Assault charge dropped against NDP members’ relative
An Ontario man reacted bitterly Wednesday after prosecutors dropped an assault charge against a relative of two federal politicians who shoved him to the ground during a clash between Sikhcanadian and pro-india demonstrators.
A judge did impose a “peace bond” on Jodhveer Dhaliwal, the brother-in-law of NDP leader Jagmeet Singh and a cousin-in-law of Liberal MP Ruby Sahota.
It means he cannot directly or indirectly contact the alleged victim, Yashdeep Shinde, for a year.
But Shinde said the Crown never consulted him about its decision, which he said he learned of from Postmedia News, and he said he suspects outside influences were at play.
“I feel now justice is not being done at all,” said the 48-year-old, an IT manager at a major bank. “The way this has gone about seems to be some sort of a deal on the political level, because this person is connected … And the prosecutors just backed off.”
Shinde also voiced surprise at a suggestion from Dhaliwal’s lawyer that medical records indicate he had not broken his arm in the incident, as he told police. In fact, he said he was in a cast for more than three months and a radiologist’s report he shared with Postmedia News indicates he had a fracture of the scaphoid, a bone in the wrist.
Defence lawyer Harval Bassi stressed in court that his client admits no criminal or civil liability for what happened.
A spokeswoman for Singh said the NDP leader and his staff never contacted prosecutors about the case. Sahota’s office could not be reached for comment.
The incident in question, captured on video and spread widely online, underscored what appeared to be mounting tensions within the Indo-canadian community stemming from unrest in India.
A group of mostly Hindu supporters of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a car rally through the Toronto-area city of Brampton on Feb. 28.
It was met by Sikh-canadian counter-demonstrators and came to a halt when Dhaliwal “parked his car on the roadway and got out of his vehicle and began antagonizing the rally participants,” Crown prosecutor Nazampal Jaswal told court Wednesday.
“Mr. Dhaliwal approached Mr. Shinde’s vehicle, yelling and cursing before taking his rally flags from the windows,” she said. “At this time, Mr. Shinde exited his vehicle and confronted Mr. Dhaliwal … This led to a heated verbal argument, which escalated to the point where Mr. Dhaliwal aggressively walked toward the victim and pushed him to the ground.”
But Bassi said Dhaliwal, 30, disagrees with the prosecutor’s characterization of the event as a “Canada-india peace rally.”
There were “political undercurrents” to the demonstration, he said. It came after a number of peaceful demonstrations in the Brampton area that supported Indian farmers who faced strongarm tactics while protesting controversial new agriculture laws, noted Bassi.
He also said the original charge of assault causing bodily harm was based on Shinde’s claim his arm was broken in the attack. But medical records suggest there was no fracture, and that was one reason the Crown withdrew the lesser charge of assault, too, he told court.
“I’m not going to harp on what rationale or motivations there were for saying there was a fracture when there wasn’t,” he said. “But Mr. Dhaliwal absolutely does not admit any criminal or civil liability emanating from those allegations.”
Jaswal did not indicate why the Crown was withdrawing the charge.