Violence brings back memories for Hayer
Former MLA recalls father’s death
When former B.C. MLA Dave Hayer awoke to news of a terrorist attack targeting journalists in Paris, the memories came flooding back.
Video footage showing the gunmen who killed 12 at Paris’ Charlie Hebdo magazine was a chilling reminder of the first attempt on his editor father’s life, Hayer said in an interview.
“When I woke up first thing in the morning, I looked on my BlackBerry and I saw the news. I was shocked,” Hayer said Wednesday.
“It reminded me of the 1988 assassination attempt on my dad.”
On Aug. 26, 1988, a gunman entered the Surrey office of Tara Hayer’s Indo-Canadian Times newspaper and shot him several times.
The outspoken journalist was paralyzed in the attack, but continued to write against the terrorists behind the 1985 Air India bombing.
On Nov. 18, 1998, Tara Hayer was assassinated in his garage after leaving his office for the day.
No one has ever been charged in the murder, believed to be the only assassination of a journalist in Canadian history. A 17-year-old was convicted in the earlier attack.
Hayer said his family has continued publishing the Indo-Canadian Times all these years in defence of freedom of expression. They didn’t want those who threatened, opposed and attacked Tara Hayer to succeed in shuttering the business.
He urged journalists around the world to carry on now for the same reason.
“You can’t allow this to discourage you because journalists do a very important job to keep our democracy alive. We have to encourage and support our journalists all over in all different types of media,” Hayer said. “You can’t give up your freedom of press because once freedom of press goes, our democracy goes.”
Hayer said the Paris gunmen, who reportedly shouted that they had avenged the prophet, “knew exactly where they were going and what they were doing. They appeared to be well organized.”
All Canadians must be united against terrorist violence like the Paris attack, Hayer said.
“We all have to condemn the terrorism regardless of where it happens,” he said.