A number of Indo-Canadian MPs including Surrey MPs Randeep Sarai and Sukh Dhaliwal have been trying to assist people to bring their loved ones home but they have faced a backlash and criticism from opponents and disgruntled enemies including the same man who earlier was partly responsible for Dhaliwal’s tax troubles. Bring Canadians Home claimed they had organized private charter flight to bring people home. But according to DESIBUZZCanada sources, local Indian agents decided to play spoilsport and told India to cancel the flights because the Group had team up with Surrey Gurdwara who they claimed was Khalistani.

By R. Paul Dhillon – Editor-Founder DESIBUZZCanada

SURREY – An attempt to bring thousands of stranded (Indo)-Canadians home by the Canadian government has embroiled into infighting and criticism even though more flights are expected to fly them out.

A number of Indo-Canadian MPs including Surrey MPs Randeep Sarai and Sukh Dhaliwal have been trying to assist people to bring their loved ones home but they have faced a backlash and criticism from opponents and disgruntled enemies including the same man who earlier was partly responsible for Dhaliwal’s tax troubles.

The critics claim the government and Punjabi MPs are not doing enough to bring Canadians home and getting in the way of an independent group trying to privately charter airlines but getting shot down for teaming up with a Surrey Gurdwara. 

Apparently a group called Bring Canadians Home, which has a number of people involved, including a guy named Newton Sidhu in Punjab, including this disgruntled anti-Dhaliwal man, had organized their own private charters for people wanting to come back, including booking flights and charging people through an account set up at the Surrey Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara. 

The Group claimed that they had gotten the okay from India for the flights. But according to DESIBUZZCanada sources, local Indian agents decided to play spoilsport. Perhaps it was just people who were jealous that Bring Canadians Home may be trying to make big money from this racket and decided to tell local Indian government officials that Bring Canadians Home group was working with an alleged Khalistani group (Surrey Guru Nanak Sikh Temple). In either case, the whole operation was shut down with only Canadian government organized flights allowed to proceed.

There’s a bizarre world out there of the campaign to Bring Canadians Home!

There was also criticism of Canada’s high Commissioner Nadir Patel that he organized repatriation flights first from other parts of India and not Punjab where majority of the stranded Canadians are. 

Patel’s critics also questioned what is he still doing in India having already been given one extension and apparently another one coming this summer, especially after presiding over a disastrous Canadian government trip to India by PM Justin Trudeau and his Sikh-Canadian MP-Ministers.

But Surrey-Centre MP Sarai denied that the government’s effort to bring Canadians home is lagging, saying 2000 Canadians had been repatriated from India on 9 flights., five from Amritsar + Delhi, two from Delhi, one from Mumbai, and one from Bangalore + Mumbai.

Sarai said three more flights are scheduled to continue the repatriation with flights leaving this week including on April 22 (Amritsar), 24 (Amritsar) and 26 (Ahmadabad).

“So seven out 12 flights have been or are from Amritsar and if we include two from Delhi, it’s nine out of 12 from North India,” Sarai told DESIBUZZCanada.

He said the next round will have direct flights from Amritsar to Vancouver and Amritsar to Toronto (with stopovers in Doha). Eight more flights from Amritsar will be announced soon (4 to Vancouver and 4 to Toronto).

But Bring Canadians Home (BCH), which describes itself as a volunteer group formed to assist Canadians stranded in India, claimed in a press release that it had been unexpectedly derailed, given that they have been highlighting the inadequate government response to the 15,000 citizens still trying to return to Canada.

The Group said it has spent the past three weeks setting up volunteer-organized charter flights.

BCH said after initially receiving clearance from the Indian government for eight flights, all necessary permits were suddenly revoked without explanation on April 17, 2020. The group has yet to receive any information regarding the reason for these cancellations.

But as we point out earlier, sources told DESIBUZZCanada that the reason was due to local Indian agents calling Indian government officials of BCH’s connection to Surrey Guru Nanak Sikh Temple, which they told Indian officials was Khalisani. But this could be out of jealousy or spreading misinformation as the Gurdwara’s politics unlike Dashmesh Darbar’s are not known.

BCH spokesperson Jeena Takhar said what the process has demonstrated is the slow pace and the low number of tangible flights that have been secured thus from by the Government of Canada and/or the Canadian High Commission in India.

"We were able to organize eight flights over a ten-day span, yet nearly a month after India was shut down, the Government of Canada has barely been able to secure the same number," said Takhar. "We are a volunteer group with humanitarian interests, and we are only trying to add more capacity to the government's efforts."

With Air Canada's international flights largely shut down until June 1, Bring Canadians Home said they were also able to negotiate with several international charter airlines that were willing to fill in the gaps created by Canada's limited airline options.

These contacts, along with a list of over 6,000 Canadians, have been repeatedly offered to the federal government, to no avail. But government has said that the repatriation flights are first-come, first serve option and they can’t pick and choose people to put in planes.

BCH is now asking for Government officials to increase the number of flights taking Canadians home, particularly in the State of Punjab, where the majority of Canadians in India are located. The group is also offering the Government of Canada to take over and implement the existing eight flight plan that the group has organized.

"There is the ability to have direct flights from Punjab 8-12 times a week or more, but for unknown reasons, the Government has not made such options available," adds Takhar. "There are seniors with depleted medications supply, families with young children, and citizens with acute/chronic medical conditions that at this pace, won't get home until at least the end of summer. The physical and mental well being of Canadians in India is being severely affected by this slow process. We as a country must do better."

BCH said it remains committed to continuing to securing new volunteer-organized flights as they await government acceleration, and is looking into the permit revocation to attempt to correct the undetermined issues.