Immigrants who helped officer hope to stay in Canada
MONTREAL — A loud knock interrupted the evening routine in a tiny basement apartment in Montreal’s Parc-Extension neighbourhood on Jan. 28.
Santokh Kaur was preparing dinner. Her husband, Gurmit Singh, rose from his chair to answer the door.
The moment he opened it, a man burst in.
“He was all covered in blood. My wife got scared, because seeing a person walk into your home, full of blood, anyone would get scared,” Singh recalled in an interview. “But then the police officer introduced himself. He said: ‘Not to worry, I am a cop. And please help me. I’m in need of help.’”
And so, a pair of newcomers to Canada, who speak no French and hardly any English, were thrust into an unfolding drama that has shocked and roiled Montreal. They opened their door to an injured officer who had been attacked, disarmed and chased when a routine traffic stop turned violent. They are now being hailed as heroes for sheltering him, trying to staunch his wounds with a towel and probably saving his life.
But in recounting the episode to Postmedia through translator Gaurav Sharma, it is clear their bravery is all the more remarkable in light of their harrowing history.
“They come from a background where ‘police’ is a terrifying word. They have been through a lot, they have suffered a lot in their home country,” Sharma explained. “So, when they saw a person drenched in blood walk into their apartment, the first reaction was that even Mr. Gurmit Singh was a little scared. But then he noticed that the injured person was wearing a cop uniform. So, the confidence returned despite the fact that he has had a very bad experience with cops in his home country. But he trusted Canadian soil, Canadian people and Canadian police. So, all the worry, all the frightening feelings, went away, and he just wanted to help that guy.”
The strange events of Jan. 28 were as chaotic and confusing then as they are now controversial.
The brazen attack that could have cost an officer his life also nearly resulted in a miscarriage of justice.
The driver of the vehicle that had been pulled over was initially arrested as the prime suspect. A 31-year-old doctoral student at Polytechnique Montréal, Mamadi Fara Camara spent six days in jail professing his innocence before all charges against him were mercifully dropped.
That’s how long it took for police to review traffic camera footage showing a third person had been present that night and that the wrong man had been charged. Camara, after all, had called 911 and remained at the scene.
Although Camara was freed — to return home to a wife pregnant with twins and reclaim his suspended position as a lab supervisor at Polytechnique — he is nevertheless traumatized.
And his ordeal has rightfully become a flashpoint for anger about how the police and prosecutors handled the case. Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante and Opposition leader Lionel Perez have demanded an inquiry. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the case of mistaken identity “troubling.” Community groups who have long denounced the force’s troubling record of racial profiling are outraged.
There are urgent questions that must be answered — openly and transparently.
At least Montreal Police Chief Sylvain Caron exonerated and apologized to Camara on Friday.
In the meantime, the gun has not been found and the true assailant remains at large.
These weighty issues have understandably overshadowed Singh and Kaur’s quiet act of courage. But it must not obscure the fact these helpers could use help themselves.
They are refugee claimants from a small village in the state of Punjab in India. They escaped persecution and political instability. They are waiting for their hearing before an immigration judge so they can make their case to stay in Canada.
Since arriving in Montreal in June 2019, Singh — a tailor by trade — has been unable to find work.
“I have never been able to find a job in Canada, never any job,” he said. “I am willing to do any kind of job.”
But their biggest heartbreak is that they had to leave their 15-year-old daughter behind with relatives.
At this, Kaur, who had been dabbing her eyes throughout the interview, began to cry.
“She is missing our daughter a lot,” Singh said, adding his daughter is similarly distressed. “She’s a kid and she misses her parents a lot, especially her mother. We talk to her every day. If her mother is depressed, we can say, it’s the same for the daughter. She is a bit depressed.”
They hope to be able to get her a visa or one day sponsor her to join them. Singh said reuniting the family “is our aim and goal in life.”
There may not be much he can do about bringing Singh and Kaur’s daughter to Canada, but Montreal Constable Françis Vigneault hopes to help them in other ways.
Vigneault has been with the Montreal police for five years and spent three years with the Canadian Armed Forces before that. He was left shaken by the attack on fellow officer Sanjay Vig.
But he was also impressed with the pluck of this vulnerable couple when faced with a frightening and dangerous emergency.
“When I saw that, this lady, who doesn’t speak a word of English or a word of French, it’s not even yet her country, it’s her host country, and to see that instinctively she was ready to help, it really touched me,” he said.
After reading about them in La Presse on Feb. 3 and seeing others suggesting they deserved help, Vigneault set up a fundraiser for the pair that generated more than $18,000 in the first 36 hours and more than $23,000 by Sunday afternoon.
“There are so many times that there are good ideas but there was no traction, there was no momentum, nobody was taking action,” he said. “So, I said ‘OK, I’m going to organize the GoFundMe. I’m off today, I have time.’”
Vigneault met Singh and Kaur in person on Friday to express gratitude from fellow officers and tell them about the outpouring in response to their good deed.
“Their actions probably saved that police officer’s life,” Vigneault said. “So this seemed like the best way to thank them.”
But sitting in Sharma’s office a week after the bewildering incident and shortly after Vigneault’s visit, it was Singh and Kaur who humbly expressed thanks to the country that has taken them in.
“Canadian soil, Canadian people, Canadian government, they have given me another life. I am very thankful to all of them,” Singh said as he and his wife pressed their hands together in prayer and bowed. “And I am very, very happy that I was given an opportunity to serve and help anyone of Canadian origin, especially a police officer. I am very thankful that I was of any help.”
“Canadian soil, Canadian people, Canadian government, they have given me another life. I am very thankful to all of them.” Gurmit Singh