Paralysed man ordered deported to India
Canada says his claim that he faces persecution is 'not credible'
Kelly Sinoski, Vancouver Sun
Published: Friday, June 29, 2007
A failed refugee claimant from India who can't lift himself from his bed after being paralysed by an aneurysm last year is about to be deported.
Laibar Singh, 48, who entered Toronto in November, 2003, on a fake passport, has been trying for nearly four years to get refugee status.
But the Canadian Border Services Agency has never bought his story about the Punjab police torture he said he faced before he fled India, nor does it believe his claims that he would be at risk of persecution or cruel and unusual punishment if he returned.
Ian lindsay, Vancouver Sun
A pre-removal risk assessment found the purported risks were based on facts that were "not credible."
Applications for refugee status, a judicial review of his failed claim, and an exemption on humanitarian and compassionate grounds have all been refused since 2004.
The CBSA would not comment on the case but Singh said his deportation is set for July 8.
The government is still working out the logistics of deporting Singh, who would need medical attention during the flight. The move is expected to cost up to $70,000.
That's nothing compared to what it's costing to care for Singh, who spends his days on a hospital bed, his arms bent at the elbow and his hands in perpetual half-hearted fists. Last year, he spent five months in Vancouver General's spine unit and the past six months at George Pearson Centre on West 57th Avenue, which costs about $400 a day for patients without insurance. At VGH, his care cost more than $400,000.
CBSA spokeswoman Faith St. John said Thursday she couldn't divulge information about specific cases but the government has no choice but to deport him. If someone has medical problems, she said, those are considered on a case-by-case basis and arrangements are made to deal with them.
"We do have a legal obligation to remove people who can't remain in Canada," she said. "If a removal order has been issued, it's our mandate to effect that."
But those who stopped in to visit Singh at George Pearson said the decision would leave a mark on Canada's reputation as a compassionate country.
Singh, who suffered the aneurysm 20 days after he skipped to Vancouver to avoid the deportation order handed down in Montreal, claimed in his pre-removal risk assessment that he would be targeted for arrest as a "foreign-trained militant" and would face other persecution if he went back to India. He said he fled to Canada after being falsely accused of having links to the Khalistan Commando Force, whose goal was the eventual formation of the Sikh state of Khalistan.
On Thursday, he was less worried about the threats than how he would take care of himself and his children now that he is paralysed. A widower, he has two daughters, aged 20 and 13 and a son, 16, at home, and one married daughter, all in India.
"This country is wonderful but if nobody has papers, what can they do?" he said through a translator. "I can do nothing. I have no options."
Sudarshan Bakshi, president of the charitable organization Janta Sewak Society, said Singh would be "finished" if he is deported because he wouldn't have the money for medical care. He said Singh worked as a labourer when he arrived in Canada and should be recognized for contributing to the country.
The society is trying to find ways to help Singh, such as providing him with a wheelchair and educating his children in India, if he is forced to leave.
"There's not much time left," Bakshi said. "For a country like Canada to deport him, it's not good. It leaves a bad mark."
Margaret Birrell, chief executive director of the B.C. Coalition of People with Disabilities, said she had never heard of such a situation and questioned how Singh could be moved. "If he's in George Pearson, he's obviously in no condition to go anywhere," she said.
But Maureen Bader, of the Canadian Taxpayers' Association, wondered why it had taken so long for the government to issue a removal order against Singh.
Although Singh and his supporters claim he will get better medical care here, that is not reason enough for him to stay, she added.
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© The Vancouver Sun 2007
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