A Canadian court has dismissed an application by a person alleged to be the former president of the proscribed International Sikh Youth Federation (ISYF), potentially paving the way for his deportation to India.
The ruling was delivered against an application by Ranjit Singh Khalsa by justice Glennys McVeigh of the federal court in Ottawa in late October. Khalsa, who resides in the Metro Vancouver region, had, through his lawyers.
Contested a decision by a member of the immigration division (ID) of the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB), which found him to be “inadmissible to Canada” under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act “for having been a member” of the ISYF, which became a listed terrorist entity in Canada on June 18, 2003.
Stewart Bell, senior journalist with the Canadian outlet Global News, tweeted in this regard, “Federal court upholds deportation order against ISYF member.”
In fact, Khalsa is also alleged to have been the president of the ISYF.
Khalsa remains an Indian citizen. He came to Canada in 1988 and filed a refugee claim and became a permanent resident in 1992. However, his subsequent application for citizenship finally led to the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) finding him inadmissible because of the alleged ties to the ISYF.
The immigration division of the IRB found him inadmissible in a decision dated February 25, 2021, and also issued a deportation order.
In her ruling, delivered on October 28, justice McVeigh noted, “In sum, I find the decision – which is long, detailed, and grapples with the major issues – to be reasonable. The ID member dealt reasonably with the evidence before them, and demonstrated a logical chain of analysis that was justified in light of the facts and law before them.”
A report from the national broadcaster CBC from August 30, 1999, described Khalsa as “the president of the International Sikh Youth Federation” while quoting him in an article.
Hindustan Times reached out to the Vancouver-based law firm Edelmann & Company, which represented Khalsa, for comment on the ruling and whether they were planning to pursue the matter further, but has not received a response so far.
Public Safety Canada has ISYF in its listing of terrorist entities. Its description reads: “Since 1984, its members have been engaged in terrorist attacks, assassinations and bombings primarily against Indian political figures, but also against moderate members of the Sikh community.”