Whats going with Punjabi youth in Canada??

[Deep Singh]

Vancouver Struggles With Gang Violence

Long Cycle of Drug-Related Homicides Plagues Indian Immigrant Community

By DeNeen L. Brown

Washington Post Foreign Service

Thursday, July 22, 2004; Page A12

VANCOUVER, B.C. -- The killings were brazen, often carried out execution-style, police said.

The most famous case involved a masked man who walked up to a notorious drug dealer on a dance floor and fired a bullet into his head behind the ear.

The dealer dropped to the crowded floor. Witnesses told police that they saw nothing.

In the past 13 years, police have reported 76 young men killed in the Vancouver area in gang-related violence. The authorities blame drug deals gone bad and local turf wars, mostly involving well-to-do young people of Indian descent.

Immigrant community leaders in Vancouver complain of police inaction. Police say they have tried, but have been unable to develop leads that would stop the bloodshed.

"They are Indo-Canadians killing Indo-Canadians," said Kash Heed, commanding officer of the 3rd Police District in Vancouver. "Seventy-six murders . . . mainly within one ethnic group. The cycle of violence, we've not cracked it yet."

Canadians are not accustomed to seeing widespread gun violence at home. Canada, with strict firearms laws, has lower levels of such crimes than does the United States. According to the government's Canada Firearms Center, the rate of murders committed with firearms in 2001 was 6.5 times higher in the United States than in Canada.

"The community is quite upset and worried about this violence and killing," said Balwant Singh Gill, president of the Guru Nanak S

ikh Gurdwara, one of the largest Sikh temples in North America, with 37,000 members. The Sikh religious minority of India has at least 19 million adherents worldwide.

"The laws of this land are lenient," Gill said, seated at his temple, surrounded by bushes of pink and red roses. "Only a few of the murders have been solved," he said. Gill said he has been threatened with violence, apparently by gang members, because he has spoken out against their activity. In one incident, shots were fired at his house. Police confirmed the threats against him.

The gangs deal mostly in marijuana, according to police, and specialize in a popular variety grown in the province called B.C. bud. "B.C. bud marijuana is highly sought after in the United States," said constable Alex Borden of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

"It is often exchanged for cocaine, cash or firearms. It is a deal between two criminal gangs, one on the south side of the border and one on the north side, guns for marijuana," Borden said. "If there is violence in our streets and firearms are involved, we are concerned the firearms come from across the border."

In Blaine, Wash., Joe Giuliano, assistant chief at the local U.S. Border Patrol office, said 23 Canadian smugglers have been arrested on the U.S. side of the border this year. "Virtually all marijuana smuggling in the past fiscal year is either directly or indirectly tied back to the Indo-Canadian community," Giuliano said.

Amar Randhawa, 28, co-founder of UNITED, the Unified Network of Indo-Canadians for Togetherness and Education Through Discussion, said Canadian police have not been aggressive enough in tracking down leads to stop the killings. "Out here, it's a slap on the hand," Randhawa said. "Law enforcement can't crack the lower hierarchy, let alone get to the top."

Randhawa said he knew many of the victims and killers, and a number of them attended high school together. "Their backg

round is Punjab Sikhs, ranging in age from 18 to 35," Randhawa said. "They were all my generation. Sometimes we know who the people are. Everyone knows. It's the worst-kept secret. Police know, but you don't see them cracking down." :wub: @

Police describe the problem as a closed cycle of murder and revenge.

"One day suspect, and the next day victim," said Heed, the police commander. "One day you are the shooter. The next day you're lying in your coffin."

He said the killings can be traced to a dispute between Bindy Johal and Ron Donsanjh, two notorious drug dealers. First Donsanjh's brother Jimmy was killed in February 1994.

"Johal was the supposed suspect," Heed said, and Ron Donsanjh heard about it. "They challenged one another. 'Come get me! No, come get me!' " Heed recounted.

Two months later, Ron Donsanjh, 29, was killed in a drive-by shooting.

Johal was arrested in connection with both slayings. Johal's trial was one of the most expensive in Canadian history, officials said, because it was surrounded by intense security measures. But the trial ended in acquittal.

A juror, Gillian Guess, was later charged and convicted of obstruction of justice, because she had a relationship with one of the co-defendants, authorities said.

But Johal was freed. Four years later, in December 1998, he was killed at a Vancouver nightclub. Police said a masked man shot him in the back of the head, then fled. No one has been charged in Johal's slaying.

The story of Johal inspires young men who have been recruited in high schools to become gang members like him, Heed said.

"We still have Indo-Canadian males who want to be the next Johal," he said. "When you talk to them they don't realize they have a short life span. They have the image of Johal's

lifestyle: the cars, the money, the women. They did not see Johal in jail crying and scared."

The gang members are often from well-off families, local leaders and officials said. "Unlike in other countries, people involved in the gang activity here are not the poor or disadvantaged," said Wallace T. Oppal, a justice of the Court of Appeal of British Columbia. "For the most part, kids involved here are people who come from middle-class and upper-class homes. They get involved for the glamour."

Oppal said parental neglect is sometimes a factor. "Parents are devoted to not only buying the first home, but the second home and third home," he said from his chambers. "They provide their children with the means, but not the guidance."

Oppal said he also knew some of those involved in the violence. "The community is relatively small," he said. "People know one another. I get stopped all the time. People want to talk about it. This is the number one issue in the community."

Oppal cited the manslaughter conviction of Hardip Uppal, a bright student who had won a scholarship. "He was a person with impeccable background," Oppal said. "He killed someone in a drug deal."

Uppal organized the killing of Gurpreet Sohi on Sept. 14, 2000, according to testimony, because he was seeking revenge for the wounding of his brother a few days before. Another man was the gunman, but Uppal was the setup man, making sure Sohi was home at the appointed time.

"He put his own skin ahead of his friend's life," said Paul Williamson, the judge who sentenced him to five years in prison.

He called the killing a "coldblooded execution of a victim sitting in his home. This dreadful, amoral cycle of bloodletting, violence and vigilante-like retribution must end," Williamson said at the sentencing hearing.

Gill, the president of the Sikh temple, said police have said they need more leads. "Some people are scared to open their mouths because they are afraid they will get killed," he said. <

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Heed acknowledged that police are criticized for not stopping the violence, but said the families of gang members need to help solve the problem. Family members, he said, deny their sons are involved in crime.

"We've gone to notify people their son was killed and they have been in such denial they slammed the door in the police officer's face," Heed said. "They don't want to believe their child is involved. . . . They will ask the question to their dying day after their son is murdered why they didn't do something."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/artic...-2004Jul21.html

IS THIS THE REALITY OF PUNJABIS IN CANADA??? What is going on...i thought Canadian Sikhs were a "good" community...like in UK...where they are liked.

[japmans]

veer.. this is the product of a highly concentrated area of punjabi youth (surrey).. although on a much smaller scale, i'm sure these things exist in Southall and in Malton.... Sikhs in the west do a very good job of cohabitating with Westerners, but when too many are centrified in one area, it's like a breeding ground for disaster.

[Akaali]

What is going on...i thought Canadian Sikhs were a "good" community...like in UK...where they are liked.

These are not sikhs veerji, thought you knew that.

[mann_kaum_layee_qurbaan]

i don't think we should just say they are not "sikhs" and abandon these youths. Even if they do not follow gurmat, which most of them do not or maybe all of them, as Sikhs the sangat should try to get these youths to sit down and work out their problems. I know two or three singhs here in my community that once were big drug users party animals but they ran into good sangat felt the love of the panth and were drawn into Sikhi. They took amrit and now are the coolest amritdhari singhs with so much pyaar for Sikhi and the panth.

There has to be some issues behind these kids' descison to live a life of crime and violence. Maybe mummy and daddy work 24-7, daddy drives a cab all day mummy works two jobs, kids just at home all day with nothing to do no guidance and get into trouble. Maybe people in Vancouver need to get involved in these people's lives rather than avoiding them as bad kids.

As Sikhs we always claim to love humanity love humanity but when things like this happen we are too busy saying well they are not "Sikhs." Well when a kid named harminder singh shoots a guy named billa singh the likes of kim bolan are gonna write about the youths as sikhs. There is no way of avoiding it. They could be monas and we could argue all day that they are not sikh becuase they have not taken amrit. Well i once heard from a person who took amrit recently that he was always a Sikh but took time to realize it. So for the sangat in Vancouver I hope you all reach out try to help these putt jattan de balaunde bakre....

[Deep Singh]

Mann bhaji...you put my words on the screen. exactly!

[Akaali]

Sorry, but the article refered to Sikhs, as these youth are not Sikhs.

I use to be the same, using drugs, partying, fights, and the whole lot, but Guruji took me by the arm, away from the bad sangat.

I think all the youth need is the sangat, and we have to talk to them, that we've been through this, and people go through it all the time, and there's nothing but pain and suffering. After all they're born into the panth of Guru Gobind Singh ji maharaj, we can't just stamp them as an "outkast" and leave them to suffer.

[DhadiMania]

by sikh you mean amritdhari will full bana etc.

sikh background applies to people like me and the people who were shot as said by maan ji!

southall is turning durg filled they say. (source the sikh times, many issues back a drug raid took place).

khalsa, your youth life is similar to a gursikh i know of (not anymore), turned pooran gursikh. your life also depicts the youth around us, why dont you write a book on your life?

[Guest mehtab]

oye maaf karde daljeet nu...mere magar peya hoya si pehlaan...book de pichhay peh gaya tu te :|

LOL...HAHAHAA...

[DhadiMania]

alright, just to make mehtab happy, :wub: :cool:

khalsa, forget about my suggestion.

mehtab, make the book on request of the sangat when your older!

no-one commented on my new avtaar?

[Guest mehtab]

There is no book coming up. And your new avtar is funny. Hope you don't turn out to be like him :nihungsmile:

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