayed in the truck. The robbers ditched the truck in a nearby alley and took off in another vehicle, leaving some jewellery scattered on the street. The owner was reportedly alone in the store and was not injured.
“I just heard a bang sound like something has fallen or like an accident sound. I quickly came out and I just saw the truck was rammed here at this jewelry store. I just quickly ran inside the pharmacy and closed the door,” pharmacist Jack Shah told Global BC.
He told the CBC: “I was so scared. I saw three people, but they had masks on. It was very hard to tell anything about them.”
“I was with my customer and I heard a bang, a big noise like a bomb,” Naresh Shukla from the Mother India grocery store told CTV.
Police say no arrests have been made and no injuries have been reported. But the brazen heist has scared the daylights out of the business owners in the Punjabi Market.
IN recent years millions of persons come to visit Canada. According to estimates of the Canadian Tourism Commission, in 2012 there were over 16 million overnight arrivals to Canada, of which nearly 12 million were from the United States. The second largest source of overnight arrivals was the United Kingdom, with 600,000 arrivals. Next was France with about 421,000. India was listed seventh, with 171,000 overnight arrivals. Included in the mixture are temporary residents who stay to work or attend school. While many are allowed into Canada, some are refused entry when they arrive, while many others are refused temporary resident visas they are required to have before they arrive here.
The immigration regulations set out rules on how people may apply to come to Canada, depending on what their intention is. The first distinction is a list of visa-exempt countries, whose citizens do not have to apply for a temporary resident visa before coming to Canada. The list of visa-exempt countries changes from time to time, depending upon a variety of factors, including whether or not certain foreign nationals are abusing the privilege of entering Canada by overstaying their visits. At present the visa-exempt list includes about 45 countries, primarily in Europe and including the United States, Australia and New Zealand. India was on the list until it was dropped in October, 1981, where it has remained ever since.
The temporary resident visa requirement creates an additional burden for potential visitors. Time and money has to be spent to complete application forms, gather supporting documents and to file the application. Depending on where the person applies, the process can be done within a week or can take several weeks.
Once an applicant has gathered information, completed the necessary forms and submitted them with the required processing fee, the application is reviewed by an officer who decides the application. Depending where a person applies, the process may require a personal interview. In the past decade, as government has worked to reduce its costs, more applications are decided without an interview. That means an applicant has to present all the best possible evidence to support their application in writing.
When deciding an application, a visa officer considers whether or not the applicant meets the requirements to apply and is not inadmissible. Persons may be inadmissible for a variety of reasons, including having a criminal record or serious health issues. The principle test applied to all applicants for a temporary visa is whether or not the applicant intends to remain in Canada temporarily. If an officer believes a person may want to remain in Canada indefinitely, the application will be refused.
There are a variety of factors an officer may look at. None of the factors are set out in the rules, nor will you find them in any instruction manual for officers or in the guidebooks the provided on the immigration website. Typically, an officer is concerned with any evidence that would show the applicant will return to their home country, rather than stay in Canada. Does the person have a job? What assets, including real property, do they have in the home country? Do they have immediate family members in the home country? What family members do they have in Canada? What is the reason for their visit? Do they have the means to support themselves for their expected stay?
If refused, it is usually done with a short cursory letter, with little explanation in it. Many failed applicants complain about not knowing why they were refused. The only way to get a detailed response is to apply to obtain a copy of the visa officer’s file.
Remedies against refused applications are limited. There is no formal right to have the decision reconsidered, though that may occur. The only legal remedy is to apply for judicial review in the Federal Court in Canada. That means hiring a lawyer in Canada, a costly or impractical matter for most applicants. The Federal Court’s powers of review are limited, as a judge looking at the case decides only if the decision was unreasonable based on the information provided by the applicant. If the applicant failed to provide sufficient information, an officer may not be faulted on their conclusion.
An applicant can always reapply, with more information to address the issues that concerned the visa officer. The best remedy is to be prepared to deal with the matter at the start by becoming informed about what is needed. That may involve seeking professional help with counsel experienced in these issues.
BY WILLIAM MACINTOSH William Macintosh started practising as an immigration lawyer in 1984. You can reach him for advice or help on any immigration or citizenship matter at 778-714-8787 or by email at macintoshlaw@gmail.com
THE decision to throw some money into the workplace lottery pool for the March 14 Lotto Max draw paid off in spades for 17 Surrey co-workers, including a number of South Asians, the latest group in B.C. to share a $1 million Maxmillion prize.
Irene Wong, the group trustee, said she bought the ticket at a different location this time around. “I was busy running the kids around to Scouts and Girl Guides so I stopped at my neighborhood Macs instead of where I usually go,” she explained. “This is a true case of ‘right place, right time’.”
A week after the draw, Irene said she fed the ticket into the self-checker around10 times in a row before she began to scream with excitement. “I was in totally disbelief that we had actually won!”
She began calling her co-workers once she got home. Many accused her of playing a joke on them. “I had to bring the slip into work the next day to prove to them I wasn’t lying,” she laughed.
Each member of the group will receive $58,823.53. All 17 winners have different plans for their winnings. There’s talk of travel, investments and the likelihood of a few new cars in the parking lot at work.
The awardees: Siddhant Malik, Ishmeet Singh, Shishir Gopinath, Purujeet Monga and Nikhil Prakash.THE India Club honored five top Grade 12 graduates on Sunday, March 30 at Burnaby’s Royal Palace Banquet Hall. The special guest speaker was Ravi Shankar Aisola, Consul General of India. Other guests included Indian Consul and Head of Chancery R. Chandramouli, former MP Ujjal Dosanjh, Raj Chauhan, MLA for Burnaby-Edmonds, and Sav Dhaliwal, Burnaby Councillor.
Baljinder Kaur Narang, Chair of Burnaby Board of Education, was the keynote speaker who gave a very inspiring speech on youth and their aspirations.
The Grade 12 Academic Achievement Awards (AAA) winners for this year were: Nikhil Prakash, Purujeet Monga, Shishir Gopinath, Ishmeet Singh and Siddhant Malik.
These outstanding students were selected for their academic excellence in the 2013 Provincial Examinations. They received a cash award and a plaque honoring their achievement.
This is the 27th year of India Club’s Academic Achievement Awards (AAA).Group photo of organizers, guests and awardees. Photos by Chandra Bodalia
Following tradition, two past presidents of India Club were also honored: Dr. D.P. Goel and Dinesh Khare. They received the Golden Award, instituted in 2005, for their distinguished and sustained service to India Club over an extended period of time.
India Club is a non-profit community organization. It sponsors student scholarships at UBC, SFU, Vancouver Community College, and Killarney Secondary and John Oliver High School in Vancouver. It also gives a Gandhi Peace Essay Award at SFU and donates money to local and international causes such as Operation Eyesight Universal.
For more information and if you wish to become member of India Club, contact Dr. Satya Varshney at 604-767-2015 or email: satyavarshney@shaw.ca.
Perth, Australia (IANS): The search operation for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 ended Friday without any headway even as the underwater search for jet’s black box began “Today (Friday) there have been some sightings of objects reported by ships in the search area but none were associated with MH370,” Australia’s Joint Agency Cordination Centre (JACC) said in its latest update.
“The Royal Australian Navy, using the Towed Pinger Locator from the United States Navy on Australian Defence Vessel Ocean Shield, and the Royal Navy, with a similar capability on HMS Echo, today began the underwater search for emissions from the black-box pinger from Malaysia Airlines flight MH370,” it added.
A total of 14 aircraft and 11 ships were involved in Friday’s search activities.
“The Australian Maritime Safety Authority determined a search area of about 217,000 sq km, 1700 km northwest of Perth,” the JACC said.
“Weather in the search area was good, with visibility greater than 10 kilometres.”
In an earlier update Friday, the JACC said the two ships, Ocean Shield and HMS Echo, will search a single 240-km track, converging on each other.
The Commander of Joint Task Force 658, Commodore Peter Leavy, said the two ships and their towed-pinger equipment would be operating at significantly reduced speed to search at depths of three thousand metres or more, the update.
“There has not been any change in the search,” Commodore Leavy said.
He said that since no hard evidence has been found to date a decision has been taken “to search a sub-surface area on which the analysis has predicted MH370 is likely to have flown”.
“While the preference for search operations is to use physical evidence and then drift modelling to determine a smaller sub-surface search area, the search track is considered to be the best estimate possible for an area likely to contain the crashed aircraft,” he said adding that the equipment on the two ships “can only operate effectively at reduced speed, around three knots”.
“The search using sub-surface equipment needs to be methodical and carefully executed in order to effectively detect the faint signal of the pinger,” he added.
Functionality tests were carried out on the Towed Pinger Locator, Autonomous Underwater Vehicle and transducer pole to prove its effectiveness during transit to the search area, according to the JACC.
“All the acoustic sensors, GPS positioning, tracking and frequency systems and positioning of the equipment completed a functionality test,” it said.
Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 vanished mysteriously about an hour after taking off from Kuala Lumpur shortly after midnight March 8.
The Boeing 777-200ER was scheduled to land in Beijing the same day. The 227 passengers on board included five Indians, 154 Chinese and 38 Malaysians.
(Among the passengers are two Indo-Canadians: Muktesh Mukherjee, 47, and his wife Xiaomao Bai, 37. Mukherjee is vice-president of operations in China for the Pennsylvania-based XCoal Energy and Resources. He is the grandson of the late Indian minister Mohan Kumaramangalam.)
Despite extensive scouring of remote southern Indian Ocean by planes and ships off the coast of Perth, where the plane is believed to have crashed, no trace has been found.
Australia, meanwhile, has accepted Malaysia’s invitation to join the investigation into the disappearance of the jet as a fully accredited member, according to Xinhua.
“Australia has agreed both to lead the search and as an accredited representative to provide support for the Malaysian investigations,” Angus Houston, chief of the JACC, told a press conference in Perth.
Houston had briefed Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak on the Australia-led retrieval effort during the latter’s tour to Perth Thursday. The US, Britain and China are also accredited members.
Australia and Malaysia are currently drawing up a comprehensive agreement regarding Australia’s role in search and investigation, such as critical decision points, the handling of accident victims, custody of aircraft wreckage and the downloading of intonation from flight recorders that might be recovered, Houston said.
According to the Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation, Malaysia, the country of the flight carrier, is responsible for the investigation.
An Australian team made up of four senior investigators is in Kuala Lumpur for the lost aircraft-related investigation and for ensuring that relevant investigation information is considered while mapping out search strategies, he added.
SEATTLE: A former Seattle-area man who fled to Canada during his 2009 drug trial has been sentenced to seven years in federal prison, following an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).
Hardeep Singh, 23, formerly of Kent, was convicted in absentia of conspiracy to distribute ecstasy after he fled following the first day of his trial. Singh was arrested last year in Canada and extradited to the U.S. to face sentencing.
His co-conspirator Kaushal Kainth, 25, formerly of Renton, also fled and remains at large.
According to testimony at trial and records filed in the case, in May 2009, Kainth and Singh agreed to pay a man to deliver large amounts of ecstasy and another drug, BZP, to co-conspirators at the Southcenter Mall in Tukwila and to a location in San Jose, California. The delivery man, who was working with HSI, recorded both defendants on audio and video. In all, Kainth and Singh gave the delivery man nearly 285,000 pills worth more than $2.8 million, which were seized by HSI.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Washington prosecuted the case.
ON April 5, the Delta Police Department are holding their 4th annual 3-on-3 Boys Basketball Tournament. This year the organizers are expecting upwards of 100 grade 8-12 students representing 25 teams.
“We started this tournament as a way for us to connect positively with the youth in Delta and it just took off from there. Now our teams come from schools all over the Lower Mainland to play in the two divisions,” said A/Sgt. Sukh Sidhu, one of the tournament’s organizers.
Last year’s winners, a grade 11 team from Tamanawis High School, will be back to defend their title and a chance to win bragging rights, trophies, and a $50 Future Shop Gift Certificate for each winning team member. There are also many other prizes that will be given out during the day within the two divisions, Senior (Grade 11 and12) and Junior (Grade 8-10).
An event of this size takes a considerable amount of planning and there are over 20 volunteers who will be making sure the event runs smoothly for all of the players. The event is sponsored by the Delta Police Department, North Delta Secondary School, The Delta School District, Delta Parks and Recreation, and Virsa.
Ruptures in Arrival: Art in the Wake of the Komagata Maru: April 12 to June 15 Opening reception: April 12, 7:30-9:30 p.m. Artist’s Talk with Ali Kazimi: April 12, 6:30 p.m.
Raghavendra Rao’s Visions of the living past. Image courtesy of the artist.MARKING the 100th anniversary of the Komagata Maru episode, Surrey Art Gallery’s group exhibition Ruptures in Arrival: Art in the Wake of the Komagata Maru brings together for the first time a cross-section of visual art related to this history, and presents these works alongside art that addresses more recent histories of mass migration from Asia to Canada’s West Coast. Ten artists from Canada and India contribute works – in a wide range of media including painting, drawing, photography, sculpture, 3D film, and installation art – that explore history’s relationship to memory, mass media’s affects on personal experience, the creative use of fact and fiction, and the visual narratives of transpacific mass migration. Over the course of the exhibition, events such as artist’s talks, film screenings, tours, Family Day, and a symposium make for a deeper connection to the artworks and the ideas behind them. Ruptures in Arrival: Art in the Wake of the Komagata Maru is on exhibit at the Surrey Art Gallery from April 12 to June 15. Admission to this exhibition is by donation.
The Komagata Maru was a Japanese steamship that sailed to Vancouver in 1914, carrying 376 passengers from Punjab, India. Only 23 passengers were allowed to land, and following two months of detention in Vancouver’s harbour the ship was forced to return to India. The Komagata Maru episode has come to reflect a troubling moment in Canadian history when the federal government’s discriminatory immigration policies coincided with widespread racism among mainstream Canadian society. The episode had tragic consequences for many individuals. It has become an important locus for conversations on Canadian history, identity, and citizenship. The Ruptures in Arrival: Art in the Wake of the Komagata Maru exhibition reveals the frequently overlooked contribution to these conversations from contemporary Canadian visual artists.
Ruptures in Arrival: Art in the Wake of the Komagata Maru features a diverse set of imagery in a variety of media by artists Roy Arden, Avantika Bawa, Ali Kazimi, Evan Lee, Ken Lum, Mass Arrival (Farrah Miranda, Graciela Flores, Tings Chak, Vino Shanmuganathan, Nadia Saad), Raghavendra Rao, Haris Sheikh, Jarnail Singh, and Paul Wong. Portland-based artist Avantika Bawa uses large-scale drawing and sculptural installation to reinterpret the original route of the Komagata Maru and its passengers’ journey from Asia to Canada and back again.
Toronto filmmaker and new media artist Ali Kazimi has created a new immersive 3D film installation that presents a series of vignettes about everyday life for South Asian Canadians on shore during the time of the Komagata Maru’s detention in Vancouver’s harbour. Surrey-based artist Jarnail Singh will present the newest and largest in a series of paintings he has been working on about the Komagata Maru episode. Evan Lee, a Vancouver-based artist, has created a new set of inkjet prints using 3D digital modelling based on press photography from the arrival of two boats to Canada’s West Coast: the MV Ocean Lady from Sri Lanka in 2009, and the MV Sun Sea from China’s Fujian province in 1999.
Ruptures in Arrival: Art in the Wake of the Komagata Maru is presented in partnership with Komagata Maru 1914 – 2014, a collaboration between eight organizations across Metro Vancouver that are presenting events and exhibitions related to the living legacies of the Komagata Maru episode. www.komagatamaru100.com
Also on exhibit is BogScape, a sound art installation inspired by Burns Bog by Surrey-based media artist Matt Smith. BogScape is part of Open Sound 2014: Sonorous Kingdom, an exhibition about sound and vegetation. Exhibition launch with artist’s talk and opening reception:
Ruptures in Arrival: Art in the Wake of the Komagata Maru launches on April 12 with an artist’s talk at 6:30 p.m., followed by an opening reception from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. (formal remarks at 7:45 p.m.). Toronto-based artist Ali Kazimi will give an illustrated talk about his art practice, major works, and the context for his work on display in the exhibition. There is another event taking place on this evening, so visitors are encouraged to arrive early in order to find parking. Admission to the opening reception and artist’s talk is free (donations are gratefully received).
Exhibition tours:
Thursday, April 24, 7-8:30 p.m.
Be part of an informal tour of the exhibition led by Jordan Strom, curator, Surrey Art Gallery, and hear interesting stories about the artworks and artists. After the tour, stay for refreshments and conversation.
By donation; Surrey Art Gallery Association members free.
Location: Surrey Art Gallery
To find out more, visit: vancouverfoundation.ca or follow on social media: Facebook.com/vancouverfdn
or @VancouverFdn.
Surrey Art Gallery is located at 13750 – 88 Avenue, Surrey. Phone: 604-501-5566. www.surrey.ca/artgallery
Closed Mondays and holidays. Surrey Art Gallery will be closed April 18 through 21.