AAP MLAs Sandhwan, Sandoa not allowed to enter Canada, deported
TORONTO:Two Punjab legislators of the Aam Aadmi Party were denied entry into Canada on Saturday after they arrived at the the country’s capital, Ottawa.
Kotkapura MLA Kultar Sandhwan and his Rupnagar counterpart Amarjit Sandoa arrived at Ottawa’s MacdonaldCartier Airport on Saturday afternoon on an Air Canada flight after catching a connecting flight from Frankfurt.
However, after they landed, they were questioned by Canadian immigration authorities and subsequently denied permission to enter the country. Later that evening, they were placed on a flight back to India.
The reason, however, for the deportation procedure against the two MLAs remains unclear.
Sandhwan’s sister, Harpreet Gahla, who had been waiting for her brother at the airport, told Hindustan Times that it was a traumatic experience for her. “They (the authorities) didn’t even let me speak to my brother at the airport. I asked them, ‘What happened?’ and they said they couldn’t tell me,” said Gahla, a resident of Ottawa.
After a prolonged wait at the airport, she returned home with her husband.
Later in the evening, around 8.45 pm, she received a call from her brother, which appeared to have been made while he was being monitored by immigration agents and all he told her was he was returning to India in a few minutes.
Gahla said she had been in Canada for 13 years and this was the first time her brother was visiting her in the country and was accompanied by his party colleague and fellow MLA on the visit. “This is the first time ever he was visiting here, at least they should have let him stay for a couple of days,” she said.
Sandhwan also happens to be the great-grandnephew of late Indian President Giani Zail Singh.
A response to queries relating to this incident sent by the HT to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, Canada, was yet be to received. The MLAs, however, did not contact the Indian High Commission in Ottawa during the course of their detention.
This was a personal visit by Sandhwan to Canada.
An AAP volunteer in the country said there was possibility of some informal meetings in Toronto but that was never the main thrust of the planned threeweek trip.
KOTKAPURA, RUPNAGAR LEGISLATORS SENT BACK FROM OTTAWA AIRPORT, REASON FOR DEPORTATION UNCLEAR