DETROIT: A Detroit Sikh ‘who has crossed the border into Canada 70 or 80 times since ‘moving to the United States from India 14 years ago was refused entry into Canada, Bahadur Singh, a 62yearold school security supervisor and resident alien of the US. had told Canadian immigration he was on his way to give a seminar ata Sikh youth conference being held at the University of Windsor.
Singh said he is puzzled by the experience with Canadian Customs and Immigration officials at the Ambassador Bridge, He was turned back to the US. after presenting officials with the same identification he has used on ‘numerous visits to Canada since moving to Detroit in 1973, He said the incident may be related to the recent furor over the landing of 174 East Indians in Nova Scotia.
“Think it could be a political thing,” Singh said in a telephone interview. The same papers I’ve shown so many times”.
The seminar was to be a “nonpolitical, noncontroversial” discussion of the Sikh religion, he said.
Singh said he presented his ‘green immigration card, Michigan drivers license, social security card and employee identification card from his job with the Oak Park School District before being turned back to the US. All but the social security card bore his photo.
Chief supervisor for Immigration Canada at the bridge, Gerry Belanger, denies the department has tightened Security measures against Sikhs, as Singh claimed.
Article extracted from this publication >> September 18, 1987
