Asian Star April 4, 2015

www.theasianstar.com Vol 14 Issue 9 Saturday, April 4, 2015

“It looks expensive because it is expensive.”

Range Rover SV Autobiography

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“I am proud that Mr. Modi has chosen to visit our temple.”

Mr. Satish Kumar,

President of Vedic Hindu Cultural Society

Shalendra Sharma jailed one year for attacks on sex trade workers

Surrey man who sexually assaulted a 15-year-old sex trade worker nearly 20 years ago and mistreated four other prostitutes, including breaking the wrist of one them during a fee dispute, has been sentenced to a year in jail.

Shalendra Kumar Sharma, 46, pleaded guilty to the offences, which involved him picking up the prostitutes in Vancouver and driving them to an industrial area in Burnaby south of Marine Way. The crimes occurred over a 17-year period, beginning in May 1994, when he removed some of the clothing of the teen

and had forced sexual intercourse with her in the back seat of his vehicle, telling her not to speak to anyone about what had happened. He tricked three other prostitutes from the Downtown Eastside into having sex with him without paying, and stole purses or other belongings from them.

The first time, in July 2001, he had sex with his victim in the back seat of his vehicle and when she got out, expecting to get back into the front of the vehicle to finish dressing, he locked the doors and drove away without paying her, taking with him her purse containing money.

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How many breakfasts should taxpayers buy each Senator?

By: Umendra Singh enators need to learn accountability to taxpayers and their tax dollars. One would have thought that Senators would have loved an opportunity to bare all before the Canadian public as the staff of federal auditor general pored over their expense accounts and receipts and asked simple questions.

But no! These unelected and totally useless prima donnas are bristling at the questions. How dare anyone question how we spend taxpayers’ money on ourselves, some of these Senators seem to be asked.

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Hindus to be world’s 3rd largest population by 2050: Report Muslims projected to grow faster than world’s overall population growth

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indus will become the world’s third largest population by 2050, while India will overtake Indonesia as the country with the largest Muslim population, according to a new study.

According to the Pew Research Center’s religious profile predictions assessed data released today, the Hindu population is projected to rise by 34 per cent worldwide, from a little over 1 billion to nearly 1.4 billion by 2050. By 2050, Hindus will be third, making up 14.9 per cent of the world’s total population, followed by people who do not affiliate with any religion, accounting for 13.2 per cent, the report said. The people with no religious affiliation currently have the third largest share of the world’s total population. Muslims are projected to grow faster than the world’s overall population and that Hindus and Chris-

tians are projected to roughly keep pace with worldwide population growth, the report said. “India will retain a Hindu majority but also will have the largest Muslim population of any country in the world, surpassing Indonesia,” it said.

“Over the next four decades, Christians will remain the largest religious group, but Islam will grow faster than any other major religion,” according to the report. The report predicted that by 2050 there will be near parity between Muslims (2.8 billion, or 30 per cent of the population) and Christians (2.9 billion, or 31 per cent), possibly for the first time in history.

There were 1.6 billion Muslims in 2010, compared to 2.17 billion Christians.

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LOCAL

Hawaii art museum returns seven artifacts stolen and smuggled from India HONOLULU – An international investigation into antiquities looted from India and smuggled into the United States has taken authorities to the Honolulu Museum of Art. The museum on Wednesday handed over

seven rare artifacts that it acquired without museum officials realizing they were ill-gotten items. Agents from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement will take the items back to New York and, from there, eventually return them to the government of India.

U.S. customs agents say the items were taken from religious temples and ancient Buddhist sites, and then allegedly smuggled to the United States by an art dealer. The dealer, Subhash Kapoor, was arrested in 2011 and is awaiting trial in India. Officials say Kapoor created false provenances for the illicit antiquities. Someone on vacation visiting the museum last year recognized the name of Kapoor’s New York gallery as the source of a 2,000-year-old terra cotta rattle and contacted authorities, said Stephan Jost, the museum’s director. Museum officials then pored over their records and determined six other Indian items had ties to Kapoor.

Kapoor donated one of the items and sold five to the museum, Jost said. One was a gift from someone else.

Agents are hailing the Honolulu museum for being the first U.S. institution to publicly and easily cooperate with the investigation, dubbed “Operation Hidden Idol,” involving

four arrests and the recovery of thousands of pieces worth a total of $150 million.

“Owning stolen stuff is not part of our mission,” Jost said. “I’m not sure we’ve done anything heroic. We just want to do the right thing.”

Jost watched as agents inspected the items -- the rattle, figurines, architectural fragments and tiles -- and them hauled them in packed crates into a truck.

Martinez stressed there’s no culpability on the museum’s part, as it wasn’t aware of the items’ provenance when it acquired them between 1991 and 2003.

American art museums are becoming more rigorous in vetting the history of objects they acquire, Jost said. “Could we have done a better job? Sure,” he said. “Were we a victim? Yes.” It’s not uncommon for unsavory dealers to donate ill-gotten items for tax benefits and other reasons, said Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent Brenton Easter. He’s part of a group of agents in New York that focus on cultural property crime whose work includes dismantling the organizations behind the crimes and repatriating the seized pieces. Some institutions are reluctant to come forward, partly because of the financial loss involved, Easter said.

It’s very rare for evidence to come to light to show a museum has items that were illegally obtained, said James Cuno, president and CEO of the J. Paul Getty Trust.

“Claims might come from time to time.

But most often those claims are based on just interest or the construction of national identity,” he said. “If evidence is provided that’s convincing, no museum will resist.”

He cited an example from about 10 years ago when Italian police uncovered evidence revealing a number of items that were improperly removed from Italy. The U.S. museums where some of the items ended up returned them, he said.

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Toronto man charged with brutal Vancouver sex assault appears in court

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aleb Heaton, the man facing seven charges in a violent sex assault in the Strathcona neighbourhood of Vancouver, appeared in court Wednesday morning. Heaton leaned against a glass door talking to his lawyer. He wore a peach t-shirt and red pants. The charges laid against him include aggravated sexual assault, breaking and entering, robbery and unlawful confinement. Proceedings were held over until April 16.

Heaton’s lawyer, John Turner, would not comment on whether his client would be applying for bail.

Heaton has at least 40 criminal convictions in Ontario, including aggravated assault,

break and enter and possession of a weapon.

The victim was taken to hospital with serious injuries, but has since been released, according to police.

A man armed with a weapon barged into the woman’s house just after noon on March 26, tied her up, choked her using clothing, and sexually assaulted her with a rock and a knife, according to the court documents. Another man heard the woman’s screams and intervened, getting into a fight with the assailant. Several other people rushed to the aid of the woman. The struggle spilled out onto the street, and they held the suspect until police arrived.

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Canadian tourism industry wants to direct more marketing money to the U.S.

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anada is expanding its tourism focus towards the United States 14 years after 9/11 chilled American travel northward.

Tourism Minister Maxime Bernier said Wednesday that the timing is right to entice more U.S. travellers to come to Canada.

“One factor is the situation of the Canadian dollar. That will help to convince Americans to come here to Canada,” he told a crowd of reporters as he announced the results of a strong 2014 tourism year.

More than 17.1 million international tourists came to Canada last year. During the same period, Canada saw an increase of overnight arrivals by over 10 per cent from countries around the world.

Total tourism spending in Canada was estimated at $88.5 billion in 2014.

Bernier said the Canadian Tourism Commission, a Crown corporation that markets Canada globally as a year-round tourist destination, has been instrumental in improving tourism to Canada.

“All the markets where the CTC is invest-

ing, there’s a growth of 11 per cent,” the minister said. “So it is why we want the CTC to reinvest in the U.S. market, because there’s a big potential there for the tourism industry.”

Bernier said he hoped to see more funding allotted to tourism in the next federal budget, due next month.

Canadian Tourism Commission president David Goldstein said when the border between Canada and the U.S. “thickened” after the 9/11 terror attacks, trips to Canada fell by a third.

Canada responded by marketing itself more aggressively in emerging markets such as India, China, Brazil and Mexico as well as western Europe, increasing visitors, in some cases, as much as 30 per cent, he said.

The success of those efforts helped lead to the push for U.S. marketing.

“The American traveller, when they come and enjoy Canada, tends to develop a pattern of repeat business. So you can’t just look at what they’d spend on one vacation, but over a series,” he said.

Dharinee Bhatt (middle), a Miss World Canada 2015 delegate, organized a fund raiser for the Variety Children’s Charity of BC on March 28 in Vancouver.

Russ Hibert is most prolific traveller among MPs

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ith trips to Paris, Istanbul and Taipei last year, B.C. Conservative MP Russ Hiebert proved for the third year running that he is the most prolific user of “sponsored travel” in the House of Commons, according to a report released Thursday. The annual report from Mary Dawson, Parliament’s conflict-of-interest commissioner, lists MPs’ trips paid for not by Canadian taxpayers but

by Canadian and especially foreign universities, think-tanks, institutes and other entities.

Among the most active sponsors are organizations lobbying for international support for Israel and Taiwan. Hiebert, the Surrey MP who was criticized in 2010 for high Canadian taxpayer-funded travel expenses, said his frequent flyer status reflects his involvement in

trade and human rights issues on parliamentary committees. “It is the duty of members of Parliament to promote Canada’s economic, trade and security interests abroad, and I take my responsibility seriously to advance the values that we are proud of as Canadians, including democracy, freedom and human rights,” Hiebert said in a statement Thursday. But an opposition B.C. MP said the Tory backbencher, who was first elected in 2004 and announced last year he won’t run again, is clearly an excessive participant in so-called junkets.

New Democrat Don Davies said Hiebert’s foreign trips represent a questionable use of the time of an MP earning a base annual salary of $163,700, or $3,148 a week. “I would challenge the utility of these trips,” said Davies.

NDP MP for Newton North Delta (soon to be Surrey Newton) rallies her troops to get ready for another election this year at a fund raising dinner last weekend in Surrey.

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South Surrey Save On Foods grocery store first to sell wine in B.C.

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he B.C. government has launched an era of wine sales in grocery stores with a pilot project in a Surrey supermarket touted for being convenient to customers,

but criticized as a measure that will doom independent liquor retailers.

The pioneering retailer is a Save-OnFoods supermarket where wine is available from a store within the grocery store and rung up by cashiers who must be 19 and over. “This is a very exciting moment in B.C. history,” said Justice Minister Suzanne Anton, whose ministry is managing the file, during a visit to the store Wednesday. “It’s a customer demand, a consumer demand in British Columbia. This is meeting that demand.”

But B.C. consumers should not expect to be able to go to a supermarket and leave with wine and groceries in their shopping carts across the province any time soon.

Also, only B.C. wine is available at this point

as part of a joint project with the B.C. Wine Institute representing most of B.C’s wineries.

Darrell Jones, president of the Overwaitea Food Group and Save-On Foods, said he was hard-pressed to offer any timeline for when wine will be available at the company’s Urban Fare on Alberni Street in downtown Vancouver – the second supermarket it hopes will sell wine.

“We’re ready to go now. The issue is with the city,” Mr. Jones said in an interview.

He said Overwaitea and SaveOn-Foods, which operates more than 100 supermarkets in B.C., is thankful to be a pioneer, but mindful that retailing rivals are headed this way as well.

“We clearly know there will be competition. There will be plenty of competition,” he said.

Miles Prodan, president and CEO of the B.C. Wine Institute, said his organization has 21 licences for similar supermarket operations it plans to enact carefully, promising “selective” decisions about where to open in B.C. “I can safely say there’s not going to be wine on every grocery shelf in B.C.,” he said in an interview. “We are not in a huge rush to move into grocery stores – only where it makes sense.”

RCMP arrest six for Canada-wide human-smuggling, prostitution ring As many as 500 Asian women were allegedly smuggled into the country to take part in a Canada-wide prostitution ring the RCMP says it has dismantled.

Federal authorities announced Wednesday they’d struck against two major cells of the network in the past five days and arrested six people in the greater Montreal and Toronto areas.

The accused are allegedly part of an Asiabased organized crime ring that operated bawdy houses in Halifax, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver. They face a host of charges including procuring, procuring minors, advertising sexual services and gaining a material benefit from sexual services.

Other immigration-related charges could be laid later as well as serious gangsterism charges. Police say the alleged victims,

mainly from Korea and China, received assistance from a criminal organization to enter the country either illegally through land crossings or with student and visitors visas obtained under false pretenses.

They were then controlled and exploited by the prostitution ring and would be put to work across the country, said RCMP Constable Erique Gasse. Constable Gasse told reporters the women were aware they were coming to Canada to work in prostitution, but were told it would be under decent working conditions. “They were supported, controlled and exploited by a prostitution ring that operated across Canada,” Constable Gasse said. “The victims were exploited for several weeks in one place and then transported across the country to continue the same line of work, still in appalling conditions.”

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CMHC to boost premiums for high-risk home buyers

anada’s federal housing agency is raising mortgage insurance premiums as part of a plan to boost its capital reserves.

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. said it is raising premiums on the highest-risk mortgages – borrowers who have down payments of less than 10 per cent – by 15 per cent starting June 1.

The changes come as part of a broader plan by the agency, announced last August, to boost its target capital reserves to 220 per cent above the minimum set by the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions, up from 200 per cent previously.

The increases only apply to new mortgages for borrowers with small down payments.

Those who put down more than 10 per cent of the purchase price aren’t affected. Premi-

ums will also remain unchanged on CMHC’s portfolio insurance, which lenders take out on bundles of uninsured mortgages so they can securitize them, as well as the agency’s insurance for apartment buildings.

The effects will be modest for affected borrowers. An average Canadian borrower who can afford to pay the only the minimum 5-per-cent down payment typically takes out a mortgage of $252,000, CMHC said. Premiums for those borrowers would rise $5 a month, or about $1,500 more over the course of a 25-year mortgage.

CMHC predicted the changes would “not have a material impact on housing markets,” suggesting the agency isn’t looking to cool the housing market.

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Another shooting in Newton

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pril has started off with a bang in Surrey, as gunplay erupted from vehicles in Newton Wednesday morning.

At about 11:40 a.m., police responded to gunfire between two cars at 128 Street and 64 Avenue.

As of 2:20 p.m., there were no reports of injuries from the morning violence.

Police believe the gunfire may have orig-

inated from a silver four-door sedan, as it shot rounds at a black Honda sedan.

Both vehicles were heading south on 128 Street and continued on that path after the shooting.

There are no available descriptions of the people in the vehicles.

There were 11 shootings in Surrey last month, with many of those occurring in Newton.

Four of the incidents are related, police believe. The rest are believed to be targeted.

Anyone with information is encouraged to call Surrey RCMP non-emergency line at 604-599-0502 or to remain anonymous, call Crime Stoppers at 1-800222-8477 (TIPS).

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Killing women, children OK, said BC terrorist

ANCOUVER - An accused British Columbia terrorist calmly dismisses the killing of women and children as “collateral damage” while he and an undercover police officer drive around Victoria scoping out possible targets to attack.

In a video recorded May 2013 and played for a jury on Wednesday, John Nuttall says the slaying of bystanders is OK as long as it is not done on purpose.

“Muslim women and children, they get killed (by Western forces) all the time in

the holy lands,” says Nuttall, a recent convert to Islam.

The recordings were part of a monthslong undercover RCMP sting involving more than 240 police officers.

In video taken on a return ferry trip from Victoria, Nuttall reclines with his eyes closed in the front seat of a parked pickup truck as he dictates his final will and testament to his wife and co-accused, Amanda Korody.

Nuttall outlines that he wants to be buried on his right side in a grave facing Mecca.

“I do not want to have any wailing women or crying,” he says, speaking slowly. “Nor should anybody rip their clothing, slap their faces or any other such nonsense.”

Nuttall begins to snore lightly before waking up with a start and asking Korody what she has written so far.

He adds that he will leave his paintball equipment to the man he doesn’t know is an undercover officer, trusting he will deliver it to jihadist fighters to use for training.

Nuttall and Korody have pleaded not guilty to four terrorism-related charges related to an alleged plot to blow up the B.C. legislature on Canada Day. In video taken earlier in the day, Nuttall is shown taking out a map of Victoria and highlighting potential targets to another person, also an undercover officer, whose role is to drive the couple around the city.

Nuttall picks out Canadian Forces Base Esquimalt and the Bay Street Armoury, which he believes is a storage facility for government tanks.

He also targets the B.C. legislature, which will ultimately become the focus of an alleged plan to detonate three homemade pressure-cooker explosives on July 1, 2013.

But at the time of the video, Nuttall’s plan was to construct and fire off homemade rockets, attributing his inspiration to Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel.

“If they can build them then we can build them,” he says, adding that he hopes the attack will inspire others to follow suit.

In the video, an undercover officer then watches as Nuttall takes a pen to fill in the lines of a Star of David supposedly hidden on a five-dollar bill.

“You think that’s by accident?” Nuttall asks the man he believes is an al-Qaida agent, gesturing to the Jewish symbol from the back seat of a pickup truck.

“It’s not an accident,” Nuttall says.

Nuttall continues on a tirade against the “Zionist-occupied” Canadian government, asserting that Canada gives $6 million a day to help Israel kill Palestinians.

In her cross-examination of the Crown’s star witness, Nuttall’s lawyer Marilyn Sandford periodically stopped the recordings to question the undercover officer, whose identity is protected by a publication ban.

Sandford asked the officer about telling Nuttall that “Everything is in the hands of Allah” “You have to follow your heart” and “If Allah doesn’t want you to do something you won’t do it.”

The officer said his comments were part of an undercover ruse to determine the seriousness of the couple’s alleged plot.

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South Asian man pleads guilty in deaths of man and two escorts

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Surrey man charged in the deaths of a man and two female escorts entered a guilty plea this week, investigators announced Thursday.

Sarbjit Bains, 34, pleaded guilty Thursday to one count of manslaughter in the death of Amritpal Saran, and two counts of second-degree murder in the deaths of Jill Lyons and Karen Nabors, according to the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team. “This guilty plea is a testament to the commitment and professionalism with which this investigation was conducted,” said Supt. Dwayne McDonald, officer in charge of IHIT. “The commitment of the members of IHIT, New Westminster Police Department and the support units who assisted in this investigation has led to this successful conclusion and the assurance that the public is safe from this individual.”

In February 2013, Saran was found dead on Colebrook Road in Surrey. Then in August that same year, Lyons was found dead in her

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New Westminster apartment.

Just over a week following the discovery of Lyons’ body, Nabor was also found dead in her own apartment, inside the same building.

Lyons and Nabor were friends, and both worked as escorts. Homicide investigators, working with New Westminster police, then identified Bains as a suspect. He was arrested on Jan. 3, 2014, and charged in the three deaths.

His girlfriend, Evelina Urbaniuk, was also arrested that same day, and charged for indignity to Saran’s remains.

Urbaniuk has since pleaded guilty and was sentenced to two years less a day and three years probation. According to police sources, Bains dealt with girls for gangs, and provided a sort of pimp service. Saran was known to police and believed to be one of Bains’ customers. “The hard work done by the IHIT and NWPD investigators resulted in the timely apprehension of Mr. Bains,” said Chief Const.

Dave Jones.

‘High risk’ sexual offender arrested following death of girlfriend

ancouver police have confirmed they arrested Daniel Alphonse Paul, 42, yesterday, in connection with the death of his girlfriend last month in East Vancouver.

The body of Rose Paul, 36, a mother of five, was found March 3 in the basement suite of a home on East 22nd Avenue in Vancouver.

Paul was arrested after two officers spotted him riding his bike on Broadway near Yukon Street shortly after 7 p.m. PT. When confronted, he initially denied who he was, but was arrested without incident, said police.

Sgt. Randy Fincham said thousands of police officers across Canada and the United States were involved in the search for Paul, but they don’t know where he was while he was hiding from police.

“It is possible he was living locally. We don’t believe at this point he was assisted by anybody,” said Fincham.

Paul is still being interviewed by investigators and has yet to be charged, but Montague

said Paul will remain in custody.

“Charges probably in place by this afternoon, but might be on another matter and maybe not on the homicide, but charges of some kind so they can hold him in custody,” said Fincham.

“We currently are working very closely with the family.

There are five young girls who have lost their mother, and another two sisters that are grieving the loss of their sister,” he said.

Vancouver police had offered a $10,000 reward for information on Daniel Paul’s whereabouts in mid-March.

They said Daniel Paul has a history of committing violent offences against women and it was possible that people who know him are helping him.

A 2006 National Parole Board decision documented Paul’s long history of violence in relationships and concluded Paul was a “high risk to re offend with violence or sexual violence against an intimate partner.”

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More drugs, cars seized by police in Metro Vancouver

new flurry of police raids across Metro Vancouver have turned up 23,000 fentanyl pills, among other drugs, guns and cash.

Officers conducted 11 searches in Vancouver, New Westminster, Coquitlam, Surrey and Maple Ridge on March 11 following a sixmonth investigation dubbed Project Trooper that’s expected to result in charges against nearly a dozen accused. It was the latest in a series of initiatives to target the trade in deadly fentanyl, an opioid painkiller that has triggered a spike in fatal overdoses across the region.

Vancouver Police say a crime group distributing cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and fentanyl to Downtown Eastside residents was also believed to be shipping large quantities

to Vancouver Island and Alberta. The drugs seized were worth an estimated $1.8 million and included more than 20 kilograms of cocaine, 12 kilograms of methamphetamine and 1.6 kilograms of heroin. Eight vehicles were seized – four of them with hidden compartments – as well as a dozen guns, GPS tracking devices, a radio jamming device and $575,000 in cash. At least 75 overdose deaths in B.C. last year have been tied to fentanyl, with the largest numbers of deaths occurring in Vancouver, Langley and Surrey.

Casual party drug users who take pills or snort or smoke drugs are considered most at risk, rather than the injection drug users who are more often associated with overdoses.

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Naked yoga in Kelowna promotes accepting bodies as they are

aked yoga — where participants bare it all for their practice — is gaining traction in Kelowna, B.C., with classes aimed at helping women accept their bodies for what they are.

“The general overwhelming intention is to try to integrate the entire body to allow yourself to breathe in and become one and not reject different body parts because they are aesthetically not pleasing to you,” said instructor Suzie Doratti, who also works as a (clothed) real estate agent. “You carry a lot of baggage and opinions about certain body parts and

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I think the smoothing over of all of those edges and allowing yourself to just feel like a complete being that’s vibrant in every cell and tissue and organ and accept all of it for what it is.”

The classes, which are held at different studios around Kelowna, are women-only and are done by candlelight with the mirrors blocked out.Doratti said participants usually start off self-conscious, but get more comfortable as the class goes on.

“That’s probably my favourite part of the class, is that shift from nervousness to power,” she said.

Nanny who was ‘virtual slave’ wins $55K in B.C. human rights case B.C.’s Human Rights Tribunal has awarded more than $55,000 to a Filipino woman who was held as a “virtual slave” in a Richmond hotel by a Hong Kong family who planned to move to Canada.

The mother of two — called PN in the decision — was hired as a caregiver for the couple’s two children.

According to the tribunal’s decision, they brought the nanny with them to Canada in July 2013; the husband sexually assaulted her and the wife humiliated and abused her in the hotel suite where they stayed while looking for a house.

Even the children made fun of her.

“PN was a virtual slave,” tribunal member Catherine McCreary wrote in her decision.

“She was isolated, underfed and treated like she was sub-human; all because she was a young Filipino mother who needed the job to take care of her own children. I would like to think that this behaviour does not occur in B.C.” Docked wages The nanny was 28 at the time she was working for the couple, identified as FR and MR. They hired her through an employment agency and paid her $600 Cdn a month to work from 5:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. for them in Hong Kong. She said she had to eat her food while standing and was docked wages for sitting down.

The nanny said the husband, FR, first started sexually assaulting her in Hong Kong. She said he turned off the closed circuit television in their house and forced her to stroke his penis. When the couple decided to move to Canada, the nanny claimed she was pressured to join them. They arrived in Richmond on July 7, 2013, and moved into

a two-bedroom hotel suite near the airport while they looked for a house. The nanny claimed she was forced to sleep on a couch in the living area. She said she was only allowed to eat with permission from MR, who called her names like “garbage,” “stupid” and “evil.”

She claimed FR also started sexually assaulting her again. “He warned her that she would be sent home if she told anyone and that she should be worried about her children,” McCreary wrote. “He said that if she told MR, there would be big trouble for her.”

A ruse to escape The nanny used a trip to the garbage as a ruse to run away from the hotel on Aug. 18, 2013. “She had no money, no passport, no extra clothing, no toiletries, and no eyeglasses.

She knew no one.” McCreary wrote.

“This experience of escaping would become one of the most traumatic aspects of her relationship with the respondents.”

According to the decision, the nanny called police, who initially told her the jurisdiction for solving her problem was in Hong Kong.

But RCMP called her back after FR reported the caregiver missing.

The nanny ultimately made her way to a Vancouver safe house for women who have been victims of sexual exploitation or human trafficking. She can’t work in Canada and does not qualify for social assistance.

Couple denied mistreatment FR and MR have since returned to Hong Kong; FR appeared at the tribunal by video conference, but MR didn’t appear at all.

They claimed they treated the nanny like a member of their family and did not discriminate against her.

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Unrepentant senators upset at tough questioning by auditors

Conservative senator bristled at questions auditors have put to her about her expenses, saying she shouldn’t be expected to eat airline breakfasts.

“If you want ice-cold camembert with broken crackers, have it!” said Senator Nancy Ruth.

Ruth said auditors had taken issue with “a couple of times that my assistant put in [a claim] for a breakfast when I was on a plane, and they say I should have not claimed because I should have eaten that breakfast.

Well, those breakfasts are pretty awful.

“I just don’t think they understand anything of what it’s like to have to fly around the world to get here to Ottawa.”

From the Dec. 1, 2014 to Feb. 28, 2015, Ruth charged $5,799.09 in living expenses in

Mike Duffy trial finally makes key players explain Senate expenses affair

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ike Duffy will swap the Senate for an Ottawa courtroom on Tuesday, when his trial on fraud and bribery opens in what is likely to be the most extensively-covered, heavily-chronicled political event before the fall election.

For the next two weeks in particular the trial will be the only show in town as Parliament adjourns for Easter.

That should guarantee that reporters who normally devour the ins and outs of politics will be consumed by the ups and downs of Duffy, the affable former journalist turned hard-edged partisan.

The suspended senator is accused of billing taxpayers for expenses he was not entitled to claim, including appearances at partisan political events across the country and meals eaten in the Ottawa-area home he had owned for years. He’s also accused of accepting a bribe in the form of a $90,000 cheque from the prime minister’s former chief of staff, Nigel Wright, to repay those expenses, and of hiring a friend and former colleague as a consultant who, RCMP investigators say, did little of the work required under the contracts. Duffy denies doing anything wrong, most memorably from the floor of the Senate in late 2013.

In an impassioned, flawless performance befitting his many years as one of this country’s top TV journalists, Duffy said he followed the Senate’s opaque expense rules on primary versus secondary residences; and he accused the prime minister’s office of orchestrating a monstrous conspiracy against him, demanding he repay the $90,000 against his will, and demanding that he follow a script written for him by PMO underlings, the ones he called “the kids in short pants down the hall.”

The job of sorting through the mountains of documents, the emails and invoices and the conflicting versions of what happened and who’s to blame falls to Ontario Superior Court Justice Charles Vaillancourt.

There is no jury of peers here, in no small part because fraud cases are so complex, where the Crown’s burden of proof rests as much on the unblinking greyness of documents as the imperfect recall of witnesses.

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the national capital region and $11,014.87 in travel “between the senator’s province/territory of appointment and the National Capital Region.” Ruth lives in Toronto.

NDP take aim at Senate “Some of these numbers are shocking. We want to know why there were no checks and balances at any point, it seems, when it comes to Senate spending,” said the NDP’s Charlie Angus. “We’re hearing reports of up to $100,000 inappropriate travel spending.

That’s surprising.”

“We’d love to get to work with the provinces and get rid of the Senate,” said NDP Leader Tom Mulcair. “It’s wasteful and it’s useless.”

Senator Marjory LeBreton invited 1. the auditor general to review the Senate’s ex-

penses in 2013 when several of its members were caught up in a scandal over claims they made for homes they had described as primary residences.

Former Liberal Mac Harb, who has retired, and Conservative appointees Patrick Brazeau and Mike Duffy have all been charged over their expense claims, while Pamela Wallin faces an ongoing RCMP investigation.

Duffy’s trial gets underway Tuesday.

On Wednesday, LeBreton walked past reporters trying to speak to her about the auditors’ findings. “I have absolutely no comment on anything that is going on with the auditor general or in the court.”

40 auditors working full-time About 40 auditors hired by the auditor general are working on the Senate expenses file in any given month, poring over claims related mostly to travel and housing.

They are looking for evidence that senators may have billed taxpayers for expenses they incurred while not on Senate busi-

ness. Sources say that could mean expenses claimed for travel undertaken for partisan activities, a trip to a corporate board meeting or personal matters. Auditors are also looking at office spending, contracts, purchasing and international travel.

CBC News has learned 118 current and former senators are being examined. All of them will receive a letter from auditors asking for further clarification on expenses.

CBC News has learned 40 letters were sent to senators in the past week, and 78 are yet to come — but not all of the letters reveal problems with those senators’ expenses.

Some senators said the letters challenge expenses for postage and hospitality expenses, and in each case set out the exact amount being disputed. In some cases, the amounts total thousands of dollars, one senator said.

In those cases, receipts alone are not enough to satisfy auditors. They want proof the expenses claimed truly relate to Senate business.

18 i Saturday, April 4, 2015

LOCAL

Canadian diplomat’s son killed, another in custody after Miami shooting in a diplomatic car

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he 17-year-old son of a Canadian diplomat in Miami is dead and his 15-year-old brother is in police custody, following a shootout during an alleged drug robbery that also left another teenager dead.

The older son of Roxanne Dubé, Jean Wabafiyebazu, was shot Monday afternoon, the boys’ father, Germano Wabafiyebazu, confirmed from Ottawa. Jean later died in hospital. The other teen who died has been identified by NBC News as Joshua Wright, 17.

Jean Wabafiyebazu’s younger brother, Marc, is facing two charges, including felony murder. According to Florida law, an individual involved in a violent crime during which someone is killed can be charged with felony murder. He has also been charged with corruption by threat against a public

servant. According to an affidavit obtained to Zimbabwe from 2005 to 2008. Germano

by CBC News, Marc, while at Miami police Wabafiyebazu said Dubé told him their two headquarters, threatened to kill a detective, sons asked for the car at about 3 p.m. Monday to go around the saying “that he would city. He said Jean and shoot him in the Marc then picked up head.” a friend, whom the Germano Wabafifather described as yebazu is separated “an intermediary.” from the boys’ mother, the Canadian conPolice say the two sul general in Miami. brothers, armed with “She is devastated,” weapons, planned to he told Hiscox.

Canadian Jean Wabafiyebazu, 17, left, was killed rob an alleged drug Dubé was named dealer and a shootout on Monday and his 15-year-old brother, Marc, consul general last ensued. right and their mother Roxanne Dubé below.

November, but the The Miami Herald father said she only arrived in Miami with reported the teen brothers drove to an apartthe boys in February. She was ambassador ment in Miami’s Coral Way neighbourhood in a BMW with diplomatic plates.

The diplomat’s younger son was outside in a parked car when the shooting started, the Herald reported the police as saying. Germano Wabafiyebazu believes the apartment belonged to the intermediary, and that it appeared the alleged drug dealer didn’t trust Jean or the intermediary.

‘In his case, because he’s under the age of 18, there would not be a death penalty involved in this case at all.’— David Ovalle, Miami Herald reporter “And something irritated him, and [he] shot them,” the boys’ father told CBC News.

Marc, inside the car, heard the shots, ran to the dwelling and saw his brother and the other young man dead, his father said. Marc was later arrested at the scene.

Germano Wabafiyebazu believes Marc would have been shot, too, if he had been inside the apartment when the firing started.

“I consider myself really lucky” to have not lost both sons, he said. A male witness told NBC News: “We heard, like, six straight shots. [We] came out here. Heard another

four. Saw some guy come out with a gun.

Some other guy behind him stumbling. He fell down, and some chick came out screaming.” A 19-year-old man was wounded in the incident, police told the Herald. The newspaper identified him as Anthony Rodriguez, 19.

He drove away from the scene of the shooting but was arrested at a nearby gas station and has been charged with felony murder and marijuana possession with intent to sell, the Herald reported.

Miami defence lawyer David Edelstein said that it’s possible for Marc Wabafiyebazu to be charged with two counts of murder, even though he may not have pulled the trigger. “It doesn’t matter that it’s his brother, although it’s kind of a little strange for him to be charged with the death of his brother, which he certainly did not intend or want to happen,” Edelstein said.

“The law doesn’t really discriminate between who dies during the commission of one of these crimes, in this case armed robbery.”

Waiting on charges David Ovalle, a reporter for the Miami Herald, told CBC News the next step would be for the state attorney’s office to decide whether Marc will be charged as an adult or not, which would probably happen within 21 days. “In his case, because he’s under the age of 18, there would not be a death penalty involved in this case,” Ovalle said.

John Babcock, a spokesman for Canada’s Foreign Affairs Department, said in an email statement that the department is “aware of reports of a serious incident involving a Canadian family in Miami. “Canadian officials are providing assistance to the family,” Babcock said. “A full investigation is underway, and we will continue assisting local authorities.” The body of Jean Wabafiyebazu will eventually be transported back to Canada.

Mike Duffy trial finally makes key players explain Senate expenses affair Continued from Previous Page...

Crime and politics Despite the obvious political overtones this is, first and foremost, a criminal trial.

Prosecutor Mark Holmes and defence lawyer Don Bayne will stick to that mantra. For them, Duffy’s innocence or guilt is all that matters. But the political implications can’t be avoided, and there will surely be more than enough fodder for reporters and Ste-

phen Harper’s political opponents to emerge during the trial. Just look at how the Duffy affair has unfolded since early 2013, as Harper’s aides, key senators and others sought to contain the political damage caused by the first news reports of his expense claims.

That they failed is obvious. Duffy and two other senators have been charged, a fourth, another former journalist, Pamela Wallin, remains under police investigation.

Saturday, April 4, 2015 i 19

LOCAL

20 i Saturday, April 4, 2015

Truck driver claims he still has nightmares about crash that killed Surrey Mountie

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truck driver involved in a fatal crash in 2012 that claimed the life of an RCMP officer still has nightmares and has been unable to work since the accident, his lawyer said Tuesday. While acknowledging the tragic death of Surrey RCMP Const. Adrian Oliver, 28, who was killed at the end of his 12-hour shift, lawyer Brij Mohan said his client, Harjit Lotay, has also suffered. “I’m suffering myself and I’ve done nothing wrong,” Lotay, 57, told reporters outside the courthouse in New Westminster.

“Mr. Lotay has been also a victim in this motor vehicle accident,” said his lawyer, adding his client has had two shoulder surgeries, suffers from serious depression and post traumatic stress disorder. He said his client was also at the end of his shift, coming home after driving a truck from Calgary, and did nothing wrong.

Lotay was originally charged with careless driving, which suggested Lotay was at fault for the accident, which occurred abound 5 a.m. on Nov. 13, 2012, on 64th Avenue near the intersection of 148th Street. The police car was speeding and did not have its lights or siren activated when it was hit by Lotay’s Freight-

Vancouver police chief defends window smashing officer

liner truck. Last week a senior Crown prosecutor decided to drop the charge against Lotay.

Lotay’s lawyer said his client was a responsible citizen and tried to help remove the constable from his police cruiser and cut his right arm while doing so.

Lotay stayed at the scene providing assistance until first responders arrived, the lawyer said. “Whenever an officer dies in the line of duty, it’s very sad news,” Mohan said. “But let’s not forget Mr. Lotay, who did nothing wrong. His name was vilified because he was just involved in this accident… He was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

The lawyer added: “He was the forgotten victim in the scheme of things.” Mohan said his client is trying to get on with his life and hopes to return to work one day. “He suffers nightmares and insomnia,” the lawyer said of his client. “He is living a nightmare of this accident every night.” Mohan said the Attorney General of Canada, on behalf of the RCMP, filed a civil lawsuit against Lotay to recover the cost of the police vehicle, which was a write-off, as well as the equipment inside the vehicle, but Lotay has not been served with notice of the legal action.

Vancouver’s police chief is defending the actions of an officer who was captured on video smashing a driver’s car window. In a statement Tuesday, Chief Const. Jim Chu said he wanted to clarify “some facts that may have been lost in the way the story was reported,” taking specific issue with a recent National Post commentary that ran with the headline “Cops run amok.” “This was not a traffic stop, it was a drug arrest,” Chu said. “Impaired driving

Recording key in petition to oust Vancouver mayor, councillor: Court hears

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awyers argued Tuesday over the validity of an audio recording at the centre of a petition to remove Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson and Councillor Geoff Meggs from office. The B.C. Supreme Court petition to remove the politicians stems from a $34,000 donation to Vision Vancouver from the Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 1004 made after a meeting during the 2014 election campaign where Meggs re-committed to not contracting out jobs and asked for the union’s support. A secret recording of the meeting, published by a local reporter, led to the legal action by five petitioners.

Their lawyer David Wotherspoon argued that Meggs’ statement put him in conflict of interest because he made a specific promise that would benefit the union, asked for support and then his party received the money.

The recording features a CUPE 1004 representative saying the donation would “curry favour” in upcoming negotiations with the city but that the union’s support wasn’t “unconditional.” Wotherspoon said this undermines confidence in the electoral process where politicians are elected to represent the

alerted the officer to the danger the driver posed to public safety and marijuana smoke billowing from the car made the cause of that impairment obvious.” “In order to make the arrest, force became necessary when the person refused to exit the vehicle, which is understandable since he allegedly knew what would be found in his car if he did,” he said. In the National Post commentary, writer Marni Soupcoff, executive director of the Canadian Constitution Foundation, described the video

public’s best interests.

“The underlying point there is you can’t serve two masters,” Wotherspoon said.

He also argued Meggs and Robertson haven’t outright denied the apparent conflict.

However, Robertson did deny the allegations of corruption over the donation during the election.

Both he and Meggs filed a defamation lawsuit against NPA mayoral candidate Kirk LaPointe over the allegations.

Robertson and Meggs’ lawyer Bryan Baynham argued the recording had “no evidentiary value whatsoever” because it is “incomplete, edited, or both,” according to the agreed statement of facts.

It’s not clear how much weight Judge Elliott Myers will put on the recording – at nine minutes and 22 seconds in length, it’s missing more than an hour of the meeting – but he noted that the accuracy of Meggs’ statement wasn’t disputed.

But Myers didn’t seem entirely swayed by Wotherspoon’s argument. Politicians make promises and people give them money all the time, he said. “It’s about where you draw the line.”

as “extremely disturbing” and indicative of police “using excessive force and behaving like soldiers rather than officers of the law whose duty is to protect all of us.”

But Chu defended the officer, saying he “acted proactively when he saw a car weaving that could at any minute strike another car or pedestrian causing injury or worse.” Chu noted that the driver had enough marijuana on him to be charged with possession for the purpose of trafficking. He said the video shows that the driver was evasive and lying about not having drugs in the car.

2 i Saturday, April 4, 2015

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LOCAL

B.C. freezes worker-immigration program (PNP) as backlog grows

he B.C. government has abruptly review what kinds of job-skill gaps it hopes shut the door on most of its provin- to address through immigration. She added cial immigration program for the next three that applications already in the queue will be months, saying new federal limits on tem- processed on a first-come, first-served basis. porary foreign workers have triggered an The provincial government has been unmanageable flood of applicants seeking warning that British Columbia faces a skills entry to Canada through British Columbia. shortage with an anticipated construction Jobs Minister Shirley Bond said Tuesday boom in the north. It has long called for that no new applications will be accepted more control over immigration to address until July 2, giving her staff time to pro- such shortages. cess a growing backlog However, many of while her ministry looks the temporary foreign at what qualifications workers in B.C. were it will seek from those being hired for lowhoping to come to B.C. wage jobs in the hosthrough the provinpitality industry. The cial nominee program government federal (PNP). Some exceptions was forced to make will be made in highchanges after alleganeed categories such as tions surfaced last year health-care workers. that some employers – Under the program, particularly restaurants Ottawa allows the prov– were abusing the proinces limited control over immigration. This gram. year, B.C. will grant permanent resident staOttawa is phasing in limits on the numtus to 5,500 immigrants to fill labour-mar- ber of temporary foreign workers that largeket needs. and medium-sized companies are permitted Applications to the provincial program to hire and is promising more inspections of surged after the federal government intro- workplaces, bigger fines for companies that duced immigration changes, in particular abuse the program and increased applicatighter controls on its temporary foreign tion fees for employers. worker program. A year ago, B.C. could As a result of those changes, Ms. Bond process a PNP application in 12 weeks; now said, applications for the program dropped the wait list is 13 months, and there are al- sharply and there has been a spike in apready more people in the queue than B.C. plications to the provincial program. “We can admit this year. need to make sure the system we use in the “The system is trying to adjust to the [provincial nominee] program actually lines changes that the federal government has im- up with some of the changes that have taken posed,” Ms. Bond told reporters Tuesday. In place,” she said, adding: “This is not about addition to hiring new staff to process appli- reconstructing an avenue for temporary forPUNJABI STAR_Ad 19/03/15 needs 12:47 time PM Page cations, she said the3province to 1eign workers.”

No Canadian passport for Fahmy until travel ban lifted, says Foreign Affairs Minister

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oreign Affairs Minister Rob Nicholson was accused Thursday of incompetent, disgraceful conduct for not agreeing to issue Mohamed Fahmy a new Canadian passport while he awaits trial in Egypt.

New Democrat foreign affairs critic Paul Dewar levelled the characterization at the minister as he testified before the House of Commons foreign affairs committee.

The angry words came after Dewar was unable to wrestle a commitment from Nicholson to use his discretion and issue a new passport. The minister reiterated what Fahmy was told in a letter this week from Canadian passport officials, that a new passport will only be issued when a court-imposed travel ban, which is part of his bail conditions, is lifted.

The Canadian journalist is on trial in Egypt on widely denounced terror charges and says he is crippled by Ottawa’s refusal to issue him a new passport while he awaits the outcome of his case.

The 40-year-old’s passport was seized

by Egyptian authorities when he was first arrested in December 2013 and has never been returned.

Dewar said Fahmy needs the document to get married and rent an apartment and car while awaiting trial in Egypt. Nicholson said the issue of a new passport was the bailiwick of Immigration Minister Chris Alexander.

“Mr. Nicholson, you’re married, I’m married, you remember what it was like, you had to actually go to officials and provide

documents. Why aren’t you allowing Mr. Fahmy to get married? Don’t give me this — it’s Mr. Alexander,” said Dewar.

“Is that the standard of service that this government is giving to Canadians abroad? If it is, then you’re incompetent sir . . . it is a matter of incompetence and it’s disgraceful.”

Nicholson did not reply, as Dewar’s seven minutes of allotted question time expired and the committee moved on.

The minister left the hearing before he could be questioned by reporters.

But Dewar expanded on his remarks once the meeting ended.

“Either we’ve got a minister who doesn’t understand his job — and that’s incompetence — or they’re not actually willing to offer a passport to him, and that means they’re abandoning him as a Canadian citizen.”

The Canadian Press caught up with Nicholson at the door of his limousine on Parliament Hill as he was departing for the day.

“I know the consular officials are in touch with him and I’ve got complete confidence in them; they will continue to work with him and, again I’ve complete confidence in the work that my colleague Lynn Yelich has done as well,” Nicholson said.

A spokesman for Immigration Chris Alexander did not respond to a request for comment.

A spokeswoman for Yelich, the junior foreign minister for consular affairs, said in an email: “we have a travel document prepared for Mr. Fahmy once he is able to travel.”

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LOCAL

Saturday, April 4, 2015 i 3

South Asian teen sues Nissan over seatbelt safety for ‘forgotten children’

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hey are called “the forgotten children” — kids who have outgrown booster seats but are too small for adult seat belts.

They’ve been the subject of academic studies and a U.S. government blue ribbon panel.

Now, in a B.C. Supreme Court claim, an Abbotsford teen alleges he suffered brain injuries because Nissan failed to warn customers about what he says are the dangers posed to children by rear seatbelts in a 2006 Pathfinder.

life and the cost of medical treatment. He’s also seeking aggravated and punitive damages. Nissan Canada declined to comment on the case, citing pending litigation. None of the claims have been proven in court.

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“Despite knowing that the rear seat restraint systems and/or seat belts were defective, [Nissan] … marketed and sold the Pathfinder as a safe vehicle with a rear seat restraint system and/or seat belts that were safe for use by children including the plaintiff,” the claim reads.

‘Inadequately restrained’ According to the notice of civil claim, Arshdeep Singh Sidhu was nine years old when a vehicle crashed into the passenger side of his parents’ Pathfinder.

The lawsuit claims Sidhu was in the rear seat on the driver’s side, “inadequately restrained in a three-point seat belt.”

According to the lawsuit, studies as early as 1994 identified defects in restraint systems and seat belts for children.

The claim cites a study that found children were likely to move the shoulder belt behind their torso, to the opposite shoulder, under their arms or away from their body because of improperly fitted design.

In 1999, the U.S. National Highway Transportation Safety Administration appointed a blue-ribbon panel — including a manager from Nissan — to look at ways of protecting the “forgotten children” in vehicles.

The panel recommended increased education around booster seats as well as legislation to tighten laws enforcing child passenger safety.

Devices to eliminate slack The lawsuit claims Nissan conducted studies on restraint systems after the release of the panel’s recommendations and allegedly found the seatbelts failed to protect children.

The lawsuit claims the Pathfinder’s front seatbelts had pretensioners to eliminate slack in the event of a collision.

Sidhu also claims the Pathfinder’s front seatbelts were equipped with pretensioners, devices “designed to eliminate slack in the lap and/or torso area in the event of a collision.”

But he alleges the rear seatbelts were not equipped with pretensioners; Sidhu claims the devices would have reduced or eliminated his injuries.

In B.C., children under nine or below a height of 145 cm are required to be in booster seats with seat

belts. Children over the age of 12 months between 9 kg (20 lbs) and 18 kg (40 lbs) must ride in an appropriate car seat.

Anyone over nine is required to use a properly adjusted seatbelt. Sidhu is seeking damages for loss of enjoyment of

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OPINION

4 i Saturday, April 4, 2015

How many breakfasts a day should taxpayers buy each Senator?

Story from Page 1... he taxpayers are there to be taxed to the hilt and we are here to spend their money. That is all there is to it. Why ask stupid questions? One of these ‘stupid questions’ was “ why did you claim for breakfast on a certain date when you also claimed reimbursement for flying the same day and your flight was apparently during breakfast hours and you would have been provided breakfast on the plane?” This seems to me like perfectly legitimate question. Why should taxpayers pay you or a second breakfast when you were already provided on the plane? This question was put to Toronto Conservative Senator Nancy Ruth who bristled - and bristled and bristled.

“If you want ice-cold camembert with broken crackers, have it!” Senator Ruth told reporters.

Ruth said auditors had taken issue with “a couple of times that my assistant put in [a claim] for a breakfast when I was on a plane, and they say I should have not claimed be-

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cause I should have eaten that breakfast. Well, those breakfasts are pretty awful.

“I just don’t think they understand anything of what it’s like to have to fly around the world to get here to Ottawa.” Well, it appears that Senator Ruth does not understand how important it is that taxpayers funds are not wasted - in light of the fact that t suspend Senators and one retired Senator are facing fraud and misuse of public funds charges. An RCMP investigation against a fourth Senator is ongoing.

From the Dec. 1, 2014 to Feb. 28, 2015, Ruth charged $5,799.09 in living expenses in the national capital region and $11,014.87 in travel “between the senator’s province/territory of appointment and the National Capital Region.” And she does not have to “fly around the world” to get to Ottawa. She lives in Toronto - which is a very short flight to Ottawa.

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their expense claims, while Pamela Wallin faces an ongoing RCMP investigation. Duffy’s trial gets underway Tuesday.

While the Senators are bristling, the official Opposition NDP is once again demanding that the Senate be shut down.

“Some of these numbers are shocking.

We want to know why there were no checks and balances at any point, it seems, when it comes to Senate spending,” said the NDP’s Charlie Angus. “We’re hearing reports of up to $100,000 inappropriate travel spending.

That’s surprising.” “We’d love to get rid of the Senate,” said NDP Leader Tom Mulcair. “It’s wasteful and it’s useless.”

However, it may not be that easy to just shut down the Senate.

A far better way may be the one that Prime Minister Stephen Harper has adopted - albeit unintentionally. He is not appointing any new Senators, leading to a lot of vacancies in the Upper House. Harper became worried after three of his latest appointees to the Senate, Duffy, Wallin and Brazeau became involved in claiming expenses where none existed, leading to RCMP investigations and charges.

Who knows what the next person appointed will do, Harper reasoned. In public, Harper says Canadians currently do not want Senate appointments. If he continues down this path and others who become Prime Minister, follow this policy, pretty soon Canadian Senate will be a thing of the past. And there is not a thing that the Atlantic Provinces and Quebec can do about it. After all, you can’t force the Prime Minister to appoint someone to the Senate. Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau has removed all Liberal Senators form the Liberal caucus but he has not openly said he will not make Senate appointments. And the NDP is dead set against the Senate, anyways.

Meanwhile, there about 40 auditors working on the Senate expenses file in any given month, poring over claims related mostly to travel and housing.

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Saturday, April 4, 2015 i 5

6 i Saturday, April 4, 2015 Story from Page 1...

LOCAL

Shalendra Sharma jailed one year for attacks on sex trade workers

Two similar incidents occurred in 2011, and then in December 2011 he got into a dispute with a prostitute who wanted payment in advance. He chased her around his vehicle and struck her with a steering wheel lock, fracturing her wrist.

In sentencing the father of two, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Terry Schultes noted that Sharma, who has no prior record, had complied with his bail conditions and had shown a willingness to undergo sex offender treatment, legitimate expressions of remorse. He said the most important aggravating factors were the “unique vulnerability” of the victims as sex trade workers, particularly the teenage victim, and the persistence of similar criminal behaviour over a lengthy period of time. The judge said that while he agreed with the defence that it was essential to sentence Sharma only on the offences and factors before him, it would also be a mistake to disregard the overall context.

“Viewed as a whole they do represent different ways of exploiting sex trade workers through criminal behaviour. And even the ostensibly minor thefts that make up three of the counts are fairly understood as the culmination of a systematic way of obtaining sex without payment.”

Schultes said society has to express its “collective condemnation” of violence toward and exploitation of sex trade workers.

He said that consequences to Sharma of being charged and convicted — including the loss of employment, estrangement from some members of his family and the widespread publicity of the

case — had already provided a significant amount of deterrence.

The judge also noted that a psychological assessment rated Sharma’s risk of re-offending to be low, and agreed that conditional sentences can provide significant denunciation and deterrence with punitive and restrictive conditions.

The real question before him was whether the principles of denunciation and deterrence were particularly pressing, so that the punitive conditions of a conditional sentence could not address them, he said. “My conclusion is that they are,” he said in sentencing reasons given Thursday in B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver. “Put simply, forcing sexual intercourse on a teenage sex trade worker, even if it’s a dated offence, and breaking the wrist of another sex trade worker in the context of a fee dispute, requires a period of actual incarceration.

“However, I am satisfied that the period required is lower than it would otherwise be, if significant mitigating factors were not present.”

Schultes imposed a sentence of one year, 14 days in prison and three years’ probation. He’s required to attend any sex offender treatment programs directed by his probation officer and is restricted from being in a large area of Vancouver in addition to the area in Burnaby where he committed the crimes.

The Crown had sought a sentence of between two and three years in prison, with the defence arguing for a conditional sentence. Sharma was initially charged with 12 criminal counts, including four counts of sexual assault.

Story from Page 1...

Hindus to be world’s 3rd largest population by 2050: Report “The number of Muslims will nearly equal the number of Christians around the world,” it added.

If the trend continues, Islam will be the most popular faith in the world after 2070, it said.

By 2050, Muslims will make up about 10 per cent of the Europe’s population, up from 5.9 per cent in 2010.

Over the same period, the number of Hindus in Europe is expected to roughly double, from a little under 1.4 million (0.2 per cent of Europe’s population) to nearly 2.7 million (0.4 per cent), mainly as a result of immigration, it said.

In North America, the Hindu share of the population is expected to nearly double in the decades ahead, from 0.7 per cent in 2010 to 1.3 per cent in 2050, when migration is included in the projection models. Without migration, the Hindu share of the region’s population would remain the same.

Buddhism is the only faith that is not expected to increase its followers, due to an ageing population and stable fertility rates in Buddhist countries, such as China, Japan and Thailand.

The projections considered fertility rates, trends in youth population growth and religious conversion statistics.

Swami Dr Satya Prakash speaking at the Writers International Network Canada’s fourth annual literary festival in Richmond last weekend.

OPINION

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Saturday, April 4, 2015 i 7

Metro Vancouver’s transit plan doesn’t need a referendum - Michael Izen

here are several things wrong with the transit plan for British Columbia’s Lower Mainland, and there’s a lot more wrong with the politicians who are pushing it. In spite of that, I’m voting “Yes�.

I want more public transit. I want the eastwest routes in Vancouver opened up. I want more buses, I want more rapid transit, I want new bridges, and I want them all connected.

One of the flaws in the plan is the lack of strategic vision. More bike lanes, as proposed, may encourage more people-powered transportation, but if they come at the expense of roads then we are not addressing the problem, we are just adding window dressing.

A strategic approach, funded and accountable, would enhance our economy and standard of living. I would like to see timed traffic lights, alternate routes through congested areas, and most of the items in our current grab bag. I understand we need to pay for this through taxation, but let’s not pretend this is what we pay our elected officials to do.

Voted “Yes�, in spite of the flaws, will at least get the infrastructure and the traffic moving. But then I recommend that taxpayers vote “no� on something else; at the earliest opportunity, vote against the politicians who opted for a pointless referendum.

If our elected officials are in agreement over the transit improvements, then why didn’t they just do it? We elect people to government to make difficult decisions. If they were all easy, then we wouldn’t need politicians. The basic decision over the transit referendum is quite simple - more public transit

for more public money. When the facts are clear, being decisive is what we pay politicians to do. The politicians behind the referendum have unnecessarily complicated the decision by mixing in pet projects with bad management, then blending it with an unrelated payment plan. These same politicians are trying to distance themselves from potential screw-ups by sloughing off the decision-making to the public through the referendum - even if only 30 per cent of registered voters will bother to do so.

We employ/elect more than 200 MLAs and city councillors in the Lower Mainland to make these decisions.

Not one of them has the stones to stand up and be counted. The referendum is a recipe for delay and unnecessary expenditure, with potential to derail much needed infrastructure improvements. This does not help the economy grow, nor does it add to the greater good. Our officials came up with a dog’s breakfast of political wish lists, wrapped up in a strategic package. If we vote “No�, will Surrey actually stop advocating for the replacement of the Patullo bridge, or will Gregor Robertson stop designating roads as bike lanes, or the Premier Christy Clark unannounce the Massey Bridge? Not likely.

It is also foolish to tie the financing for these projects to an unrelated taxation scheme. After the province totally blew the introduction of the HST, politicians are now trying to tie in regional transportation infrastructure to a general sales tax. Targeted taxes only make sense for targeted projects.

- Columnist Michael Izen is an economic and labour market analyst.

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OPINION

8 i Saturday, April 4, 2015

PST hike not the best way to pay for Metro Vancouver’s transit plans

By Joseph Berechman - Professor of Economics, The City University of New York

O

ver the next two months, residents of Metro Vancouver will vote “Yes” or No” in a transit tax plebiscite, but the proposed tax hike to finance what are mostly public transit projects is at best questionable from a transportation economics perspective. At worse, it could cause more harm than good.

If properly designed, built, maintained and operated, public transit systems can serve a vital role in enhancing mobility and accessibility in dense metropolitan areas. Unfortunately, the overwhelming international evidence suggests that many public transit systems are, in fact, improperly designed, built and operated, with disastrous results manifested in gross under-utilization and enormous costs overruns, requiring further infusion of capital funding.

In general, the efficiency and effectiveness of public transit systems is location-based.

While highly effective in densely populated

less-expensive alternatives?

The merit of the plan largely hinges on the answers to these questions.

Even if we assume that the proposed investments totalling $7.5 billion are indeed justifiable and will transpire over the next decade with no cost overruns, this amount still does not represent the true cost.

First, on an annual basis, experience elsewhere suggests that, once completed, we should expect at least an additional 10 per cent of the total capital costs to go to maintenance and operating costs, entailing over three quarters of which is on public tranan extra $750 million per year over sit projects, justified? the effective life span of the projects (which, 2) Do all of the planned public transit proj- incidentally, is more than the amount the proects outlined in the plan offer the best value posed tax hike will fetch). to residents?

Second, transit systems require periodi3) Were they shown to be superior to other cal upgrading and use of new technologies, suggesting additional upgrading costs each year. Then, depending on how the projects are financed, debt service costs must also be accounted for. Presently, the annual coupon rate on a 10-year government bond for British Columbia municipalities is 2.45 per cent, which means an additional annual cost of almost $184 million.

But these expenses still do not cover the entire cost of the proposal since taxation carries real efficiency and equity costs to the region and its residents. Put simply, the additional tax entails less revenue to commercial enterprises, less purchasing power for consumers and a less attractive economy for out-of-region businesses and tourists.

So these losses to the economy in the form of reduced sales, lost income and a less-competitive regional economy cannot be overlooked as they impose additional real costs caused by the proposed tax hike. Likewise, the regressive impact of an increase in a sales tax cannot be ignored; it means that low- and middle-income groups will pay a higher share of their income than more affluent groups.

These intangible social costs cannot be disregarded.

Given the expected revenues from hiking the PST, on the one hand, and the true total costs to the economy of the proposed transportation projects combined with the economic and social costs of the tax, on the other, one cannot escape the impression that it’s a poor deal.

TD Mortgage flexible payment features let you manage There are better ways to pay for your mortgage desi style so you’re free to focus on capital-intensive transportation projects. This includes eliminating what’s important sooner. Increase payments, pay more 1 unnecessary and wasteful projects, frequently, make extra lump sum payments – or take a more rational pricing of transa payment chutti. It’s your mortgage. It’s your zindagi. portation services (highways inManage them your way. cluded) and rationalized user fees, the use of less distortive taxes, capitalizing on the positive impacts of the transportation projects such as an increase in property values, and the use of private-sector financing in the form of public-private partnerships.

All of these options should be carefully considered before approving the proposed dubious tax hike in Metro Vancouver.

areas, its accessibility and economic efficacy effects are reduced significantly in sparsely populated, suburban-type locations, which typifies some communities located at the outskirt of central cities, such as Vancouver.

The tenet that public transit is always superior to other forms of transportation, mainly highways, is simply wrong. In fact, it has been shown that outside the central city, save for targeted transit services, the capacity and quality of the road network provide superior accessibility and economic growth effects than public transit.

Before approving the proposed tax hike, residents should ask: 1) Is this capital spending of $7.5 billion,

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LOCAL

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Saturday, April 4, 2015 i 9

Temple’s stature will rise with Modi’s visit says President Satish Kumar

ndian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is coming to Surrey. As if this wasn’t exciting enough, the fact that he is coming to the Surrey Hindu temple has the South Asian community thrilled to bits.

How did he choose this temple for the visit?

How long will he be here? What will he do? These are some of the questions being asked fast and furious, and in the midst of this flurry of activity is Mr. Satish Kumar, President of Vedic Hindu Cultural Society, which runs the Shri Laxmi Narayan Mandir in Surrey. “This is big. Not only is Mr. Modi India’s Prime Minister, but he is also a well known powerful world leader. His visiting us has certainly created a buzz,� said Kumar talking about the Indian PM’s visit on April 16, 2015.

And it is so big that since the time it has been confirmed that Modi is visiting, Kumar hasn’t had a moment of peace. His phone has been ringing non stop, there are a zillion things to accomplish and accomplish them well. “I am proud that Mr. Modi has chosen to visit our temple. It will certainly put not only Surrey but the entire Indian diaspora on the map. I am happy that our temple’s name will go down in history as the first Hindu temple ever visited by an Indian Prime Minister,� said Kumar who took over the leadership of the temple last year.

But how did the temple manage to pull this? “When we heard that the Prime Minister had plans to visit Vancouver, we decided to ask the concerned authorities whether he would be interested in visiting our temple.

To our surprise and happiness, our request as accepted,� said Kumar adding that a lot of lobbying on his and his supporters part went into this.

The entire temple is being spruced up for the visit. The majestic domes are being pressure washed and the grounds being well cared for.

Mr. Modi will arrive at around five on April 16, and will be at the premises for about 50 minutes during which time he will pay his respects and address the gathered 4600 strong crowd.

Each and every member of the audience, media and volunteers will have to undergo a rigorous security check and Mr. Kumar along with help from Vice President Vinay Sharma are making hectic arrangements. “I want the Prime Minister to see how well we have maintained our social and cultural values and at the same time adopted Canadian values as well. The smooth functioning of this event will showcase the strength of the diaspora,� said Kumar.

Satish Kumar has been involved with temple activities for more than two de-

By- Shruti Prakash Joshi

cades, first as a volunteer and then ner in South Asia. ence and technology, innovation, educaas a council member. “When I “Canada and India enjoy a close friend- tion, security, counter-terrorism and enersold my Insurance business in 2010 ship based on shared values of democracy, gy are expected to feature prominently in due to some health issues, I pluralism and a mutual interest in expand- discussions.� found myself with a lot ing trade,� Prime Minister Stephen Harper Harper first announced the Indian PM of time on my hands. said in a release. “India’s growing economy would be coming to Canada in March.

I then started getting presents enormous opportunities for Can- From April 14 to 16, Modi will be stopping more involved in ada and I look forward to meeting with in Toronto, Ottawa and Vancouver, as well temple activities and Prime Minister Modi to further strength- as Surrey. last year successful- en bilateral relations and expand our trade This is the first bilateral visit to Canada ly ran and won the and investment ties with a view to benefit- by an Indian Prime Minister since 1973. temple elections,� ting citizens of both countries.�

To register to attend the event, visit Hinexplained Kumar.

The visit will “provide an opportunity dumandirsurrey.com. The Laxmi Narayan Since then Ku- for the leaders to reaffirm the close rela- Temple is located to 8321 140th St. A pormar has done a lot tionship between Canada and India and to tion of 140th Street, likely from 84th to of work to improve discuss ways to further broaden its scope. 74th avenues, will be shut down for a porthe temple. “It was Increased co-operation in the fields of sci- tion of the day on April 16. my priority to ensure that all domes were placed on the temple and we accomplished that.

We have also been successful in organizing big events such as the shivratri and the dussehra which are extremely popular festivals,� said Kumar.

Kumar has no qualms in saying that although the temple is the abode of god, people who are running it have to Grand Opening: Surrey Location 604-497-0888 have good business sense. “Coming from Opening Soon: Coquitlam Location 778-628-3152 a business background I have been able to pool in the available resources in such a way that the temple is now in very good financial shape. My objective through out my presidency is to make the temple strong in every way so that it is easier for the next person taking charge to continue the work in a smooth manner,� said Kumar.

The next big projects that kumar will launch as soon as this historic visit is done is to undertake the fencing of the entire temple complex and lobby the local government for additional parking spaces. “The temple itself is not politically motivated but we don’t mind endorsing governments or people who will work towards making our temple better,� explained Kumar.

And when Kumar isn’t running around improving the temple he is back at his insurance business. “Doing service for the is my

temple, my community calling, taking care of my business is VAISAKHI my work. I have GREETINGS to do both well,� said Kumar smiling.

There is room for 4,600 attendees at the event, on a first-come first-serve basis, with registration closing on April 4.

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10 i Saturday, April 4, 2015

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New Miss India World Aditi Arya wants to be the face of India

umbai – Aditi Arya, the proud winner of this year’s Femina Miss India World crown, says she always wanted to represent India on an international platform and that inspired her to compete in a beauty pageant.

The 21-year-old Gurgaon-based model, who will represent India at the Miss World 2015 pageant, was enthroned as winner of the 52nd edition of the beauty pageant on Saturday at the Yash Raj Films Studio here by reigning queen Femina Miss India Koyal Rana.

A Business Studies graduate from the University of Delhi, Aditi is currently working as a research analyst with audit firm Ernst & Young.

She’s also involved with non-profit group Protsahan, which aims at empowering underprivileged adolescents. She credits her friends with persuading her to participate

in the beauty pageant. “I had always thought of representing India at an international level, if not through a beauty pageant then through other platforms such as busi-

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ness conferences, conclaves, events.

“I knew that I wanted to get there, some place where I make a statement and it becomes India’s statement. To decide if it was through the beauty pageant route or some other route — that was encouraged by my friends,” Aditi told IANS in an interview.

Having worked in the corporate sector, she feels beauty pageants accord instantaneous empowerment and a platform to be heard, which is not the case with the corporate environment.

“In a corporate environment you climb up that ladder very slowly and you have to really make an effort to be heard. So empowerment comes at a very slow pace, but the beauty pageant just pushes you, it propels you forward instantly,” said the newly-crowned Miss India, who stands tall at 5ft-11in.

Admitting that her family was flabbergasted when the news was broken to them, she said she wasn’t bound by any expectations from her family and had their “unending support”, although their teary eyes gave away the pride they felt following Aditi’s achievement.

“They were surprised. They never really bound me by expectations, so I never knew whether they expected me to win or not because they always told me that I have their unending support and the results don’t matter to them.

“When I won, initially I did not know how happy they were but then I saw their teary eyes and I just knew that they’re really proud of me,” she said.

Aditi, who hopes to pursue further studies in the business arena, accredited her willingness to learn for her achievements.

“I had two keys to success. One was to be my natural self and the other the fact that I’m always willing to learn. For me, learning never stops — you never reach perfection, you just keep striving for it, no matter how better or worse you are compared to your competition.”

She says she isn’t a person who “denies opportunities” and likes to try out “everything” before selecting what’s best for her.

Asked if she’d consider a career in Bollywood, Aditi said: “For me, the focus is the Miss World crown as of now, there’s a lot that I have on my plate but I’m not the kind of a person who denies opportunities.

“I try everything and then I decide what works for me and what doesn’t. I haven’t thought of it as of now but, if in future it strikes me then I’ll try and experiment, and if it works for me that’s great.”

The grand finale of the Femina Miss India 2015 pageant, which was judged by eminent personalities from the film industry like John Abraham, Manisha Koirala, Sonu Nigam, Anil Kapoor, Shilpa Shetty, Sonali Bendre, Shiamak Davar and Chitrangada Singh, will be telecast on April 5.

NATIONAL

B.C. MP James Lunney leaves Tory caucus to defend ‘religious freedom’

A

veteran Conservative MP is leaving the government caucus in order to defend his religious beliefs against what he describes as “deliberate attempts to suppress a Christian world-view from professional and economic opportunity in law, medicine, and academia.”

In a statement released Tuesday, James Lunney announced that he is withdrawing from the Conservative caucus voluntarily so as not to “entangle the most multiracial, multicultural and multi-faith caucus in parliamentary history” in his decision to defend his beliefs.

Earlier this month, Lunney came to the defence of an Ontario Tory MPP who caused a stir at Queen’s Park when he told reporters he doesn’t believe in evolution.

“Just stop calling evolution fact,” Lunney tweeted.

In his statement Tuesday, Lunney said his comments “were inflated by media, blended with other unrelated but alleged heretical statements and became a top story on national media creating a firestorm of criticism and condemnation.”

“Since two other politicians in Ontario and Alberta were targeted during the same period, it is clear that any politician or candidate of faith is going to be subjected to the same public scrutiny in coming elections,” he added.

He says he will continue to vote with his former caucus colleagues. In 2013, Lunney announced that he would not seek re-election in 2015.

Federal budget 2015 on April 21

A

fter weeks of calls to hurry up and do it already, Finance Minister Joe Oliver has set a date of April 21 for the Harper government’s key pre-election budget.

Instead of announcing the budget in the House of Commons, Oliver’s office summoned media to outerwear manufacturer Canada Goose’s factory in Toronto on Thursday morning. (Canada Goose CEO Dani Reiss sits on Oliver’s economic advisory council.)

Oliver began by acknowledging that people have been asking for his budget for many months.

“We needed to assess the implications of the dramatic fall in oil prices and its instability on the Canadian economy and on our fiscal framework. And we needed the time to obtain as much information as possible to make reasoned fiscal decisions and receive current forecasts from our independent economic advisors whose projections we rely on,” Oliver said.

“We now have the information we need to make informed decisions,” he told reporters.

Saturday, April 4, 2015 i 21

Pamela Wallin’s expense claims sought from 3 more organizations

T

he RCMP have received more records regarding the expense claims of suspended senator Pamela Wallin, newly released documents show. The Mounties say they have zeroed in on 150 expense claims Wallin made to the Senate that needed more investigation.

Earlier this month, court records showed the RCMP received records from Porter Airlines and Gluskin Sheff and Associates, two companies on whose boards Wallin sat.

The investigator said he believes Wallin filed her expense claims twice, once with the Senate and once with those companies, and that he believes she committed fraud and breach of trust.

The expense claims were filed between Jan. 15, 2009, shortly after Wallin was named to the Senate, and Sept. 25, 2012.

The new documents show the RCMP are also looking into Wallin’s expense claims with regard to meetings with the Universi-

ty of Guelph, BMO Nesbitt Burns and CTV, and cover 21 of the 150 expense claims being probed by the RCMP. Those claims are worth $25,567.31, according to the RCMP’s forensic accountant.

“Senator Wallin, when questioned during an external audit, misrepresented the nature of these trips to Toronto,” Cpl. Rudy Exantus wrote in an affidavit filed as part of an Information to Obtain, also known as a production order or ITO. “I believe that Senator Wallin breached the standard of responsibility and conduct demanded of her and by the nature of her office. I believe that Seantor Wallin’s conduct represent[s] a serious and marked departure from the stan-

dards expected of a Canadian senator.”

Wallin said her office may have made errors in some of the filings and paid back $154,191.29, but later said she wished she hadn’t repaid the money because people were using it against her.

No advantage In an email earlier this month, Wallin’s lawyer told CBC News that there was no possible advantage for Wallin in claiming the board expenses. “It was the policy of those companies on whose board Senator Wallin sat to reimburse her for expenses for travelling to Ottawa, to Toronto back to Ottawa, to attend board meetings or other corporate events,” Terrence O’Sullivan said.

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COMMUNITY South Asian Seniors - Cruise to Panama Canal 2015 Meeting of Families on April 5th 2015 at 2.00 pm.

Vedic Seniors Parivar Centre of Vedic Hindu Cultural Society Surrey is organizing a 19 days cruise to Panama Canal and a tour to Orlando Attractions USA from April 15th 2015 to May 8th 2015. The meeting of all the families ( 52 members ) who have already registered for the cruise has been arranged for April 5th 2015 at 2.00 pm at Shanti Niketan hall of Lakshmi Narayan Hindu Temple 8321 - 140th street Surrey BC. Since the day of departure is coming close, hence the meeting has been arranged to know each other and to discuss some important issues regarding the tour, the Excursions, the bus arrangement from the Temple and the group photograph for the life long memory etc.. It may take about an hour, tea and light snacks will be served after the meeting. Please contact Surendra Handa Cruise and Tour Organizer Tel. 604 - 507 - 9945 for further information.

---------------------------------The Indo-Africa Charitable Society (IACS) is holding its 4th Annual Mothers Day Fundraising Gala Event on Friday, May 8th, 2015 at 6:30 pm. The Fundraising Gala allows us to continue our Medical Mission efforts in India and Uganda as well as support our local community by serving lunches to Homeless lunches twice a month in Vancouver East End. IACS primary objective is to relieve poverty in developing nations by means of promoting, providing and supporting public health, safe drinking water and advancement of education. For last 8 years we have hosted significant number of medical camps in India and in Uganda, and have made

arrangements for provision safe & clean water in number of village schools in India. Our medical camps are largely staffed by volunteer Medical professionals a well as non-medical volunteers from Canada, UK and USA and host countries.

Apart from our work overseas we also provide, food and other assistance to homeless and less privileged in Greater Vancouver.

For last 3 years we have been serving homeless once month. This year we have increased service to twice a month.

This year during the month of January at our annual medical camp in India we extended our services beyond primary care.

We treated 1,302 patients, and met surgical needs of 108 patients. Also we screened 469 school children and and provided needed treatment to 194 school students.

Additionally we provided water filtration units, coolers to schools and uniforms\ shoes to school students who were coming to our dental clinic with clothes that barely covered them.

At Uganda Medical Camp (August 2014) we served close to 7,000 patients and met surgical needs of large number of patients in partnership with our host hospital.

In order to continue to support these initiatives for 2015, we are looking for corporate sponsorship for this Fundraising Gala event to raise awareness about our program delivery and to raise funds for ever increasing demand of our services,and specially for upcoming Uganda Medical Camp Scheduled for August 2015.

-----------------------------Public Service Announcement Multilingual videos available for new immigrants to learn about tuberculosis

Saturday, April 4, 2015 i 23

The BC Centre for Disease Control and the BC Lung Association have created videos in six languages aimed at helping recent immigrants and travellers better understand the difference between tuberculosis disease and inactive (latent) tuberculosis, and how to prevent the disease.

The video, ‘TB Germ – A Cunning World Traveller’, is available in English, Mandarin, Tagalog, Korean, Punjabi and Vietnamese, and explains what the TB germ is, how it spreads, prevention of disease, and treatment options. The release of all six videos is in time for World Tuberculosis Day on March 24.

Tuberculosis (TB) germs spread through the air from person to person when someone with TB disease in the lungs sends germs into the air by coughing, sneezing or speaking. The TB germs usually attack the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body. If not treated properly, TB disease can be fatal, even though it is preventable and curable.

TB continues to be a health problem worldwide, with 1.3 million TB-related deaths occurring globally in 2012. In Canada, TB is often considered a forgotten disease, and many Canadians are surprised to hear that TB disease still exists in Canada. There has been a steady decline in the disease incidence in Canada since the 1940s but this reduction has slowed over the last several years. For most British Columbians, the risk of developing tuberculosis is very low, yet approximately 300 new cases of tuberculosis disease occur in BC each year and many more have latent tuberculosis. Since the 1990s, most of these new cases occur in immigrants who were exposed to tuberculosis disease in their birth countries.

The goal of the new, multilingual videos is to provide immigrants with a clear understanding about the risks of tuberculosis, and the steps that can be taken to protect individuals and families.

Immigrant organizations, general practitioners, nurses and others who are in contact with new immigrants or travellers are encouraged to share these videos in the appropriate language.

The videos and more information on tuberculosis can be found here: http://www. bccdc.ca/dis-cond/a-z/_t/Tuberculosis/ TBVideos/default.htm The BC Centre for Disease Control, an agency of the Provincial Health Services Authority, provides provincial and national leadership in public health through surveillance, detection, treatment, prevention and consultation services. The Centre provides both direct diagnostic and treatment services for people with diseases of public health importance and analytical and policy support to all levels of government and health authorities.

-------------------------------

Free Community Workshops & Activities April 6-12 English & Multilingual Canadian Citizenship Preparation * April 6 & 9, 9:30am-12:30pm Brentwood Community Resource Centre, 2055 Rosser Ave, Burnaby 604 292 3908 Successful Communication Skills * April 7, 10am-12pm ü MOSAIC Burnaby Centre for Immigrants, 5902 Kingsway ‘ 604 438 8214 ext 120 Canadian Citizenship Preparation * April 8 & 9, 10am-1pm Vancouver Public Library Central Branch, 350 W. Georgia St, Alice MacKay Room, Lower Level - 604 254 9626 Beginners’ Computer Class Learn about basic computer skills (using your gadget to save data and to create files), the internet (searching for information online, how to use Google maps and how to chat using Gmail), and sending/ receiving emails. * April 9-June 25, Thursdays, 9:30-11am MOSAIC Burnaby Centre for Immigrants, 5902 Kingsway - 604 438 8214 ext 112 Basic Job Search Skills for Newcomers April 9: Résumés and cover letters April 23: Interview preparation April 30: Job search strategies and networking * 1:30-3:30pm Bob Prittie Metrotown Burnaby Public Library, 6100 Willingdon Ave ‘ 604 438 8214 ext 112 Drop-In English Conversation Circle for Work Permit Holders Learn conversation skills useful for the Canadian workplace, such as small talk, networking, listening and assertiveness skills * April 11-July 11, Saturdays, 1-3pm Brentwood Community Resource Centre, 2055 Rosser Ave, Burnaby ‘ 604 292 3907 MOSAIC is a multilingual non-profit organization dedicated to addressing issues that affect immigrants and refugees in the course of their settlement and integration into Canadian society.

-------------------------------------------South Asian Seniors - Bingo On The House March 29th 2015 from 2.00 pm to 3.30 pm.

Vedic Seniors Parivar Centre of Vedic Hindu Cultural Society Surrey invites South Asian Adults/ Senior members and non members to come and play Bingo for the sake of fun and make some new friends, on March 29th 2015 from 2.00 pm to 3.30 pm at Shanti Niketan hall 8321 - 140th street

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BUSINESS / FINANCE

Bank of Canada chief warns oil shock’s effect on economy will be ‘atrocious’

ORONTO — The head of the Bank of Canada said a slump in oil prices is having an “atrocious” effect on the Canadian economy but a cheaper currency and incipient U.S. revival should help exports drive a recovery, the Financial Times reported on Monday.

Governor Stephen Poloz said in an interview with the newspaper that the central bank still had many options to help the economy if needed. These included pledges to keep interest rates low for a prolonged period of time — a practice known as “forward guidance” — as well as asset purchases.

Poloz defended a surprise rate cut in January, saying that falling oil prices meant it had

become impossible to return the economy to capacity within a two-year horizon.

“When the oil shock came, it was clear we would no longer be able to close the output gap by 2016, but by 2017,” the governor said in the interview. “Since we had some firepower, we took some insurance and cut rates.”

Poloz struck a cautious note on the state of the Canadian economy, the article said.

“The first quarter of 2015 will look atrocious, because the oil shock is a big deal for us,” he said, adding that capital expenditure could fall by as much as 10% as a result of energy companies cutting investment.

Honda Canada planning to export vehicles to Europe under Canada-EU trade deal

H

onda Canada plans to take advantage a great many Canadian-built cars — no less of the still-to-be ratified free-trade than 100,000 — thousands of which are goagreement with the European Union to pro- ing to be from right here at this plant,” Harper duce vehicles for export to Europe for the first said. time, the auto company announced Monday.

“It’s because our government negotiated Speaking at his flagship manufacturing a free-trade agreement that, in the years to plant, Honda CEO Jerry Chenkin said the come from this plant, cars built right here in Canada by a Japanese Canada-EU trade deal was the “catacompany will then be lyst” for the plan to exported virtually tariff-free to Europe, one export the next generation of the compaof the world’s wealthiny’s CR-V cross-over est, richest markets.” to Europe.

Deal would end tar“Exporting 40,000 iff on passenger vehiCanadian-made vecles hicles per year to The free-trade deal Prime Minister Stephen Harper, second Europe is good for calls on Europe to scrap from right, and Labour Minister Kellie Leitch, Honda and it’s good a 10 per cent tariff on right, talk with Honda production associate for Canada.” passenger vehicles, Rhonda St. Pierre at Honda Canada’s Honda, the first but it remains unclear assembly line in Alliston, Ont. Monday.

Japanese auto comwhen exactly it will take pany to build vehicles in Canada, has pre- effect. Canada now has free-trade agreements viously announced upgrades to its Alliston with 43 countries compared with five when factory. The CR-V export production will his government took office, Harper said. rely on those investments rather than on a The prime minister was more reluctant to new infusion of money. Still, Prime Minister discuss the situation at the General Motors Stephen Harper called the announcement a auto plant in Oshawa, which may not contin“breakthrough moment.” “Europe will accept ue production past 2016.

Oil production growth means no quick price fix

O

il prices were in recovery Wednesday after a three-week slide that took West Texas Intermediate crude to a six-year low last week. But a new report today warns that oil prices are unlikely to bounce back as quickly as they did in 2009, when they plunged to $33 US a barrel but recovered within three years.

That’s because both Canada and the U.S. continue to produce more oil in the face of a global glut in crude production.

WTI was trading up $1.46 at $48.97 a barrel on Wednesday. That’s down 7.6 per cent since the beginning of the year and less than half the $107 it hit last June. But the price bounce defies news from the U.S. Energy Information Administration today that crude inventories rose by 8.2 million barrels last week, setting an 80-year high.

Shale oil production The nine-month slide in oil prices has been caused by a worldwide oversupply of oil, while demand remains soft. U.S. fracking technology has opened a new source of oil and shale oil producers have responded

to the current slump by finding cheaper ways to get their oil out of the ground. That’s one reason why oil won’t return to triple digits in the near term, according to a the Conference Board of Canada. The other reason is an increase in oilsands oil.

The Conference Board predicts oil may creep back towards $60 by the end of this year, but is unlikely to surpass $80 by 2019.

‘This is a new oil market.’- Mike Shaw, Conference Board of Canada “With the technological genie of horizontal drilling and multistage fracturing forever out of the bottle, the U.S. industry will be able to respond quickly and increase production if prices reach $80 a barrel again, putting a hard cap on prices,” the Conference Board said. The Conference Board estimates Canadian producers may get about $55 a barrel for their oil this year, reducing their annual revenues by $43 billion.

“This is a new oil market,” Conference Board economist Mike Shaw said. Canada’s oil industry will experience pre-tax losses of $3 billion and cut 8,000 jobs by the end of this year, he predicts.

BUSINESS / FINANCE

Canada’s economy shrank 0.1% in January

C

anada’s gross domestic product shrank by 0.1 per cent in January, a weak showing, but better than what economists had been expecting.

Statistics Canada said Monday the service sector declined by 0.3 per cent even as the goods-producing industry rose by 0.3 per cent.

‘This is better than expected.’- Scotiabank’s take on the weak GDP showing After shrinking in December, oil and gas production actually increased 2.6 per cent in January as Canada’s oil producers kept pumping oil despite low prices.

“Scratching under the surface, not all is well in the oil and gas segment (of course),” Scotiabank said in a research note after the

data came out. “Support activities for mining, oil and gas fell by two per cent month over month [and] activity in traditional oil and gas extraction fell.”

All the growth came from non-conventional oil and gas extraction (such as oilsands oil), which can be more volatile.

David Madani at Capital Economics said the 0.1 per cent contraction was better than he was expecting, but he doubts it is sustainable. “We still think that the sharp drop in oil prices will be more negative for Canadian economic growth and underlying inflation than the [Bank of Canada] is hoping for. Accordingly, we still expect another 25 basis point rate cut at some point soon,” he said in a note to clients.

Families with little or no child-care expenses get 51% of federal benefits, PBO says

A

new report by Canada’s parliamentary budget officer shows more than half of the money Ottawa intends to put toward child care this year will go to families with little or no child-care expenses.

The PBO used a Statistics Canada database that incorporates tax data and information from other government sources to crunch the numbers on the federal government’s universal child care benefit (UCCB) and child care expense deduction (CCED).

The UCCB is a monthly payment to families with children. Brought in by the Conservatives in 2006, it originally paid out $100 a month until the child reached the age of six.

This year, the government is extending that payment to $160 a month for children under six and $60 a month thereafter until age 17.

The child care expense deduction is an income-tax deduction for child-care expenses that was first introduced in 1971.

With the changes being brought in by the government this year, the PBO says the cost of the two programs will rise to $7.7 billion from the current price tag of $3.3 billion. The

PBO estimates that figure will rise to $7.9 billion by 2017-2018.

According to the PBO report, families with young children who are paying for childcare will receive 49 per cent of those benefits this year.

The remaining 51 per cent will go to families with no child-care expenses or families with older children.

The PBO includes in the latter figure families with children over the age of 13 as well as families with a stay-at-home parent or some other form of unpaid childcare.

The PBO says the two programs combined cover roughly 67 per cent of what families with young children spend on childcare. Conversely, it finds families with older children stand to receive nearly eight times the amount they spend on caring for their offspring.

“When you take into account the enrichment, almost 50 per cent of the overall package goes to families who have children older than 13, which means that it’s very unlikely they have any child-care expenses,” said Mostafa Askari, assistant parliamentary budget officer, as he released Tuesday’s report.

Future Shop in now history

66 stores to be closed immediately, the remainder turned into Best Buy outlets

B

est Buy announced last week it is shutting down dozens of Future Shop stores across Canada, effective immediately, resulting in about 1,500 job losses.

Of 131 Future Shop locations across the country, 66 will be shuttered for good and the remaining 65 will be turned into Best Buy outlets. That will leave Best Buy with a total of 192 locations across Canada, including 136 big box stores and 56 Best Buy Mobile stores. Best Buy bought the iconic Canadian electronics retailer for $580 million in 2001, but has operated both brands concurrently. About 500 full-time and 1,000 parttime positions will be eliminated as a result of this move, but Future Shop says affected employees will receive severance and other support. The end of Future Shop comes only months after Target Canada announced the closure of all its 133 stores after failing to win over Canadian customers since it took over most of the former Zellers locations in 2011.

Future Shop timeline of major events 1982: Hassan Khosrowshahi opens first

Future Shop location in Vancouver, one year after immigrating from Iran.

1993: Future Shop goes public on Toronto and Vancouver stock exchanges as Canada’s largest electronics retailer. The company has 36 stores in Canada and two in the U.S., with plans to open 16 new locations within the year.

1999: After a failed expansion into the U.S., Future Shop pulls out of the American market. The retailer closes its 23 locations south of the border after shuttering five others the year before.

2001: U.S. retailer Best Buy purchases Future Shop in a $580-million deal. At the time, the Future Shop name is expected to disappear within three years.

Jan. 30, 2014: About 950 full-time employees are laid off at Best Buy and Future Shop stores across Canada as the company thins out management and combines some of its sales departments.

March 28, 2015 – Future Shop comes to an end. Best Buy Canada announces closure of 66 Future Shop stores, while the remaining 65 will be re-branded as Best Buy.

Saturday, April 4, 2015 i 25

PUNJAB

26 i Saturday, April 4, 2015

I

End of turban trouble in UK

n continuing purge of dissidents, AAP has suspended two of its National Executive members from the party for attending a press conference held by rebel leaders Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan immediately after they were expelled from the top echelons of the party.

The party sent the suspension notices to Uttar Pradesh leaders Rakesh Sinha and Vishal Sharma Lathe for openly coming out in support of Yadav and Bhushan.

Incidentally, Sinha who is an elected National Executive member, raised questions over the way its internal Lokpal Admiral L Ramdas was sacked and Bhushan was removed as the chief of its disciplinary committee.

Lathe had voted against the resolution to sack Bhushan and Yadav from Political Affairs Committee (PAC) on March 4.

Sinha and Lathe slammed the leadership for taking the punitive action against them without giving them any opportunity to explain their position.

Both the National Executive (NE) members were present in a press conference held

by Bhushan and Yadav on March 28 after the duo was expelled from the party’s top deci-

sion-making body.

A senior AAP leader said the punitive action has been taken against the two UP leaders of the party for attending the press conference.

“Based on the complaint received by National Disciplinary Committee, and the discussion on it by the members of NE, NE has decided to suspend your primary membership pending disciplinary proceedings,” an e-mail from party secretary Pankaj Gupta to Lathe said.

“On March 14, (senior party leader and UP in-charge) Sanjay Singh had come to Moradabad and asked me to vote in favour of resolution seeking removal of Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav from the National Executive at March 28 National Council meeting,” Lathe said.

The party constitution has the provisions of having co-opted members, who also have voting rights.

Lathe is one of the three co-opted members in the NE, representing Uttar Pradesh, but has one vote. The state has three zones Rohilkahnd, Bundelkhand and Poorvanchal.

Every region has a right to vote, but the majority vote prevails, which is counted as one.

BJP magazine targets Badals, Majithia The monthly mouthpiece of the BJP, ‘Kamal Suneha’, has hit out at the trio of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, his deputy Sukhbir Badal and Public Relations Minister Bikram Majithia.

The policy decisions and functioning of the departments under the three ministers have been questioned in the mouthpiece.

While the editorial has lauded the SAD-BJP unity and how it augured well for the state, it has raised pertinent issues confronting the

state now. Worsening law and order, the financial health of the state and poor public perception of the government have been raised in the editorial. It has also praised the state Budget for keeping funds for sports, tourism etc.

The mouthpiece, in its editorial, has also raised the issue of centralization of power and how no local leader or administration was ready to hear the grievances of the public. It has criticised the hike in salary of lawmakers.

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CM differs with PM on linking rivers

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ohra (Patiala): Opposing a widely politicised scheme of the BJP-led Union Government, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today ruled out any possibility of interlinking the rivers because it was “practically not feasible, as Punjab does not have a single drop of surplus water”. He said the state was, in fact, water deficit.

On March 23, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had advocated sharing river water in the presence of Badal while addressing a gathering at Hussainiwala on the martyrdom day of Shaheed Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev.

Modi said, “The linking of rivers is a must for the country so that water reaches all.

Punjab has got a network of canals, but the fields at the tail end of this network do not get enough water. Linking rivers is a must to provide water to all.”

On SAD support to the Land Acquisition Bill, he said, “We have already impressed upon the Centre to implement the Punjab model of land acquisition, which has been successfully implemented in the state for many years. We have asked the Centre to make farmers’ prior consent mandatory for land acquisition, besides giving them 30 per cent as compensation allowance for displace-

S

ment and rehabilitation by allotting residential and commercial property through land-pooling scheme, as is done in Punjab,” he said. Major chunks of land were acquired by the state government for mega projects such as the Mohali international airport, thermal plants at Rajpura and Talwandi Sabo at the prevailing market price with the farmers’ consents without any fuss, he said.

Says Barnala worked for grabbing power Continuing with statements against former CM Surjit Singh Barnala, Badal said while great leaders like Tohra were fighting tooth and nail against the tyranny of then Congress government at the Centre, Barnala aptly used that opportunity for grabbing power Seeks Rs 100 per quintal bonus on wheat • The CM on Wednesday sought personal intervention of PM Narendra Modi to compensate farmers for the loss due to untimely rains and hailstorms • He demanded a bonus of Rs 100 per quintal over and above the wheat MSP for the rabi marketing season-2015-16 • In a letter to the PM, Badal said the marginal increase in wheat MSP (Rs 1,450 from Rs 1400 last year) does not even cover the increase in input costs

Angry farmers stage sit-ins

eventeen farmers and farm labour bodies under the banner of BKU (Ekta) staged dharnas in all districts of the Malwa belt today to protest the Centre’s new Land Acquisition Ordinance and to press for their demands.

Seeking withdrawal of this ordinance, the BKU leaders threatened to intensify their struggle and launch a statewide stir in support of their demands if their demands were not met. The protests were held at Moga, Ferozepur, Fazilka, Faridkot, Muktsar, Bathinda, Sangrur, Mansa and other districts of the Malwa belt. BKU (Ekta) president Joginder Singh Ugrahan and general secretary Sukhdev Singh Kokari said the farmer organisations had decided to intensify their struggle against the decisions of the Union Government regarding the acquisition of their productive land.

They also announced that agitation would be carried out across the state if the Food Corporation of India took any decision to stop the purchase of wheat in the state. Kokari demanded a compensation of Rs5 lakh each to the families of farmer who had committed suicide due to debt and also demanded employment to the

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kin of the deceased.

Fazilka: A large number of farmers under the banner of BKU (Ekta-Ugrahan) and Krantikari, Kisan Sabha and Punjab Palledar Union held a district level demonstration outside the office of Deputy Commissioner, Fazilka, to oppose the land acquisition Bill proposed by the Union Government.

Sangrur: Hundreds of activists of various farmers’ and labourers’ organisations staged a dharna and a rally outside the district administrative complex (DC office) here today. They were protesting against the non-acceptance of their long-standing demands. They also submitted a memorandum to the SDM. Tarn Taran: A deputation of the Kisan Sangarash Committee presented a memorandum to the deputy commissioner demanding compensation for the damaged crops due to unprecedented rain and hailstorm in the area. Sawinder Singh Chutala, state general secretary, said a huge loss had been caused to the crops especially to the wheat and vegetable crops. A special girdawari should be conducted to know the exact loss cause to the crops, he said.

Need to free state from Badals: Bajwa Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) president Partap Singh Bajwa, while holding election rallies in the Dhuri Assembly constituency today, called ALL upon people to vote for REPAIRS party candidate Simar Partap Singh Barnala with“to thismake couponPunjab free from Badals”. expires Dec. 31 He said “Badal-mukt Punjab” should be the aim of every Punjabi to “save the youth from drugs, unemployment, illiteracy and poverty”.

Launching the election campaign of Simar Pratap Singh Barnala in the Dhuri constituency, Bajwa held rallies in Bhasaur, Ranchana, Dugni, Banbhauri, Bangawali, Bardwal and Ruldu Singh Wala villages. Bajwa

Discount

was accompanied by Simar Pratap Barnala, PPCC vice-president Surinderpal Singh Sibia and other local leaders.

Bajwa said the SAD had made 44 promises to people, but none had been fulfilled.

He said neither unemployment allowance of Rs 1,000 per month to unemployed youth had been given nor oldage pension enhanced from Rs 250 to Rs 500. Besides, the Shagun Scheme’s amount had also not been enhanced from Rs 15,000 to 31,000, he said.

Bajwa said Badal had also snatched employment opportunities from youths by enhancing retirement age from 58 to 60 years.

Saturday, April 4, 2015 i 27

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Indian-American mother seeks return of her abducted children

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ASHINGTON: Recounting her heartrending tale of woe, an Indian-American mother turned to US lawmakers for help to get back her two children allegedly abducted to India by her ex-husband six years ago. “Help me to make my voice heard in a way that shall be meaningful and allow me to be reunited with my children who need the love and nurturing of their mother,” said Bindu Philips testifying before a House panel with a few other parents of abducted children.

A subcommittee of the House Foreign Affairs committee was reviewing Obama Administration’s implementation of the Goldman Act to Return abducted American Children at a hearing last week.

Besides lobbying on the Capitol Hill to make their case, about 25 parents of abducted children representing five organizations also held a candlelight vigil before the White House. “Tragically, my world and that of my innocent children, was violently disrupted by my ex-husband, Sunil Jacob in December of 2008,” said Philips, a mother of twin boys, Albert Philip Jacob and Alfred William Jacob, both 14 now.

Accusing Jacob of orchestrating the kidnapping of the children during a vacation to India, she told the panel: “On reaching India I was not only physically and emotionally abused by my ex-husband but also by his parents.”

Hinduja brothers top UK’s ‘Asian Rich List’

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ONDON: NRI industrialists G P Hinduja and S P Hinduja today emerged as the richest Asian-origin entrepreneurs in Britain for the third consecutive year with an estimated personal fortune of 15.5 billion pounds.

The India-born brothers topped the ‘Asian Rich List 2015’ released here and the annual rankings showed that they had added 2 billion pounds to their personal fortune in a year to be worth an estimated 15.5 billion pounds. The Hinduja brothers, who head the Hinduja Group global conglomerate spread across defence, banking, automotive and power sectors, are also the richest men in the UK. “We are expanding in a big way,” G P Hinduja had recently said while talking about plans to take up the Narendra Modi-led government’s ‘Make in India initiative’ to expand the group’s manufacturing base in India. The ‘Asian Rich List’ assesses the total wealth of Britain’s top 101 richest Asians and is compiled by UK-based publishing house Asian Media and Marketing Group (AMG). This year’s analysis showed that the UK’s richest Asians have added an estimated 3 billion pounds to their fortunes to be collectively worth 54.5 billion pounds.

It also showed that low interest rates and slowing economic growth have hit the UK’s wealthiest as the pace of their wealth creation slowed by more than half last year to just 5 per cent.

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30 i Saturday, April 4, 2015

Police investigate ‘rape of two girls’ at gunpoint

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olice in Uttar Pradesh state are investigating the alleged kidnap and gang rape of two girls at gunpoint.

Relatives say the cousins were raped by men from a neighbouring village in Badaun district late on Tuesday.

The girls, said to be 12 or 13, have been examined and medical reports are awaited. Five men have been detained.

Badaun gained notoriety last year after two girls were found hanged - relatives alleged rape and murder but authorities concluded they took their own lives.

The latest incident happened in Jareef Nagar, at least 50km (31 miles) away from Katra Sahadatgunj, where last May’s incident took place.

The father of one of the girls lodged a complaint with police saying that five men living in a neighbouring village had gang-raped the two

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girls at gunpoint.

Senior police official Saumitra Yadav told BBC Hindi that the girls went missing when they had apparently gone out to relieve themselves as they had no toilet at home.

Last May two cousins were found hanged from a tree in the village of Katra Sahadatgunj.

At the time a local post-mortem examination confirmed multiple sexual assaults and death due to hanging.

But in August, federal investigators said new forensic tests had concluded the girls had not been sexually assaulted. Three men who had been arrested were freed in September.

Earlier this year the girls’ families challenged the investigators’ report in the district court, demanding further investigations in the case.

Minister’s ‘ racist remark’ about Sonia

ndian federal minister Giriraj Singh’s “racist remarks” about opposition party leader Sonia Gandhi has sparked severe criticism from politicians and foreign diplomats.

“If [ex-Indian PM] Rajiv Gandhi had married a Nigerian lady and not a whiteskinned woman, then would the Congress have accepted her leadership?” Singh, 63, said in Bihar’s Hajipur district.

After receiving criticism from his party colleagues and opposition leaders, Singh said he was speaking informally and off the record.

“During off the record sessions, many things are said. If Rahul Gandhi or Sonia Gandhi are hurt by my statements, I regret what I said,” reports quoted him as saying.

Reports say Singh’s comments were targeted at Mrs Gandhi’s “Italian roots”.

Born Sonia Maino on 9 December 1946 in the town of Orbassano, near Turin, to a building contractor and his wife, Mrs Gandhi was raised in a traditional Roman Catholic household.

In 1964, she went to Cambridge to study English at a language school. Her life changed forever when she met her future husband, Rajiv Gandhi, who was studying engineering at the university. She is now an Indian citizen and heads the main opposition Congress party. Her party has demanded an apology from Mr Singh and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.

“The Congress strongly deprecates and condemns the intemperate and distasteful remarks of Giriraj Singh bordering on insanity,” Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said.

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Trapped Indians evacuated from Yemen

ore than 350 Indian nationals evacuated from conflict-hit Yemen have arrived home to be greeted by relatives and friends. The evacuees were flown back on Thursday morning on two air force planes from Djibouti.

They were earlier picked up by an Indian navy ship from Aden and taken to Djibouti. A Saudi Arabian-led coalition has been targeting rebels in Yemen in support of President Abdabbuh Mansour Hadi.

The two planes carrying the evacuees landed in the cities of Mumbai and Kochi, from where people will travel to their homes. The majority of the Indians, including more than 100 women and 25 children, come from the southern state of Kerala.“I was scared when a missile or a bomb hit our hostel building. We were moved to the hospital. I was really scared. I just wanted to, somehow, return

to India,’’ Celina Iby, who worked as a nurse for over seven years in Aden, told BBC Hindi.

Simi, who worked for a hospital in Aden, said local authorities were helpful.

“They gave back our passports and even arranged transport for us to reach the port to board the ship to Djibouti. But they did not give last month’s salary and [the] experience certificate,’’ she said. Reports say two more navy ships are expected to reach Yemen by Thursday to rescue other Indians, who are mainly stranded in Aden and Sanaa.

There are some 4,000 Indian workers, businessmen and nurses working in Yemen.

Yemen has suffered from political instability for years and Shia Houthi rebels control nine of the 21 provinces. The Houthis have said their aim is to replace President Hadi’s government, which they accuse of being corrupt.

Court suspends Manmohan’s summons in coal scandal

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ndia’s Supreme Court has suspended a summons issued to former PM Manmohan Singh and five others by a lower court over a coal mining scandal.

Mr Singh and the others deny charges of criminal conspiracy. They had appealed to the Supreme Court over the order to appear on 8 April.

In 2012, federal auditors said India had lost $33bn (£20bn) because coalfield rights were sold off cheaply.

Mr Singh has said he was innocent and “open for legal scrutiny”.

Those accused alongside Mr Singh include a former bureaucrat and a leading businessman.

Known as one of India’s cleanest politicians, the former prime minister has not been charged with any crime but is being investigated for criminal conspiracy, crim-

inal breach of trust and corruption-related offences.

If found guilty, Mr Singh, 82, could be sentenced to jail for life, although correspondents say that is not likely.

“There was no criminal intent - it [the allotment of coal licences] was an administrative decision and not an illegality,” Mr Singh’s lawyer and former minister Kapil Sibal said on Wednesday.

Last September, India’s Supreme Court cancelled almost all of the more than 200 coal mining licences awarded by the government since 1993, saying they were illegal. Mr Singh’s Congress party was in charge when most licences were allocated.

The ruling BJP government has begun a process of re-auctioning the coal licences and says it hopes to recover the true value of the coal reserves.

‘1,000 police test cheats’ arrested in Bihar

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ore than 1,000 men have reportedly been arrested in India’s Bihar state over the use of impersonators and false papers for police recruitment tests.

The fraud was uncovered when identity papers and fingerprints provided for different tests did not match up, a police official told AFP news agency.

The arrests were reportedly made over the last fortnight. Photographs of mass cheating in Bihar’s secondary school exams provoked an outcry earlier this month. More than 300 people, many of them parents, were arrested after the publication of the pictures. Last year,

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some 150 people were arrested in Bihar for cheating in a written exam for police constables, Indian media say.

However, a Bihar police official told the Times of India newspaper that the latest round of arrests is the largest ever made for impersonation. Most of the arrests are said to have been made when candidates showed up for physical fitness tests, which followed from a written test.

Some 52,000 people were selected for the physical fitness test, according to Indian media, with the state government hoping to recruit around 12,000 police constables from their ranks.

Fifteen killed in Kashmir landslides

t least 15 people have been killed in landslides following floods in Indian-administered Kashmir, officials say.

Rescue workers said they had recovered the bodies from the debris of a landslide which buried homes in Chadoora town.

Some 200 families have been evacuated after torrential rain and a surge in the water level of the Jhelum river.

More than 250 people died in September in what was described as the worst flooding in Kashmir in half a century.

Police said the mudslides had hit houses in Chadoora, some 15km (10 miles) west of the main city of Srinagar.

Rescue workers had recovered 15 bodies from the debris of two houses, police official Fayaz Ahmed told

FIJI

Two former Fiji men guilty of killing another man for his life’s savings in NZ

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uckland: Two Indian-origin men in New Zealand have been found guilty of burning a 21-year-old man to death over his life savings, two years after the brutal incident that could see them jailed for life with a minimum non-parole period of at least 10 years.

Shivneel Kumar, 20, and Bryne Permal, 22, originally from Fiji, spent nearly a month on trial in the high court at Auckland over the death of Shalvin Prasad, also originally from Fiji, whose smouldering body was found on a rural South Auckland road on January 31, 2013. After deliberating for around 20 hours over three days, the jury yesterday returned guilty verdicts for the duo.

Prasad’s brother Pravin said: “We feel that this decision finally holds these evil criminals accountable for the malicious death of my brother.” “We are looking very forward to an appropriate sentence being handed down,” Pravin said.

“You have to wait for two years to get to this stage, and as I said before, the decision was very good for us,” he said.

On January 30, the victim withdrew 30,050

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New Zealand dollar (about $23,000) from a Manukau bank at the request of Kumar, who waited outside. Crown prosecutor Aaron Perkins said the pair “considered a sum of money was worth more than Prasad’s life.”

Despite them both being charged with murder, he fingered Kumar as “the instigator and driving force” behind the crime.

He said on the night of January 30, Prasad met the two defendants and was driven through south Auckland.

The Crown said the victim was assaulted at an unknown location and bundled into the boot of Permal’s mother’s car, driven by Kumar. The defendants then bought 15 litres of petrol, using the stolen money, before driving to McRobbie Rd in Kingseat, where they doused the victim in petrol and set him alight.

Medical witnesses gave evidence that Prasad was conscious when the fire was ignited. In the days after the murder, Kumar spent thousands of dollars on his car and paying off various debts and on February 2 he and Permal went shopping together.

Large sums were also deposited into bank accounts linked to Kumar.

Baby given wrong injection

eads will roll at a major sub-divisional hospital after the line ministry came under the spotlight in a case of a baby who was administered a wrong vaccine last week.

Seven-week-old baby Havillah Hadassah Mereseini Bavadra had her first injection at the Navua Hospital last Wednesday.

Havillah and her mother were the first to be attended to by the medical officer at 8am.

Mother Joy Bavadra did not know her first-born was administered the Human Pap-

illomavirus (HPV) Vaccine until the next day when she received a phone call from a doctor to explain the error. The HPV vaccine, recommended for pre-teen girls and boys at age 11 or 12 years, is administered as a preventative measure against cancer. Shocked and worried, she immediately relayed the news to her mother-in-law Deborah Akisi Mavoa. “On Wednesday March 18, we went for baby’s normal clinic and this was her first injection as well.

Saturday, April 4, 2015 i 31

Fiji beats NZ 33-19 to win Cup for 15th time

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iji won the Hong Kong Rugby Sevens last Sunday, tearing through defending champions New Zealand 33-19 in a powerful display. With the backing of a roaring Hong Kong Stadium crowd, Fiji made up for last year’s heartbreaking semi-final loss to England, and went one step closer to qualifying for the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro in 2016.

New Zealand struggled to get into the match as Fiji pounded through the defence.

The All Blacks were down 21-5 at half-time after Savenaca Rawaca put two tries on the board. The New Zealanders pushed through with a pair of tries from Scott Curry, but the

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Fijians kept finding gaps and a surge down the left wing by Vatemo Ravouvou sealed the match. It was his international sevens debut at the age of 23. Fiji has the most-ever wins at the Hong Kong Sevens, with Sunday’s match their 15th triumph.

“I’m delighted,” said coach Ben Ryan. “We were accurate, we controlled things and made good decisions. We looked like a disciplined side. “Last year was my lowest point in this sport (after defeat by England) and now is probably my highest.”

The top four teams in the Sevens World Series will secure a place in Brazil, where sevens rugby will make its Olympic debut.

Angry PM snaps back

ix months after the general election, the Government still thinks it is in election and campaign mode, says Opposition member and National Federation Party leader Professor Biman Prasad.

Prof Prasad claimed the Government was indulging in “fear mongering” style of rhetoric in an attempt to promote dislike of the Opposition among the people of Fiji. Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama retorted yesterday with the suggestion that Prof Prasad’s comments should be put up a certain part of his anatomy. Mr Bainimarama said the allegations from the Opposition member were “a big mouthful and coming from somebody who doesn’t know one per cent from three and half per cent”. Prof Prasad claimed that the actions of Government were nothing but an attempt to disguise the fundamental concerns affecting the country, such as the continuing suppression of freedom of speech

and freedom of association. “The two parliamentary sittings in February and March, respectively, this year were each of five days only.

“They were rendered to a question and answer session, including questions from Government backbenchers and ministerial statements aimed at glorifying Government’s policies like free milk, free water and electricity subsidy to name a few.”

Prof Prasad said questions from the Opposition in Parliament were labelled anti-Fiji even though they sought answers on the restoration of rights of citizens eroded through decrees and promulgations.

“In one case, a question by a fellow Opposition parliamentary colleague seeking statistics as to the number of civil servants by ethnicity, namely iTaukei, Fijians of Indian descent, Fijians of Rotuman descent and Fijians of general descent was thrown out on the pretext it was unconstitutional,” he claimed.

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PAKISTAN

32 i Saturday, April 4, 2015

Pakistan close to buying 8 Chinese submarines

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EIJING: Pakistan is close to signing a $4 to $5 billion deal to buy eight submarines from China, the Financial Times said on Thursday, in what it added would likely be China’s largest overseas arms sale.

The decision had been agreed “in principle”, the newspaper said, citing a hearing in the Pakistani parliament’s defence committee. Pakistani newspaper the Dawn said on Wednesday that negotiations with China on the sale were at an advanced stage.

Neither China’s Defence nor Foreign Ministries immediately responded to a request for comment. China and Pakistan call each other “all-weather friends” and their close ties have been underpinned by long-standing wariness of their common neighbour, India, and a desire to hedge against U.S. influence across the region.

China and Pakistan already have close defence ties and China has sold a large amount of military equipment to the country in the past.

Zardari plans to launch daughter after son’s failure

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SLAMABAD:Pakistan’s former president and PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari is planning to launch his daughter into politics, a move indicative of strained ties with his son Bilawal.

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari formally stepped into politics last year, but soon developed differences with his father over handling of party affairs.

According to party sources, Bilawal is living in London and planning to take a two-year break from politics to pursue his higher education after

earlier completing his graduation from Oxford university. “In his absence, the party needs a Bhutto to be on the forefront and Zardari has decided to introduce his daughter Bakhtawar,” the sources said.

Bakhtawar is being tutored in politics by senior women leaders of the party. She might deliver her maiden political speech at the death anniversary of her grandfather Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto on April 4.

There is a little hope that Bilawal would attend the anniversary, used as a rallying point for party workers.

Pakistan hangs four convicts

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SLAMABAD: Four death row convicts were hanged on Tuesday in different jails in Pakistan’s Punjab province, a media report said.

Mohammad Riaz, who was convicted of killing a man in 2008 during a robbery was hanged in Sargodha Jail. This is the first execution in this jail since it was established in 1910, Dawn online reported.

Akram-ul-Haq, convicted for kidnapping a three-year-old girl, was hanged in Attock

Jail. Separate cases of kidnapping for ransom and terrorism were also registered against Haq. Mohammad Ameen, convicted for killing a person due to personal feud, was hanged in Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail.

Hubdar Shah was executed in Mianwali Central Jail. He was sentenced to death for killing two people in 2000.

Pakistan lifted its moratorium on the death penalty in all capital cases on March 10.

American war on terror kills over 80,000 people in Pakistan: report

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SLAMABAD: More than 80,000 Pakistanis, including over 48,000 civilians, have been killed in the decade-long US-led war against terror in the country, according to a new report.

The report titled “Body Count: Casualty Figures after 10 Years of the War on Terror” was released by the Nobel Prize-winning International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War along with Physicians for Social Responsibility and Physicians for Global Survival, The Express Tribune reported today.

The report, dealing with the conflict from 2004 until the end of 2013, shows that a total of 81,325 to 81,860 persons - including 48,504 civilians, 45 journalists, 416-951 civilians killed by drones, 5,498 security per-

sonnel and 26,862 militants - lost their lives in the US-led war on terror.

It also said that around 1.3 million people were directly and indirectly killed in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan as a result of USled wars in the regions during the the same period.

One million people were killed in Iraq and 220,000 in Afghanistan as a result of the war, it said.

“The figure is approximately 10 times greater than that of which the public, experts and decision makers are aware,” the authors of the study said.

“And this is only a conservative estimate.

The total number of deaths in the three countries could also be in excess of 2 million,” they said.

Over 32,000 arrested in anti-terror operations

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SLAMABAD: Pakistan’s law enforcement agencies have arrested over 32,000 people on different charges in more than 28,000 anti-militant operations in the aftermath of the Peshawar school massacre, the government said on Saturday.

The arrests were made after the launch of the National Action Plan (NAP) in December which aims to rid the country of terrorism following Taliban’s massacre at an army school in Peshawar in which 150 people, including 136 students were killed.

32,347 people were arrested on different charges in 28,826 anti-militants operations conducted across the country, the government said. A report presented to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif states that the secu-

rity agencies conducted 14,791 operations in Punjab, 5,517 in Sindh, 6,461 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), 84 in Balochistan, 405 in Islamabad, 1,394 in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, 83 in Gilgit-Baltistan and 91 in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA).

The report is based on information available from December 24, 2014, to March 25, 2015. It states that under the NAP, the security agencies arrested 32,347 people including 2,798 from Punjab, 6,467 from Sindh, 18,619 from KP, 3,483 from Balochistan, 762 from Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), nine from PoK, 30 from Gilgit-Baltistan and 179 from FATA. Moreover, 37 terrorists were killed during this period and among those arrested also included 727 hardcore militants.

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Rolls-Royce Wraith Inspired by Film “this is the real name of a car”

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hat’s how Jaguar Land Rover described its new Range Rover SV Autobiography, as if to say the price itself was a major selling point. The luxury SUV, which debuted at the New York International Auto Show, is one of the most expensive SUV in the world, which gets you a 5.0-liter V8 engine.

But the SV Autobiography is less about the driver and more about everyone else in the car. The interior is stocked with monitors and deployable tables, a chiller compartment, and

“deep twist pile mohair carpet mats.” And then there’s the “Event Seating... hand crafted from beautiful Windsor leather”. Unfortunately, Land Rover was not letting anyone open the trunk to see these seats.

Car markers including Bentley, Lamborghini, and Rolls Royce are all rumored to be following suit soon enough. The SV Autobiography, in the meantime, will be on sale this summer. Perfect for playing beer pong with beer cased in the body of a squirrel and glass tumblers that date back to the 19th century.

Rolls-Royce plays this game as well as anyone, but its latest one-off Wraith being shown at the New York auto show this week takes the naming convention to another level: it’s called the Wraith Inspired by Film.

The name celebrates the archival of And The World Stood Still, the Wraith’s launch film, into the British Film Institute’s National Archive. But like most one-off Rollers with special names, the Wraith Inspired by Film isn’t any more unique than any of the marque’s other bespoke, hand-built beasts: it has an anthracite / tan leather treatment, gor-

geous ebony paneling, and a two-tone paint job set in “Silver and Jubilee Silver.”

It’s an absurdly beautiful car, as Wraiths tend to be. And don’t forget, it’s inspired by film.

34 i Saturday, April 4, 2015

SOUTH ASIA

Another blogger hacked to death in Dhaka 2 Islamic school students detained

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HAKA - A blogger was hacked to death by three men in Bangladesh’s capital on Monday, and two of the attackers were caught near the scene, police said.

The killing took place a month after a prominent Bangladeshi-American blogger known for speaking out against religious extremism was hacked to death in Dhaka.

In the latest incident, Washiqur Rahman Babu, 26, was declared dead at a hospital shortly after being attacked in Dhaka’s Tejgaon area, police official Biplob Kumar Sarker said. Two suspects, both students at Islamic schools, were captured and three meat cleavers were recovered, Sarker said. The third suspect fled, he said. One of the suspects told reporters they attacked Babu because he had

disrespected Islam’s Prophet Muhammad.

“I stabbed him because he humiliated my prophet,” said Jikrullah, a 20-year-old student

at Hathajari Madrassah in the southeastern district of Chittagong, without elaborating.

Jikrullah said he travelled from Chittagong

and stayed overnight at a mosque to attack Babu. The other detained suspect, Ariful Islam, also 20, is a student at an Islamic school in Dhaka’s Mirpur area. They named a third suspect, but details about him were not available. It was not immediately known what kind of blogging Babu did, but the suspects told police they targeted him for anti-Islamic writings, Sarker said.

The deputy spokesman for the U.N. secretary-general, Farhan Haq, expressed concern at the latest death. “We have been calling for the respect of basic rights in Bangladesh, including the right to freedom of expression,” he said. “It’s a matter of tremendous concern that journalists and other intellectuals have been attacked.”

Afghan police officer sentenced to 20 years for killing AP photographer and wounding reporter

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ABUL — Afghanistan’s highest court has ruled that the police officer convicted of murdering Associated Press photographer Anja Niedringhaus and wounding AP correspondent Kathy Gannon almost one year ago should serve 20 years in prison, according to documents sent to the country’s attorney general on Saturday.

The final sentence for former Afghan police unit commander Naqibullah was reduced from the death penalty recommended by a primary court last year.

Twenty years in prison is the maximum jail sentence in Afghanistan, said Zahid Safi, a lawyer for The Associated Press who had been briefed on the decision by the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court ruling upholds an intermediate court’s decision, which was opposed by the Military Attorney General’s office.

Naqibullah, who uses only one name, opened fire on Niedringhaus and Gannon without warning on April 4 as the two were covering the first round of the country’s presidential election outside the city of Khost in southeastern Afghanistan.

An award-winning German photographer, Niedringhaus was renowned for her humane depictions of ordinary life as well as for her coverage of conflict zones from the Balkans to Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan. She died instantly of her wounds at the age of 48.

Gannon, a senior correspondent for Afghanistan and Pakistan with decades of experience in the region, was hit with six bullets that ripped through her left arm, right hand and left shoulder, shattering her shoulder blade. She is recovering from her injuries while undergoing physical therapy in her native Canada.

Both Niedringhaus and Gannon have been honoured by numerous institutions and organizations. The International Women’s Media Foundation and the Howard G. Buffett Foundation recently created the Anja Niedringhaus Courage in Photojournalism Award in Niedringhaus’s memory. Gannon in December received the Tara Singh Hayer Memorial Award from Canadian Journalists for Free Expression and last month was named winner of the McGill Medal for Journalistic Courage at the University of Georgia.

“It is almost exactly a year since Anja was murdered and Kathy wounded while reporting in the country they both loved,” said Kathleen Carroll, AP’s executive editor.

“We are glad the judicial system in Afghanistan has completed the case against their attacker and trust the sentence will be carried out in full. And as the sad anniversary approaches, our thoughts and care are with Anja’s family and with Kathy.”

Saturday, April 4, 2015 i 35

36 i Saturday, April 4, 2015