www.theasianstar.com Vol 19 - Issue 36 BC Election 2020
Harry Bains - NDP candidate for Surrey / Newton By Harvinder Sandhu
H
arry Bains was the Ministry of Labour for the NDP party for the last three years and is the representative for the Surrey – Newton riding. The Asian Star asked questions on issues concerning residents of the SurreyNewton riding. The Asian Star - In Metro Vancouver we have about 40,000 foreign students studying and working here after they obtain a work permit allowing them to work 20 hours a week. Many of these students live and work in Surrey. There are concerns that the foreign students on work permit are taking jobs away from the locals. This concern is compounded with stories of many of these students being paid almost half of what the minimum wage in the province is. How is the NDP going to help the foreign students being exploited and to ensure it’s a fair playing field for both the locals and foreign students when it comes to jobs? Harry Bains – My history as an immigrant and experiencing racism in the early days, which was quite open then, galvanized me to become an activist and a worker and human rights advocate. I want the foreign students to know they are entitled to a fair wage as per our laws in BC and they need to come forward so we can help them.
Continued on page 3 Fruiticana Diwali Shopping Festival 2020 The Seventh Annual Fruiticana Diwali Shopping Festival 2020 (FDSF) has started. It has been more than 25 years now that Fruiticana has served the BC community with its fresh and high-quality produce. Every year FDSF gives us the privilege of increasing our contribution in the well-being of the community and this year too Fruiticana is gifting amazing small home appliances to the lucky winners everyday till Diwali (November 14th 2020). Fruiticana believes in giving back to the community
Continued on page 6
Saturday, October 10, 2020
Tel:604-591-5423
Federal NDP joins Liberals block Conservative effort to probe WE Charity scam The Liberals and the NDP have blocked an effort by the Conservatives to get the WE Charity affair probed ahead of a study into why the Liberals prorogued Parliament. The government must provide a report within 20 sitting days to the Commons procedures and House affairs committee explaining why the August prorogation was necessary. The Tories had sought to get ahead of it by calling
witnesses and requesting documents related to the Liberal government’s choice to have WE Charity run a multimillion-dollar student program. They argued there’s a clear link between the parliamentary reset and the issue, accusing the Liberals of proroguing Parliament to stop several committee investigations into the controversy.
4 South Asian businessmen charged following investigation into immigration fraud Four notable B.C. businessmen face a series of charges under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA) for their role in an alleged immigration fraud network. The charges are tied into a four-year Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) investigation into Can-Asia Immigration Consultants’ Rupinder (Ron) Batth and his wife Navdeep Batth, who now also face dozens of charges between them.
Randhir (Randy) T o o r , Surinder Paul Singla, Ved Kaler and Gurtaj Grewal each face multiple counts of counselling or attempting to counsel misrepresentation or helping people misrepresent facts related to their immigration. The men were all charged in early September along with the Batths.
Continued on page 7
Former Liberal MP Raj Grewal, charged by RCMP, has case adjourned to January A former Liberal MP facing charges of fraud and breach of trust related to his time in office has had his case adjourned until early next year. Lawyers for Raj Grewal and the Crown agreed to have the case return to
court Jan. 6 during a brief virtual hearing on Tuesday. Grewal’s lawyer Zachary AlKhatib said during the hearing that his team received 10 gigabytes of disclosure Continued on page 6