Canada rebuke to CRPF frays bilateral ties
OTTAWA A retired senior CRPF officer was denied entry at Vancouver airport, partly because he served a government that engages in “terrorism, systematic or gross human rights violations, or genocide”.
CRPF inspector general Tejinder Singh Dhillon, who retired in 2010, was declared inadmissible under a subsection of Canada’s immigration law last week.
Indian military and Punjab Police officers were denied Canadian visa in the past over alleged human rights violations.
But the latest case has the potential to hit bilateral relations between the two countries as India was branded a serial abuser of human rights.
The Ontario assembly passed a motion in April that recognises as genocide the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in India that killed over 2,500 people.
A document given to 67-year-old Dhillon at the airport mentioned that he served a government engaged in “terrorism, systematic or gross human rights violations, or genocide, a war crime or a crime against humanity”.
The startling condemnation of India was removed in a second report issued by immigration authorities at the airport.
But they still held he could not be granted entry as he had served with the CRPF, which had “committed widespread and systemic human rights abuses, for example torture, arbitrary detention, murder and sexual assault”.
New Delhi reacted sharply to the choice of words in both documents handed to Dhillon.
“Such a characterisation of a reputed force like the CRPF is completely unacceptable. We have taken up the matter with the government of Canada,” foreign ministry spokesperson Gopal Baglay said.
For its part, Canada deployed its high commissioner to India, Nadir Patel, to try to undo the damage.
In a statement on Tuesday, he said: “Form letters in use by the government of Canada include generic language taken from Canada’s legislation. In this case, the language does not reflect the government’s policy towards India or any particular organisation .... ”
Speaking over the phone from Ludhiana, Dhillon said he has visited Canada several times in more than 30 years. He said he was carrying a Canadian visa issued in India and valid till 2024.
On this trip, he and family were to spend a couple of days with friends in Vancouver before proceeding to his daughter’s home in Seattle. They were to travel back from the US to Toronto to attend his niece’s wedding in Brampton.
On their way, Dhillon and his wife spent some time in Europe and took a flight from Frankfurt to Vancouver. The ordeal began on May 18 when the couple was pulled aside for questioning.
Dhillon alleged the officers behaved in an “unreasonable and indecent manner”, accusing him of human rights violations. The questioning lasted nearly seven hours and ceased when a friend waiting to pick up the Dhillons intervened.
The process began again next morning and Dhillon’s visa was cancelled.