www.theasianstar.com Vol 20 - Issue 7
Why Indians should call out western world’s vaccine hypocrisy during a pandemic
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n early February this year, there were two incidents that involved the people of India and the people of Barbados. The first was a tweet from Barbadian performer Rihanna. It went out to her hundred million followers, raising awareness about the supposedly undemocratic ways of the elected government of India. The second, much lesser known, was a thank you letter that Prime Minister Narendra Modi received from the Prime Minister of Barbados. That week, India had donated 100,000 free doses of vaccine to Barbados, enough to cover more than a third of that country’s Continued on page 8
Surrey’s Vaisakhi parade cancelled 2nd year in a row due to Covid-19 One of Metro Vancouver’s largest parades is once again not going ahead this year due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Organizers for the annual Surrey Vaisakhi Khalsa Parade announced Tuesday they are committed to ensuring a “safe and healthy environment” and therefore decided to cancel this year’s event scheduled for April 24. “It is clear that there is no path for an event the size and magnitude of our parade to occur safely within the next three months,” said Moninder Singh, president of Gurdwara Sahib Dasmesh Darbar, in a news release. Last year’s Vaisakhi parade was also cancelled, as the province began its ban against large gatherings in the early days of the pandemic. Organizers call it one of the largest events of its kind in the world, with the day-long celebration typically drawing crowds of up to 500,000 people.
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Surrey Police hires three more inspectors Surrey Police Service has hired three additional inspectors. The force has added Tony Farahbakhchian, Rachel Milne and Benoit Rodrigue to its “leadership cadre,” according to an SPS release Thursday (March 18). Farahbakhchian has 29 years of policing service with the RCMP, with a “wide range of assignments that were local, provincial, national, and international in scope.” He is currently an inspector with “E” Division RCMP for the federal
serious and organized crime unit’s financial integrity program. Milne started her 25-year career in Saskatchewan, later transferring to B.C. and serving in several communities in the Lower Mainland. She currently oversees “all operational and administrative aspects of frontline policing” for the City of Burnaby and sits on “numerous” multi-jurisdictional policing committees. Continued on page 7
Minister defends BC vaccine rollout despite few details and surprise shots By now, many people in BC know a construction worker, dental hygienist or even office worker who’s received a Covid-19 vaccine – but the Ministry of Health isn’t providing a list of companies where employees have been offered immunization. At some businesses, workers said they were surprised to learn they were eligible for a vaccine. On Tuesday, Health Minister Adrian
Dix echoed the same rationale the province’s top doctor had invoked a day earlier when asked about why certain businesses and workers were getting vaccinated ahead of other occupations, which was in line with the policy outlined for essential workers and discussed for many weeks.
Time for India and Pakistan to bury the past and move forward: General Bajwa Pakistan Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa (pictured) said that it was time for India and Pakistan to “bury the past and move forward” as he asserted that the peace between the two neighbours would help to “unlock” the potential of South and Central Asia. Addressing a session of the first-ever Islamabad Security
Dialogue, General Bajwa also said the potential for regional peace and development always remained hostage to the disputes and issues between Pakistan and India - the two “nuclear-armed neighbours”. “We feel it is time to bury the past and move forward,” he said, adding that the responsibility for a Continued on page 6
Variants could dash BC hopes for indoor religious services, experts say Growing COVID-19 case numbers from variants of concern in British Columbia could dash the province’s hopes for indoor religious services or any other return to normal life in the near future, experts say. Sally Otto, a University of British Columbia professor who has done COVID-19 modelling, said cases of the
variant first detected in the United Kingdom have doubled nearly every week since the beginning of February. Just looking at the past four weeks, she pointed out there were 81 cases of the variant on Feb. 22, 137 on March 1, 363 on March 8, and 818 on Monday. The Continued on page 7
Extended relief for jobless Canadians to cost Ottawa an extra $5 billion: PBO report Ottawa’s extension of income support for unemployed workers during the COVID-19 pandemic will tack on more than $5 billion in government spending costs, Parliament’s budget watchdog says in a new report.
The government announced last month it would add 12 weeks of eligibility to the $500-a-week Canada Recovery Benefit in an attempt to get ahead of a looming panic
Continued on page 4