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Laibar Singh completes a year of sanctuary
WSN Network 

VANCOUVER: Travelling on a false passport as an economic migrant but now seeking stay on humanitarian grounds, Laibar Singh has completed a year of sanctuary in a local gurdwara.  

Though the Gurdwara premises are supposed to keep the police at bay, Canadian police particularly the Canada Border Service are making occasional forays into the sanctified premises putting him and his supporters on tenterhooks.  

Should the immigration authorities attempt an enforced removal or should they rember the case of Iranian asylum seeker Amir Kazemian, who has been granted asylum on humanitarian grounds is the moot point.  “They haven't attempted a removal because they know he's in sanctuary.” said Harsh Walia a spokesperson for the Gurdwara Abbotsford, where Laibar Singh is seeking sanctuary. 

His appeals to stay in Canada on humanitarian and compassionate grounds have been complicated by the fact that he was left a quadriplegic after suffering an aneurysm three years ago.

Ms. Walia said in an interview that Mr. Singh's health remains precarious. 

Conflicting messages from government officials are confounding the issue. While the Federal Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day, who is responsible for the CBSA, suggested in January that the law would eventually be upheld in Mr. Singh's case, the  Border Services Agency spokesman Chris Williams has said that the fact a person is in a place of worship to avoid deportation will not stop the enforcement of a deportation order.

16 July, 2008
 

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