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Canada’s refugee board has ordered the deportation of an alleged Lawrence Bishnoi gang associate who tried to ban the press from reporting on his case.
At a hearing Friday, Sahibjot Singh admitted to discharging prohibited weapons for a criminal organization and conceded to being deported.
Although he denied he was a crime group member, the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) accused him of being affiliated with the Bishnoi gang.
Singh, who appeared at the hearing on camera from his lawyer’s office in Edmonton, is the latest of dozens of Indian nationals to face deportation for their involvement in extortion gangs.
Before the hearing got underway, Singh tried to ban reporters from observing his case, arguing he feared “potential retaliation” due to his alleged involvement with the Bishnoi group.
“Further, publication of Mr. Singh’s identity would expose him to significant stigma and discrimination in Canada and could place him at additional risk if he were returned to India,” his lawyer wrote.
Singh also said he faced outstanding criminal charges in Canada, and that publicity surrounding his deportation would bias his upcoming trial.
Global News successfully fought the publication ban.
The World Sikh Organization of Canada also opposed a ban on the case, writing that “proceedings involving alleged members of the Bishnoi gang carry significant public interest.”
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“Canadians should have a right to understand who these individuals are, how they became involved in Canada, the nature and extent of their activities, whether they acted independently or at the direction of others, and what role they may have played in acts of violence, intimidation, and transnational repression,” the organization wrote.
The Immigration and Refugee Board ruled on June 26 that Canadians were entitled to transparency on how law enforcement agencies are responding to extortion-related crimes, and that a public hearing would not prejudice Singh’s criminal proceedings.
In its decision approving his deportation, the board said Edmonton police had linked India-based extortion gang activity in Alberta to multiple countries.
Investigators had intercepted phone calls from France, Portugal and the Netherlands, as well as within Canada, Board member Trent Cook said in his ruling.
“It shows there’s an international component,” he said.
The gang has a hierarchy, with “individuals at the top providing instructions and directives to subordinates at the bottom,” Cook said in his decision.
“It’s a sophisticated network of individuals that relied on one another in order to commit these crimes,” he added. “It’s a longstanding, unified collective of people working in unison to intimidate victims.”
Operating out of an Indian prison, Lawrence Bishnoi runs a transnational crime group that profits through murders-for-hire and extortion.
It preys upon South Asian Canadians by sending them messages demanding large sums of money and then opening fire on their homes and businesses.
Canadian police have arrested suspected Bishnoi members in B.C., Alberta and Ontario, but many have been referred to the CBSA for removal to India.
Most came to Canada on work and study permits.
The CBSA said it had opened 484 investigations as a result of extortion task forces across the country, and 139 removal orders had been issued as of June 18. Eighty-one have already been removed from Canada.
On July 7, the U.S. charged Lawrence Bishnoi and his North American lieutenant Goldy Brar with racketeering — as well as carrying out the 2023 assassination of B.C. Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
Stewart.Bell@globalnews.ca
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