Inderjit Singh Reyat Released On Bail - Conditions Not Disclosed

Today, Inderjit Singh Reyat was released from prison on bail, awaiting trial on perjury charges. As anyone who knows me at all is well aware, I believe the government of India was responsible for the downing of Air India 182 and we Sikhs, including this gentleman were framed. Here is the story from our friends (?) at CBC. First, the video:
http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?rn=3906861&cl=8742369&ch=4226714&src=news Sorry, I can't imbed it...maybe later, if it shows up on YouTube.

Then the article, where various other links can be found.

Convicted Air India bombmaker Inderjit Singh Reyat free on bail
Last Updated: Thursday, July 10, 2008 10:14 PM ET










Inderjit Singh Reyat leaves the North Fraser Pretrial Centre in Port Coquitlam, B.C., on Thursday. (CBC)

Inderjit Singh Reyat, the only person convicted in the 1985 Air India bombings, walked out of a Lower Mainland prison in B.C. Thursday after more than 20 years behind bars.

Reyat, who still faces perjury charges, was released at 2:55 p.m. PT from the North Fraser Pretrial Centre in Port Coquitlam, B.C.

He appeared before a justice of the peace by video conference and agreed to the bail conditions set by the B.C. Court of Appeal.

His family reportedly posted a $500,000 surety for his bail.

Members of Reyat's family, including his wife and brother, greeted him emotionally outside the pretrial centre. Reyat is now at his wife's house in Surrey.

Inderjit Singh Reyat has served more than 20 years in jail for his part in building the bombs that detonated aboard Air India Flight 182 and at Narita International Airport in Tokyo in 1985, killing a total of 331 people. (Canadian Press)

The B.C. Court of Appeal on Wednesday granted bail to Reyat.

Reyat was convicted of two counts of manslaughter for his part in building the bomb that detonated at Narita International Airport in Tokyo in 1985, killing two baggage handlers. He later pleaded guilty to manslaughter for his role in the bombing of Air India Flight 182, which went down the same day as the Tokyo bombing, killing another 329 people.

He faces additional charges of perjury related to accusations that he lied during his testimony at the trial of Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri, who were acquitted of murder in the bombings. The trial on the conspiracy charges is set for January 2009.

The B.C. Court of Appeal issued a memo on Thursday morning, saying any media organizations that want to obtain copies of the court order that contains the release conditions, or the reasons for judgment, will have to arrange a date for a hearing.

Before the court makes a decision about releasing the documents, it is expected to hear opinions from lawyers on both sides of the case on whether the public should be allowed to know what the bail conditions are.

Special prosecutor Len Doust, who is handling the case for the Crown, supported releasing the details, B.C. Attorney General Wally Oppal told CBC News on Wednesday.

The conditions are strict, but they will be kept secret under a publication ban until the judge decides otherwise, Oppal said.

"Air India 182" - The CBC Docudrama

I was unable to watch this on Sunday night, as I had planned, but being prepared for that, I recorded it. This afternoon was my first opportunity to watch it uninterrupted.

So what do I think?

It was riveting, stunning, engrossing. And utterly convincing. I suffered with the families of the dead. I nearly cried, it was so sad. It was moving, deeply moving. In fact, it was the most beautifully put together propaganda piece I've seen since Gandhi, the Academy Award winner for "Best Picture" in, I believe 1982.

It is billed as a documentary, but this docudrama is much more drama than documentary. It presents one theory, that of the Canadian government and The Vancouver Sun very well. There was, however, no suggestion from beginning to end that this is one theory, unproven. If this were presented as a possibility, I would find it merely annoying. From beginning to end, however, it was presented as fact.

I think the most irritating moment to me came at the very end in words on the screen, seen but unspoken: 'Malik and Bagri were acquitted due to a lack of evidence.' How about just 'Malik and Bagri were acquitted.' How about just a hint that maybe, just maybe, a slight possibility, they were acquitted because they were not guilty? What an indictment of the Canadian justice system that these men portrayed as so obviously guilty got off scott-free.

I found the translation of our Fateh, 'Vaheguru ji ka khalsa! Vaheguru ji ki fateh' as 'God is forever victorious' to be not merely inaccurate, but bizarre. I had to listen to it three times to be sure that that is what they were 'translating.'

It was also painful seeing our strong, beautiful brothers portrayed as monsters, likable monsters, but monsters nonetheless. I was, of course, prepared for that, but it still hurts. I would like to see, just once, us Khalistanis portrayed as reasonable human beings instead of wild-eyed fanatics.

I love the note on the review of this movie on the Waheguroo Network's Khalsa TV Site:

Editor's Note: This documentary contains many innacuracies and misrepresentations. It is suggested that users take a more objective approach when viewing.

A note before I go. While I do not believe Sikh terrorists blew up that airplane, somebody clearly did. And I agree with what this movie has Inderjit Singh Reyat saying should be done to people who do such things, 'They should be shot.'

My deepest condolences to the families and friends of the dead. I know what it feels like to have our loved ones brutally and needlessly murdered. I pray that someday the true perpetrators of these crimes - in India and elsewhere - will be caught and punished - and the truth will then be told.

From the CBC Website: If you haven't seen this and would like to it will be repeated on Sunday June 29, 2008 at 10pm ET/PT on CBC Newsworld. I was hoping they post put a video of the whole thing online, but evidentally, CBC wants you to buy it for $24.98. For a few brief clips, visit the link above.

VAHEGURU JI KA KHALSA

VAHEGURU JI KI FATEH

I suppose I could go through this whole docuDRAMA point by point, but that would be tedious. Suffice to say, in substance it was pretty much what I expected, in style, well, it had style.

Pictures (from top):

Shaheed Talwinder Singh Parmar Babbar

Inderjit Singh Reyat

Ripudaman Singh Malik

Ajaib Singh Bagri

CBC And Air India Flight 182 - the Documentary

From: The Link

Air India Documentary Is Same Old, Same Old!

Air India 182 offers no new insight into the tragedy, which continue to divide critical opinion as what and who really was behind it. However, writer-director Sturla Gunnarson deserves credit for his disciplined and reasoned approach to steers clear of the one-sided agenda of Vancouver Sun’s Kim Bolan, who is listed as a consultant for the film.

By R. Paul Dhillon

SURREY – The upcoming CBC documentary “Air India 182” offers no new insight into Canada’s worst ever aviation tragedy despite a valiant effort by renowned Canadian filmmaker Sturla Gunnarsson to faithfully recount the story up until the conclusion of the court case that acquitted accused Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri.

The LINK got an exclusive preview of the 90-minute feature length documentary that uses archival footage and dramatized sequences featuring passengers but more controversially having actors play the actual Air India players like Talwinder Singh Parmar (played by Baljinder Singh), Hardyal Singh Johal (played by Sarabjeet Singh) and Inderjit Singh Reyat (played by Gurpreet Singh Chana).

Gunnarson, who says he grew up in Vancouver being aware of the horrendous effects the killings of 329 people had on the families, does an effective job in telling the story from the families perspective, giving a real sense of massive loss of life from the senseless downing of flight 182.

However, he basically rehashes information from the Air India court case and other questionable “CSIS intelligence” that presents the case that has now been taken as a bible by Canadian mainstream media’s propaganda that it was a conspiracy by Sikh militants who carried out the bombing despite the fact that other than the so-called “bomb-maker” Reyat, there has not been a single conviction in the case.

The documentary gives a distorted view that the conspiracy was hatched by these so-called Sikh militants to get back at the Indian government’s attack on the Golden Temple without delving into the Indian agents’ (RAW) role in the conspiracy or even their attempts to fuel tensions in the Sikh community during the turbulent period of 1984.

Asked to explain this and many omissions of numerous plots and conspiracies that led to the tragedy and Gunnarson is forced to time and fall back on the same defence - that the film is basically taken from the Malik-Bagri case and other intelligence sources.

“These conspiracy theories – it’s just nonsense,” Gunnarson told the LINK.

“I have grown up in the Sikh community and they are a very vibrant people but that does not mean that there aren’t bad Sikhs. It is quite possible to have Sikh villains,” says Gunnarson, who is married to a BC Sikh woman and says he handled the story with the utter sensitivity towards the Sikh community.

But after repeated questioning from this reporter - that why were specifically things that point to the Indian government’s role as well as other doubts as to whether this was a larger conspiracy rather than the work of these “buffoonish” group of Sikh militants who weren’t even sure whether the bags would even get on the plane and it was a sad, criminally insane series of events, not of the so-called bombers’ doing, that led the bombs to get on to those planes – Gunnarson is forced to admit that fact there is nothing new in the story and either you take the police and court’s view of things or you don’t!

“There is nothing new in the film as it is not intended as a investigative film but more as a record of an important part of our modern history in Canada,” he says. “I would be happy if the film brings about a discussion among Sikhs and Canadians and a healing between the two communities to move forward.”

Parmar, who was a central figure in the Air India case and was tried a number of times unsuccessfully in Canadian courts on various charges, has now been permanently labeled as the “mastermind” behind the conspiracy thanks in much part to the propaganda in the mainstream press, especially the lengthy one-sided writings of the Vancouver Sun’s agenda-based reporter Kim Bolan, who is listed a consultant on the documentary.

It should be pointed out that Gunnarson, who deserves credit for his disciplined and reasoned approach, steers clear of much of Bolan’s well known bias in the case and sticks largely to the facts.

Parmar, who gave his life to his militant cause for a Sikh homeland, was a complicated figure who didn’t intimidate easily. Court records, police interviews and media scrums show him to be very committed revolutionary but who time and again denied that he had anything to do with the Air India bombing. He has also been pointed as a double agent who certainly had an Indian agent (Mr. X who has never been identified) with him when he traveled to Duncan to meet Reyat during that whole “blast” in the woods incident that Canadian police never went to check on until the plane went down.

Parmar was tortured by the Indian government and killed in their usual in-custody killings of political prisoners. Why didn’t the Indian government charge and try him for the Air India bombing as it was their plane and many of their citizens and countrymen who died in it.

And now he has been declared a mastermind of the conspiracy in Canada without the opportunity to defend himself as Canadian authorities don’t even know who delivered the homemade bombs. Other than Reyat purchasing some parts that could be used to make a detonating device (Reyat in his plea bargain with the Crown maintained as such that he gathered the parts but neither made the bombs or knows anyone else who made the bombs) there is absolutely no physical evidence to connect the various players to the crime.

The documentary, aside from making an apology for the police’s incompetence by saying they didn’t have the resources and didn’t know what they were doing, also omits things like what was the role of Surjan Gill, a self-appointed President of Khalistan but more importantly an alleged CSIS mole who would be the best person to help convict the so-called people involved in the conspiracy because he knew everything that was going on from the inside. Why was he shipped off shore to England before the Air India trial began? The documentary features turncoat MP Ujjal Dosanjh but fails to point out that he was also Surjan Gill’s lawyer. While it goes into death threats to Rajiv Gandhi during his visit to North America and his mother’s assassination but conveniently leaves out the thousands of Sikhs slaughtered by Gandhi’s Congress hooligans with the help of the police.

These omissions alone make it somewhat of a one-sided view of things that the film takes and therefore it opens itself up to criticism.

There are a lot of recordings by police where the subjects saying stuff in Punjabi that can be construed as they are carrying out a conspiracy but you would need to suspend disbelief and also would have to believe that they were trained by the CIA’s foreign insurgency unit. There were also erasure of many recordings and due to many such facts of police incompetence or interference – the resoluteness with which the documentary tries to tell the story of the bombings as absolute remains questionable at best!

Air India 182, which airs on the anniversary of the flight's departure, 23 years ago, and on the eve of Canada’s National Day of Remembrance for Victims of Terrorism, will be telecast commercial-free on CBC Television, Sunday, June 22, at 8 p.m.


16 Jun 2008 by editor



All Rights Reserved by The South Asian Link.

Rabble News - CRTC complaint filed for reporting on Laibar Singh

I have been thinking for some time that the news coverage of Laibar Singh's case has been biased. I know, however, I am somewhat sensitive to Canadian coverage of Sikh community matters in general and thought perhaps my perceptions were a bit jaundiced. Evidentally, I am not the only person finding the coverage unfair. I found this press release and am sharing it with you. For those who may not know - OK, I had to look it up - CRTC stands for Canadian Radio-Television Commission.

CRTC complaint filed for reporting on Laibar Singh

by Various
February 1, 2008

A group of journalists, academics, and media-watch groups have filed a CRTC complaint stating that news coverage of the case of Mr. Laibar Singh was not accurate, full, and comprehensive. According to the complainants, this inaccurate and incomplete coverage breached the broadcasters' ethical codes and betrayed the public trust, while negatively impacting the public perception in the case of Mr. Laibar Singh.

This complaint has been filed against CBC TV, CBC Radio, CKNW, CTV, and Global TV on the grounds that – despite numerous clarifications including by legal experts - broadcasters failed to provide accurate, comprehensive, fair, full, and unbiased coverage when they reported falsely that Laibar Singh "came to Canada illegally" or that he "was illegal" in Canada prior to taking sanctuary in July 2007. This decontextualized and/or inaccurate information has fuelled ignorance in the public sphere and has negatively influenced perceptions of Mr. Laibar Singh and all asylum seekers to Canada.

The complaints have been filed as a group by:

- Ann Simonton, Coordinator and Founder, Media Watch
- Judy Rebick, Professor of Communications and Culture, Ryerson University
- Isabel Macdonald, Communications Director, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting- New York (FAIR)*
- Dr. Fiona Jeffries, Instructor, Communications Department, Simon Fraser University
- Dr. Jenny Burman, Assistant Professor, Communication Studies, McGill University
- Avi Lewis, Filmmaker and broadcaster
- Naomi Klein, Author and syndicated columnist
- Steve Anderson, Coordinator, Campaign for Democratic Media
- Dr. Yasmin Jiwani, Associate Professor, Department of Communication Studies, Concordia University
- Derrick O'Keefe, Editor, rabble.ca
- Marshall Soules, Media Studies Department Chair, Malaspina University-College

"By inaccurately stating that Laibar Singh 'entered Canada illegally,' when in fact he came under a prescribed channel that many asylum seekers choose, and by leaving out essential context about laws pertaining to asylum seekers, broadcasters have used the public airwaves to fuel ignorance rather than to inform the public," stated Macdonald.

Soules added, "The media must be held accountable for reporting misleading, incomplete, and inaccurate information. This is especially important when that reporting contributes to biased perceptions of refugees and immigrants who contribute so much to Canadian society. The media are failing in their duty to the public trust, and the CRTC has a clear responsibility to investigate this failure."

"The repetition of an inaccuracy in the media is one of the worst examples of how media framing can impact on legal proceedings. The impact of the falsehood that Laibar Singh entered Canada illegally cannot be overestimated. This error must be corrected and the media held accountable. A man's life may be at stake," stated Rebick.

"The biggest problem with media inaccuracies has to do with situations such as this, when real humans are being hurt by what the media says," Simonton agreed.

Klein, who has already lent her support to the campaign to allow Mr. Singh to remain in Canada on humanitarian and compassionate grounds, stated, "Public perception has been informed by often careless reporting. Letters to the editor, web comments, and callers on radio shows have argued that Laibar Singh's deportation should proceed based on a perceived 'illegality,' a claim fuelled by inaccurate news reports. The media is responsible for informing the public in an accurate, full, and fair way, and they have betrayed that trust, while contributing to false public perceptions of Mr. Singh."

Jeffries concluded, "The news media has an enormous influence on framing public debates and it is vital that it adheres to its own stated commitment to accuracy and responsible reporting of the facts. This complaint seeks to hold the news media to its public responsibility."

--
WHY TRY TO FIT IN?
YOU WERE BORN TO STAND OUT!

An Open Letter to Tarek Fatah

From the comments of CBC Hatchet Job (two posts below this one)

From: Amneet Singh:

Bhenji, i have written the following response to Tarek on that blog, however i cannot post it because i do not have an account... if you could post it on my behalf and edit it in any way you feel appropriate that would be greatly appreciated..

My Response:

Gladly. I am also posting it here as a post without further comment (since sometimes it's hard for readers to get to comments and I really like what you have to say) and will also copy it onto the blog. It needs no editing. Mai.

"Tarek Fatah, Sikhs do not wish for the disintegration of a Nation, however we seek justice for the murders and genocidal campaign against many minorities within the state of India.

Kashmiris, Dalits, Sikhs and Christians (May I add Muslims, as well? Mai) have been victims of gross human rights violations, and the state of India has proven itself unwilling to provide justice to the victims of their oppression.

Tarak Fatah, are you in favour of state terrorism along with India's continued denial and lack of action for the murders of millions... including many minorities outside of the Sikh Fold? Does it not bother you that 24 years after the Delhi Pogroms the murderers of 20 000+ innocent Sikhs who were burnt alive in a period of 3 days continue to roam free while holding seats in Indian Parliamant? Tarek, do you really feel murder, rape, and torture of these innocent Sikhs was justified and that the Indian courts after 24 yrs of mocking Sikhs will build up the courage to arrest and jail those responsible?

Will you, Tarek Fatah... condemn the Indian Government for its gross human rights violations, and stop your slander against Sikhs by defining our calls for justice as terrorism...? Will you..bring an end to your attempt to label Sikhs seeking social justice from a Terrorist State that has shown that they have no care for our rights... as being un-Canadian...

Tarek Fatah... will you deny yourself from standing proud amongst Khalistani Sikhs who define themselves as being Canadians through the pride in fighting for justice for all people, regardless of nationality...? Will you join us in taking pride in the Blue helmet and uniforms pridefully amended by Canada amongst United Nations Peacekeepers...

Or will you continue deny suffering human beings their right for justice, because you feel that justice is a luxury that can only be given to those with a Canadian Citizenship?"



Posted by Amneet Singh to THE ROAD TO KHALISTAN at Sunday, 01 July, 2007
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WHY TRY TO FIT IN WHEN YOU WERE BORN TO STAND OUT?

CBC Hatchet Job

(I am trying to make a blue with saffron lettering ribbon, but until I finish debugging Compy, it's just refusing. Right now, this is the best I can do.)(Saffron just wouldn't print, but this still looks pretty good, eh?)

I suppose by now most everyone has heard about the 'news' story broadcast on CBC's The National last night. It is full of lies, half-lies, innuendos and distortions , painting us Khalistan supporters as half-baked, disloyal Canadians, and seemed to paint the whole Sikh community in Canada as a bunch of thugs and terrorists. Before I go any further, I suggest you look at this report:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hycDaez2gco

(I notice this video is about ten minutes long. The piece I saw last night was almost twice that length. I haven't seen the YouTube version, since I have a very slow connexion.)

Here is the link to the CBC, where they have the video posted

.http://www.cbc.ca/national/blog/video/politicseconomy/samosa_politics.html

You can leave a comment at this site. Please be calm, peaceful, reasonable in any comment you leave, but also please br firm and determined. Remember that there are those out there who will judge all Sikhs by what you say! After watching this nonsense, you may also feel moved to leave a comment at the CBC 'your view' line. The link to that is:

http://www.cbc.ca/national/yourturn/index.html

This from Google Alerts alerted me to the 'news' cast.

http://cork2toronto.blogspot.com/2007/06/cbcs-national-airs-shocking-expose-on.html


After watching this bit of nonsense - I am in the Pacific time zone and this blog was posted before the story aired here - I left this comment:

Dear Mr. Dowling,

Please don't believe everything you hear. I would first suggest you go to
Baseless fear mongering by the CBCBy Japnaam Singh(Japnaam Singh) :http://www.japnaamsingh.com/2007/06/baseless-fear-mongering-by-cbc.html

Then if you are up to hearing an opposing view on Khalistan, feel free to
visit our blog, The Road To Khalistan, http://roadtokhalistan.blogspot.com/.
We are three rather ordinary Sikh women caught up in extraordinary events; we
are not violent, raving lunatics, we are loving, concerned wives and mothers.
That CBC piece was a complete hatchet job. Please seek other opinions before you
condemn all us Khalistanis as terrorists!
Thank you.
Mai, Vini and
Suni

I checked this morning and found that Mr. Tarek Fatah has left a comment suggesting that maybe we aren't very good Canadians. Please go read for yourself!

This blogpost mentioned in my comment above is one response. It is well worth reading, Baseless Fear Mongering by the CBC

I am going to publish this now because I want to get it out as quickly as possible. I'll pretty it up as the day goes on. Sorry for all these naked links, but my computer is acting up. For some reason, it seems to need to be debugged.

Sisters and Brothers, Kaurs and Singhs, other most welcome visitors, I have chosen not to delete obscene comments as I believe we can learn from our enemies as well as from our friends. But I will warn you, the first comment here contains strong(weak?) language.

KHALISTAN ZINDABAD!!