Ottawa, March 18 – Three people of Indian origin were killed in Canada during the last seven days, with two cases involving homicide and one involving a group clash. This has raised concerns among friends who suspect they were victims of a hate crime.
Birinder Singh, 22, from Edmonton, was shot and killed while driving on a highway south of Leduc on March 14. Similarly, Davinder Singh, 31, died during a workplace shooting in North Battleford, Saskatchewan, on March 13, and Gurkirat Singh Manocha, 25, became a victim of an “altercation” outside Fort St John on the same day.
Birinder's friend, who was in the car with him and another friend, was quoted as saying by Global News on Tuesday: “We just heard a gunshot, and within a minute, everything happened, everything has changed.”
The group was heading to the mountains via the QEII on Saturday afternoon and were just a few minutes south of Leduc when a pickup truck pulled up beside their Honda Civic. They were on Highway 2 south of Leduc, approximately 35 kilometers from Edmonton in Alberta province.
Birinder's friends said they had never seen the people in the truck before, and in the absence of any explanation, they wonder if race could be the motivation.
The friends worry they were the target of a hate crime, explaining that animosity towards South Asians has been a topic of discussion in the community.
Police learned that a weapon had been discharged toward the Civic, resulting in the driver’s death. The major crimes unit is now handling the investigation and trying to determine a motive, according to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).
In the second case, Gurkirat Singh Manocha, a student who had relocated to Fort St John to pursue a business management degree, was fatally injured during an altercation at the Charlie Lake boat ramp around 11:10 pm on Friday, BC Wire news portal said on Monday.
RCMP officers arrived to find him critically wounded, and despite emergency interventions, he could not be saved.
Gurkirat had relocated from Ujjain in India to study at Fort St John College.
The North District Major Crimes Unit has taken over the investigation and is working to determine exactly what happened that night, the BC Wire said.
The RCMP has not released details about the other people involved in the altercation or disclosed whether charges might be laid.
The death underscores the vulnerabilities faced by students who leave their home countries to study in smaller, more isolated Canadian communities.
In the third case, CTV News said that Davinder Singh was driving for Crown Cab on March 13 when he responded to a call at the Hitching Post Motel.
“Singh had no way of knowing when he accepted that fare that it would be his last. Later, just before 8 am, the RCMP were called to the motel with a report of an injured man. Singh was found unresponsive in the parking lot and declared dead at the scene by paramedics,” CTV News said.
SaskToday news portal quoted the RCMP as saying that their investigation indicated that one of the two accused allegedly assaulted and pointed a firearm at another individual in the business, and together they allegedly confined that individual to a room at the business.
The victim was later transported to the hospital for injuries described as non-life-threatening, RCMP said.
Two 19-year-old men, Kojac Adams and Garren Baptiste, have since been charged in connection with his death, the news portal said. The accused both made their first appearance in North Battleford Provincial Court on Monday, where they were remanded in custody until March 30, CTV News said.
The owner of Crown Cab, Haris Korath, told CTV News that after closing for the weekend, the cab company has opted to donate all of its earnings from their first day back in business to Singh’s family.
Korath said many drivers are feeling scared, and some have left their jobs following Friday’s events.
SaskToday news portal said Singh was married and originally from Moga in Punjab, India. The news portal said he had been living in Canada for the last four or five years.
Meanwhile, India's Consulate General in Toronto said on Friday that the procedure for transportation of cremated remains (ashes) of Indian-origin persons has now been liberalised to ease the process for families during difficult times.
“Any of the documents, viz Death Certificate OR Statement of Death OR Form 16 (for Ontario residents) OR a Burial Permit shall henceforth be recognised as valid document for transportation of cremated remains (ashes) to India,” the CGI Toronto said in a post on X.
“The rest of the procedure remains the same. Previously, only a Death Certificate was accepted for transportation of cremated remains. Recognising that obtaining this document can be time-consuming for families during an already difficult time, the documents’ acceptance has been expanded,” it added.