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Vol 19 - Issue 18
Punjabi student facing deportation working ‘extra hours’ Jobandeep Singh Sandhu says he had no choice but to work extra hours to pay for his program. Tens of thousands of people have signed a petition as part of an eleventh-hour plea to stop the deportation of an international student arrested for working too many hours — just days before his graduation. It was December 2017 when Jobandeep Singh Sandhu, 22, was pulled over while behind the wheel of a long-haul truck driving from Montreal back to Toronto. Sandhu, originally from India and studying mechanical engineering at Canadore College in Mississauga, Ont., was 10 days away from receiving his diploma when he was stopped by Ontario Provincial Police. Handcuffed, he was handed over to immigration officials who determined he had been working more than the allowable 20 Continued on page 6
Scheer vows to end ‘illegal’ border crossings allowed by Liberals If elected prime minister, Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer says he would put an end to “illegal” border crossings in Canada. Scheer included that as one of several general commitments outlined in a speech delivered in Toronto Tuesday outlining his vision for immigration in Canada -- part of a series of policy announcements ahead of the fall federal election. Speaking to a crowd of supporters at a conference centre, Scheer said he would close a loophole in the Safe Third Country Agreement between Canada and the United States that has allowed asylum-seekers who slip into the country by avoiding border checkpoints to make refugee claims that would be automatically rejected at official crossings. “I will work to put an end to illegal border crossings at unofficial points of entry like Roxham Road,” he said, citing Continued on page 7
Saturday, June 1, 2019
Nav Bhatia is Raptors superfan Calling Nav Bhatia the Toronto Raptors’ biggest fan is one of the year’s biggest understatements. He’s a staple at courtside and around the city, and a global audience recently saw him demonstrate his belief that the power of sports can unite everybody. “I have never missed a minute of a game in 24 years,” he said. This included Game 6 of the NBA semifinals on Saturday, when the Raptors beat the Milwaukee Bucks to advance to the NBA Finals for the first time in franchise history. After enduring the ups and downs that come with attending every home game since the team started back in 1995, his patience appears to have paid off. He’ll be present Thursday night for the greatest
moment the Raptors have had yet. He’s become such a fixture courtside that it’s not uncommon for Torontonians to stop and ask to take pictures with him -- as if he were a player on the team. Bhatia feels “very optimistic” about the Raps’ chances of going all the way to the championship. “It’s going to be a long one Continued on page 7
Hundreds of drug cartel members have entered Canada since Liberals waived Mexican visa requirement Hundreds of criminals connected to the illegal drug trade are freely plying their trades as importers, go-betweens and hitmen in Canada — according to Quebec news outlet TVA Nouvelles — largely because Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government dropped the visa requirement for Mexican travelers. TVA investigative journalist Felix Seguin spoke
to several in-the-know sources who revealed there are 400 criminals who have recently entered Canada to traffic drugs — half of them living in Quebec while the other half are presumed to be mainly operating in the Toronto area. At least several of the estimated 400 who Continued on page 6
BC probing large cash payments to schools in bid to curb money laundering It was one of the most surprising sectors identified in a recent report as vulnerable to money laundering: education, with tens of thousands of dollars in college tuition paid in cash. On Tuesday, the B.C. government announced it will send letters to all 25 of the province’s public colleges and universities, and 342 private post-secondary schools, to ask about their practices when it comes to accepting large amounts of cash.
It’s the first step in what could be a future ban, said Melanie Mark, the minister for advanced education, during a May 28 press conference in Victoria. “We can tell them not to accept cash, but first we need to find out what they’re doing,” said Mark. Colleges and universities have a month to respond to the information request.
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