B.C. SIBLINGS WANTED IN INDIA FOR ALLEGED HONOUR KILLING WERE TAKEN IN ‘DEAD OF NIGHT’ TO BE EXTRADITED, THEIR LAWYERS SAY IN COURT FILINGS THAT ACCUSE OTTAWA OF CONSPIRING WITH INDIA.
B.C. residents accused in alleged honour killing
VA NCOU V ER • The Canadian government “secretly” conspired last fall with India to whisk away two B.C. residents accused in an alleged overseas honour killing before their legal options had been exhausted and without regard for new evidence, their lawyers allege in court filings.
The documents obtained by The National Post outline for the first time details of how the accused pair were awoken in the “dead of night” and transported from Vancouver to Toronto without their lawyers’ knowledge.
What transpired last September amounted to a clear “abuse of process,” their lawyers allege in the B.C. Court of Appeal filings dated Dec. 15.
Police in India allege Surjit Singh Badesha and his sister, Malkit Kaur Sidhu, Canadian citizens living in the Vancouver area, ordered the killing of Sidhu’s daughter, Jaswinder Sidhu, after she had secretly married Sukhwinder Singh Sidhu, a rickshaw driver, instead of a wealthier older man who had been chosen for her.
The couple were attacked by armed men in 2000 in the Punjab region of India. Jaswinder Sidhu’s body was found the next day, her throat slit. Her husband was badly beaten.
A B.C. trial court judge approved the pair’s extradition in 2014, but the decision was overturned on appeal. Last September, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled the extradition could go ahead, citing assurances that the federal government had received that the pair wouldn’t be mistreated. But before the top court decision, lawyers for the accused presented the Justice Department with evidence they said raised fresh concerns about mistreatment and torture of prisoners in India.
Included in the evidence were affidavits from various people who had been held in custody in India. One affidavit stated that whenever a prisoner falls sick, “there is no arrangement of doctors and the sick persons (sic) dies.” But on Sept. 20, before the justice minister had rendered a decision on that new information, the accused were transferred to the Vancouver airport, their lawyers say.
Badesha says in an affidavit he was approached by guards at the North Fraser Pretrial Centre at 5:30 a.m. and told to get ready to be moved.
He was taken to an office and told by Mounties that Indian police would be taking him back to India.
“I asked to contact my lawyer, Michael Klein. … I was not permitted to make the call to my counsel.”
Outside, he saw his sister, Sidhu, who had been held at the Alouette Correctional Centre for Women, waiting in a separate car.
At the airport, they boarded an Air Canada flight. They flew to Toronto and were told to wait.
In Vancouver, counsel for the accused learned from “rumours and online publications” that the accused might be on their way to India, according to a filing by Sidhu’s lawyer, Greg DelBigio.
DelBigio said the Justice Department responded that same day, stating: “Contrary to reports in the Indian media, I can confirm that Mr. Badesha and Ms. Sidhu have not yet been surrendered to India or into the custody of the Punjab/Indian Police. … To clarify our position, we have undertaken not to surrender them before the minister makes a decision on whether to reconsider. However, should she decide not to reconsider they may be immediately removed.”
The defence lawyers immediately filed an after-hours application with the B.C. Court of Appeal for a judicial review. The following day, the appeal court granted the review and told both sides to prepare their arguments — paving the way for the accused to be brought back to Vancouver.
The defence lawyers have since applied for a permanent stay of the surrender orders and have also asked the court to order the government to turn over records of the planning that took place to prepare their removal from Canada.
“The applicant submits that it is clear that the minister or her representatives coordinated with the Government of India to secretly remove the applicant from Canada,” Badesha’s lawyer wrote.
“With the minister’s decision to reconsider the surrender order still outstanding, the applicant was taken to Toronto so that he could be clandestinely removed from Canada immediately after the release of that decision, without the benefit of the 30 days the applicant has in law to consider the decision and apply for judicial review of that decision.
“The allegation is essentially that the applicant was held incommunicado and whisked away in the dead of night in order to deny him the due process of law and judicial oversight as guaranteed by the extradition act.”
A spokeswoman for the federal Justice Department said in an email Wednesday that following the top court decision, Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould was “authorized ... to surrender Mr. Badesha and Ms. Sidhu to India.”
In her Sept. 28 letter to the pair’s lawyers, the minister said their “late submissions” amounted to a “reformulation” of previous arguments and that Canada had received “formal diplomatic assurances from India” that the accused would have the right to consular assistance.
Lawyers are due back in court on Jan. 16.
APPLICANT... WAS WHISKED AWAY IN ORDER TO DENY HIM DUE PROCESS OF LAW.