Vaheguru ji ka khalsa,
Vaheguru ji ki fatheh!
Vancouver Sun Keeps Highlighting Negative News about Indo-Canadians
By Kanwaljit Singh Gill
Source: www.voiceonline.com – The Voice Newspaper Online
Recently we have been writing about the negative news headlines in Vancouver Sun about Indo-Canadians. Such negative news headlines create negative perceptions in general public that thinks that the majority of crimes are committed by Indo-Canadians. That was just proved by the recent survey. But, unfortunately, the Vancouver Sun doesn’t want to change its way of reporting the news. We still keep seeing the negative headlines every time an Indo-Canadian does something bad, but similar or even bigger crimes committed by others are smaller news and placed on inside pages. How many people read the news about a person killing his mother, or about another case of a person killing two individuals with a hammer? These were bigger crimes but didn’t make big news headlines. Can you imagine the big headlines had these murders been committed by Indo-Canadians?
When Vancouver Sun finds a new news story involving Indo-Canadians then they dig into their past crimes and make big headlines as you saw in the Tuesday, April 18 issue (Section B’s front page story – “Full jail term urged for sex attacker” – Click here to read the original article. ) about a crime that was committed by an Indian in 2000 and who’s serving a prison term. There are parole hearings everyday. Some are accepted and some not, but we see headlines only when it involves Indo-Canadians. This big news headline was about a sex crime, but another case of a stepfather raping his stepdaughter made for small news because that was committed by a white Canadian. No wonder this type of wrong coverage of news headlines is creating the wrong perceptions in the general public.
Our community should let the Vancouver Sun know that we don’t approve of their discriminatory way of news reporting and would like to see fair news coverage. More people, specially our politicians, should write to or call the Vancouver Sun editorial staff and ask them to give fair news coverage. If they still do not change, then we should start saving such news cuttings and if necessary show it to a judge or a Human Rights Tribunal about discriminatory news coverage. But I hope we won’t have to take that step and that the Vancouver Sun will start giving fair news coverage.
When it comes to positive news story we don’t see that in the Vancouver Sun. Just recently our community raised close to $350,000 dollars for the Children’s Hospital that was shown live on TV but which received no coverage in the Vancouver Sun. They seem to know every small negative news about Indo-Canadians, but don’t seem to know about such positive news.
__________________________
Editorial Commentary from BCSikhYouth.com
by BCSikhYouth.com volunteers
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”
– Joseph Goebbels, German Minister of Propaganda, 1933-1945″
The article from the Voice Newspaper (pasted above) came as no surprise to us because we expected some sensible person would wake up and smell the foul odour of Kim Bolan and her shoddy reporting. The article from Kim Bolan (pasted below) was also no surprise, as the Sikh community in BC is now extremely familiar with the attitude and habits of the Vancouver Sun in publishing unsubstantiated, purposefully hyperbolic defamatory misrepresentations of the Sikh community.
As outlined in the Voice article above, Kim Bolan took another shot at Indo Canadians, particularly Sikhs, by highlighting the case of a horrible sex offender on the front page of the Lower Mainland section of the Vancouver Sun last week, while similar reports of equally disgusting crimes by men of other ethnicities and races are regularly ignored by the Sun. Of course it is important to clarify here that by all standards, the Indo Canadian community of BC and the Sikh community of BC completely and unequivocally denounce, detest, disapprove the crimes of this man and are disgusted with the same, and completely support the toughest sentencing for such awful crimes. However, it is also important to clarify that had such a crime been committed by anybody from a Christian background or of Eastern European ethnicity, there is a far less chance that it would be on the front page of the Lower Mainland section, and that it would be written by Kim Bolan. For those not familiar with Bolan’s writing – this article is one of at least a few dozen news articles written by Kim Bolan since 1985 attempting to manipulate the minds of BC citizens to have an inaccurate negative prejudice of the Sikh community.
A clear indication of Kim Bolan’s callous and conniving personal character is shown when in this article particularly related to a sex offender guilty of heinous crimes, Bolan finds it necessary to state the following:
“The unusual detention hearing — similar to that held in Kingston last month for convicted terrorist Inderjit Singh Reyat — is only taking place because prison officials believe Sidhu remains too great a risk to reoffend if released in August after serving the normal two-thirds of his sentence.”
What kind of a moronic, pointless connection is that and how is it relevant? It’s more than likely that the detention hearing is similar to that of Carla Homolka or Paul Bernardo, or many other dangerous criminals like Homolka and Bernardo in Canada – why did she not use their names? Furthermore, Kingston is not even in Vancouver, or BC – it is in Ontario. Why did she not use an example more relevant to her audience? Because those dangerous criminals are not Sikhs, and if she was more professional she could not hit two birds with one stone, covering her negative news story while attempting to malign (by association) the character of Bhai Inderjit Singh Reyat in an article about a sex offender.
Kim Bolan is like hungry vermin that lives off any garbage thrown out of the Sikh community’s house. Her bread and butter are filled with the painful sweat and tears of Sikhs in BC. As a result of the heavy distribution of her tabloid host newspaper, the Vancouver Sun, and her own conniving tactics to present falsehood as truth, so many innocent-minded British Columbians have been misinformed, miseducated, and brainwashed to have a negative image of the Sikh community, furthering negative stereotypes and differences between Sikhs and other ethnic or religious communities. As a result of this, many young Sikhs face difficulties with acceptance and tolerance at work, school, and amongst the general public because their non-Sikh peers get a negative representation of Sikhs through the media. Many Sikhs face institutionalized and “whisper” racism because of the presentation of Sikhs as violent, angry, arrogant, and immodest.
Also, this is only ONE out of DOZENS of articles by Kim Bolan attempting to negatively portray Indo Canadians and Sikhs. We are not singling out this article. For more examples you can visit www.canada.com and search through Vancouver Sun’s archives using the keyword “Sikh.”
—
Something to think about:
Has Kim Bolan ever covered any event in the history of the Sikhs of BC that would present the Sikhs as positive inspirational citizens of the Canadian society, or as innocent victims of a tragedy, or as good-spirited citizens working for the wellbeing of all humanity? In no particular order a list of events in recent BC Sikh community history that were ignored by Kim Bolan, while she is quick to cover anything that defames Sikhs:
* The car accident and passing away of three promising BC Sikh youth leaders – Bhai Parminder Singh, Bhai Charnjit Singh, Bibi Rena Kaur in 2004
* The business success of Williams Lake mill-owner Gian Singh Sandhu over several years
* The success of Khalsa School as a top private school in BC in 2005
* The proclamation of the Abbotsford Gurdwara as a Canadian Heritage site in 2003
* The success of anti-drugs workshops in Surrey high schools by VIRSA in 2006
* The awarding of the Order of BC to Dr. Raghbir Singh Bains in 2005
* The recognition of the 5 K’s and Vaisakhi by the BC Legislative assembly in 2006
* The arson attack against the Western Singh Sabha Gurdwara in Williams Lake in 2006
* Surrey Nagar Keertan – the largest Vaisakhi celebrations in North America in 2006
* The success of the Sikh Nation blood drives across BC over several years
* The success of Sikh youth in athletic competitions and games contests over several years
* The countless other positive initiatives sponsored, supported, developed, or inspired by the Sikh community in BC
* The countless tragedies, attacks, or assaults on innocent Sikhs in BC
- not “newsworthy” in the clouded eyes of Kim Bolan.
—
Vancouver Sun Editors:
Are the editors and publishers of the Vancouver Sun completely innocent in this propaganda campaign? Absolutely not. The Vancouver Province newspaper and Vancouver Sun newspaper, having the same owner, have had the same agenda with regards to the Sikh community and misrepresenting the Sikhs as a whole. It is not reasonable to assume that just Kim Bolan or Salim Jiwa are responsible for their articles. The editors at these newspapers have a final say in the publication, and they are an accessory to the crime of defamation as they choose to not control the amount of misinformation in the articles written by Bolan and Jiwa.
—
BC Sikhs Need Their Own Media:
If Bolan is responsible to report on the affairs of South Asians, Indo Canadians, or particularly, Sikhs, then she is doing a horrible job as she has only attempted to highlight specific negatives, or present positive aspects as negative. Such an irresponsible and unprofessional reporter’s career could not survive at any other newspaper were it not for the internal racist agenda of the Vancouver Sun.
It is the responsibility and the necessity of the Sikh community of British Columbia to finally take a stand against the tyrannical oppression of Kim Bolan over the newspaper media representation of Sikhs, and to take back our right to propagate the truth about the Sikh community and its positive accomplishments in the Canadian society.
The Sikh community must encourage the youth to become writers, and to become active in newspapers across British Columbia and act as a local, community-level response so that the mainstream newspaper’s damaging effects can be lessened, if not eliminated, by the appropriate representation of BC’s Sikhs in local and regional newspapers, Sikh-owned newspapers, and the television / radio news outlets.
Please e-mail BCSikhYouth with your response or leave a comment below.
Also posted at:
Sikh Youth of British Columbia (BC), Canada | » Kim Bolan & Vancouver Sun – Media Tyranny
AKJ Community :: View topic – Media Tyranny of Vancouver Sun & Kim…
Vaheguru ji ka khalsa,
Vaheguru ji ki fatheh!
well why don’t we get together as a group and do something about it
Stop subscribing Van Sun and just ignore Bolan and stop discussing about her, the more you discuss and red her artice, the more she will be beaching, thats the way she is
I am sure the public is well aware of the Sikhs and kim bolan. I had co-worker who used to comment about the news that kim used to report during the Air-India trial. I said to him that you watch they are all innocent. I am sure kim would have got a slapp in her face even from this gora.
This is a great article. We should become writers to stop misrepresentation of the Sikhs.
This topic is currently being discussed by many people in threads on SikhNet.com here and Techvibes.com here
Congrats to BCSIKHYOUTH.COM to having the courage to speak the truth about Kim Bolan.
Every negative story she write about Sikhi you should write a response on your website highlighting the negative & hatefulness in her stories towards so called fundamentalists Sikhs. Fight words with words.
Also expose her sources ( puppets ) Balwant Gill, Dave Hayer, Ujjal Dosanjh & a few others who are trying to hurt Sikhi by misleading people for there own power.
This topic is now number six or seven, in the top ten results for a Google search of “Kim Bolan” and this topic is now number ONE in the top ten results for a Google search of “Kim Bolan Vancouver”
On other search engines this topic is also doing well.
They have introduced a new reporter at Vancouver Sun named Stewart Bell who has written a book about Canadian terrorism. He is a staunch supporter of Kim Bolan and the Vancouver Sun may try to promote him as their new voice.
Of course the Sikh community denounces terrorism, and encourages people to expose terrorists. At the same time the Sikh community denounces false propaganda, and discourages racism and bigotry by the media. Hopefully with the grace of God the Sikhs can continue to peaceful serve the human race, and slanderers and propagandists will get what is in their karma.
Thank you to everybody who has posted so far in this thread and we humbly request you to post the link to this article on your website or blog. Kim Bolan works very diligently to misrepresent and defame the Sikh community and will continue to do so unless Sikhs themselves present the public with a reliable alternative source of information.
-Volunteers
BCSikhYouth.com
VANCOUVER SUN’S BIG NEGATIVE HEADLINES ABOUT INDO-CANADIAN COMMUNITY
This is from KANWALJIT SINGH GILL:
Source: VoiceOnline.com
For a while I didn’t see any negative news headlines in Vancouver Sun newspaper and I thought maybe they understood the point we were making and has started fair news reporting. But unfortunately, we were wrong and they were just waiting for the smallest of negative news to start making big negative news headlines against the Indo-Canadian community. On Friday, July 21, they made big news headlines with Indo-Canadian gangs’ title. But the real news was a small statement by Attorney General Wally Oppal about the gang task force and judicial system working well against the gangs. The Vancouver Sun made big Indo-Canadian gangs’ heading with Mr. Oppal’s picture. The real news story was small but Kim Bolan wrote in detail about some old gang cases that were decided two weeks ago and other old cases that had already made lots of negative news headlines in the past with the same three or four names. But the general public doesn’t remember those Indian names but just remember the big headlines and think Indo-Canadians are committing lots of crimes. That is why in one survey the general public felt that 56% of crimes in Vancouver area are committed by Indo-Canadians. That is not true but that perception was the direct result of negative news headlines by Vancouver Sun. Even when the Sun doesn’t find a gang crime she makes some big news of the old criminal cases again. She just wants to make sure that general public’s perception against the Indo-Canadian community is maintained.
Then on July 24 the Sun made big news headlines about Sikh violence just because two or three guys had a fight at voter registration time for the New Westminster Gurdwara. It was unfortunate incident committed by two or three guys. These type of incidents have happened at the time of our federal and provincial elections, too, where their have been incidents of different party groups fighting or damaging other party’s signs, etc., but there are never negative headlines of white Canadians involved in fights or other wrong activities. But just because two or three guys fight we see the big headlines with “Sikhs fear violence”. The general public gets the perception that majority of Sikhs are involved in fights and violence.
But the fact is thousands of Sikhs were celebrating Miri Piri day religious activities in very peaceful and legal activities. There was a special health fair for seniors, children enjoying rides and thousands enjoying and eating langar. But for the Sun, the actions of two or three guys were more important than the thousands enjoying religious activities in peaceful ways. Unfortunately, the Sun seems to be always looking for negative news and then making big news headlines against the Indo-Canadian community.
I think our community should let the Vancouver Sun know that they are unhappy about such negative news headlines and the perceptions it creates in the general public. Our politicians should speak up against such negative news headlines and if they can’t speak up against such negative headlines then we as community should think seriously about these politicians at election time that they don’t deserve our votes if they can’t even speak up against such negative portrayals that really hurt the reputation of the Indo-Canadian community in general public. That has been proved in a survey that showed the wrong perceptions of 56% crimes being committed by Indo-Canadian community. So it is about time our community spoke up and let Vancouver Sun know that they are wrong about such negative news headlines.
Check out this totally bogus new article by Kim Bolan. Balwant Gill is a joker. Being caught for drunk-driving twice while being a gurdwara president while not following Sikhi, and then being excommunicated, nothing stops this guy from spreading his lies!
Sikhs fear return to violence in temple election
Youth group says it wants to take control of the temple
Kim Bolan, Vancouver Sun
Published: Monday, July 24, 2006
Sikh moderate leaders say they are concerned about a possible return to the violence of the late 1990s after one of their supporters was attacked at a New Westminster temple Friday night.
Khushpal Singh Gill was taken to Royal Columbian Hospital by ambulance after being hit during a scuffle as voter registration for a coming temple election closed.
Gill told The Vancouver Sun he was grabbed by the neck and struck in the head by an opponent from Abbotsford, and his scalp was split open by the man’s steel bracelet.
He pointed to the red marks on his throat as well as the wound on his head, which required several stitches.
New Westminster police continue to investigate the incident. But Sgt. Paul Milne said Sunday the official police report has Gill being struck in the head by a chair during a scuffle.
No charges have yet been laid, Milne said.
“We’ve been in contact with both sides in the temple election in the last few weeks,” Milne said.
Gill said voting registration had just closed when a large group of youths showed up to register about 8 p.m. When they were told it was too late to join the line, things got tense, he said.
An e-mail from a group called B.C. Sikh Youth was circulating last week, urging young people to register for the New Westminster election.
The e-mail referred to Gill’s group as “anti-panthic” which means against the Sikh community.
In the late 1990s, riot police had to be stationed at temples across the Lower Mainland as fundamentalist Sikhs opposed to the use of tables and chairs in temple dining halls challenged moderate Sikh leaders.
There were several violent clashes resulting in injuries and criminal charges.
The Sikh youth group opposing Gill’s slate told supporters it wanted to make New Westminster’s temple the first in North America run by youth.
“We are working as a collective to avoid an election and persuade the challenging anti-panthic committee to give the responsibility of management at Gurdwara Sahib Sukh Sagar to the youth,” the e-mail said.
But Balwant Singh Gill, the moderate president of Surrey’s Guru Nanak temple and representative of the Lower Mainland Sikh Societies, said the youth are being used by fundamentalists who are not afraid to flex their muscles.
“They are trying to create all this problem by bringing youth to fight the election,” Balwant Gill said Sunday.
“They are playing a game. It is the same problem of a few years ago coming up again. The police have to do something.”
The incident occurred just before Miri Piri, a large Sikh festival celebrated on Sunday. Speaking from a stage in front of thousands of people who had gathered for the celebrations, festival organizers condemned the assault.
The annual religious event marks the day Sikhism’s sixth guru, Hargobind, said Sikhs should take up two swords – one representing the spiritual side of life and the other representing the temporal or secular side.
Attorney-General Wally Oppal and a host of other politicians addressed the crowd.
Oppal stressed the significance of the holiday in Sikhism.
“This is a very important day. It is a spiritual day. It is a secular day,” Oppal said.
He praised community activists for using Miri Piri to also hold a health fair on the grounds of the Guru Nanak temple so seniors and others could get their eyes and blood pressure checked.
But the day was also one for children who lined up for midway rides and cotton candy, as well as traditional treats like pakora and Indian sweets.
The celebration was to end with fireworks after dark.
Kbolan@png.canwest.com
© The Vancouver Sun 2006
Reader writes blunt letter to Vancouver Sun’s editor-in-chief about biased coverage
If there is one newspaper that the Vancouver Sun guys hate it’s got to be your very own paper: The Indo-Canadian VOICE! That’s because the lily-white staff there just doesn’t get multiculturalism and they hate this paper pointing that out time and time again. Doing a few ethnic stories on and off that are usually shallow and superficial and throwing some crumbs to the community just doesn’t cut it.
One of our bold readers KANWALJIT SINGH GILL has also been waging a relentless war against the Vancouver Sun’s biased coverage and he hopes that other ethnic papers and more members of our community will show some character, too, and take up this issue.
In a blunt letter to the Vancouver Sun’s Editor-in-chief Patricia Graham and reporter Kim Bolan, Gill wrote the following on Friday, July 28:
In today’s Vancouver Sun newspaper I saw the headlines about $8.8 million in cocaine seized. There were pictures and names of the people arrested but there was no mention of what nationalities they belonged to. Had any one of those guys been Indo Canadian then we would have seen big headline with Indo Canadian gangs etc. Can you explain why you didn’t make the headline with nationality of the people arrested in this cocaine bust and why do you always have to make big Indo Canadian headlines whenever something wrong is done by an Indo Canadian? Why can’t wrong done by Indo Canadians be reported with just their names?
This is the point I have been trying to make with you for a long time. You have a right for news reporting but when you mention nationalities in some of them and not in most of them that just gives us the impression that you are racially prejudiced against that nationality and knowingly trying to create negative feelings about that nationality in the general public. That point has been proved by the survey perceptions of the general public that said 56% crimes is being committed by Indo Canadians. Those perceptions were direct result of your headlines.
I hope you’ll understand our concern and in future will try to avoid those big Indo Canadian headlines and give fair news coverage.
Source: The Voice Online (http://www.voiceonline.com)
After a bunch of bouncing around, this page is back on page one in Google
Aug, 09 2006 – 12:30 AM
VANCOUVER/CKNW(AM980) – A former Member of Parliament and the Vancouver Sun are being sued for defamation.
Jaspal Singh Atwal, who was convicted of the attempted murder of a Punjabi Cabinet Minister is accusing former MP Gurmant Grewal, Vancouver Sun reporter Kim Bolan, the Sun’s publisher and parent company Canwest Media Networks of deliberately discrediting his reputation.
Bolan wrote articles concerning a reference letter for Atwal written by Grewal.
In a Writ filed in BC Supreme Court, Atwal claims the articles inaccurately portray him as a terrorist and an assassin.
He is claiming damages for what he says is humiliation resulting from the publishing of the articles.
This webpage is now #1 for the search of “Kim Bolan” in MSN.com
About 60 unique visitors a month come to this site directly after searching for “Kim Bolan”
Check out this article from the Ryersonian Online about Kim Bolan’s visit to Ryerson University last year.
Well.. I’ll be! This page is now #4 on page one of Google search for “Kim Bolan”
I think we can safely say the temporary mission is accomplished. Now the long term mission is to edit this page into an entire sub-section of the website and bring many people here to educate them about the Vancouver Sun. Slowly the wheels of justice will turn – powered by the fuel of free speech and democracy – and it will be an embarrassment for Kim Bolan, and the truth about her racist ways will be known far and wide. Panth Kee Jeeth!
Kim Bolan hasn’t written an article in a while. Interesting.
This page is now #2 on Google.com, #1 on Yahoo.com, and #1 on MSN.com for a search of “Kim Bolan”
Guru Maharaj ji di kirpa da sadka, By using fair means, and no falsehood, we have made the information about Kim Bolan’s lies, racism, and prejudice more accessible to the public.
Sikh Panth day aggay array so jharray, sharan paray so tharay
Heres another article this racist monster (kim bolan) has written just recently . Check the headline “Murderer given visa to visit Canada”
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/westcoastnews/story.html?id=3ebdbe4f-49b3-4366-a35b-16769869dc3f&p=2
A recent article from the Link referencing a recent article from the Voice referencing a recent argument with the Sun…
Vancouver Sun Editor Goes Mute After The LINK Asks Her To Explain Herself
Many people in the Indo-Canadian community, particularly Sikhs have been critical of Vancouver Sun’s negative and one-sided coverage of the community. Well a funny thing happened this week. A 40-minute fight erupted by emails between Sun’s editor-in-chief Patricia Graham and Voice editor Rattan Mall erupted after Mall questioned her about using the word “Sikh” for a Surrey shooting incident. Mall argues that it is this type of bias that prejudices the public against Indo-Canadians. “They never say ‘Christians’ when two white guys are involved in a shooting incident, do they?, he argues. The exchange forced LINK editor R. Paul Dhillon to write to Graham to explain herself regarding this and other perceived biases. But she suddenly went mute as we never heard back from her. I guess one nasty Indo-Canadian editor was enough for her for one week! (See below our letter to her and Mall’s exchange in full details inside.)
Hi Patricia.
I received this exchange (see full details inside) between yourself and VOICE editor Rattan Mall. As you are aware that the Sikh community accuses you, your reporter on the community beat and your newspaper of an orchestrated bias and judging by dismissal of Mr. Mall’s criticism – an intelligent reader can ascertain that not only there is a bias but that it is a well directed bias. How do you justify your dismissal of a serious issue such as negative coverage of the community and bias with a personal attack on Mr. Mall about him not getting a job there? Is there a connection between the bias in your newspaper against Sikhs and Mr. Mall not getting a job there?
I get calls at the LINK on a weekly basis about the bias and negative coverage of the community by your newspaper. Many of the readers say it is more like a conspiracy against the community and that the paper is adhering to the old British rule of divide and conquer. I usually tell them that they are a daily newspaper and they have a job of reporting the news, which they do fairly well. And that it may look like a conspiracy but they have to report all the news – whether it’s negative or positive, and sometimes it does seem like that they may be more inclined to report the bad news more than the good but it’s not conspiracy.
But you have to admit that you have divided the community into two parts – the good moderates and the bad traditionalist/fundamentalists. And most times your reporter does seem to be biased towards one of those groups and you know which one it is. This weekend was a clear example. While your reporter was busy getting the visit of some old woman, who’s son killed a ruthless Indian army general (Pinochet comes to mind if you know his history) during a violent uprising in Punjab in the 1980s, cancelled by the authorities – your paper completely ignored the incident that took place at the Pan Pacific Khalsa Diwan Centenary Dinner where criminals (gangsters who are part of the executive which your newspaper reported when the daughter of the temple executive was arrested selling drugs and making threats in the US) allegedly made a ruckus and police had to be called in.
I think honouring assassins of any kind in Canada isn’t the right thing to do no matter how noble that may be for those who want to remember their sacrifice. And I commend your newspaper for highlighting that as it is not an appropriate thing to do. On the same track – it is also not appropriate for a Sikh religious organization to be serving meat and liquor and gangsters watching belly dancing at a temple backed event. But your newspaper did not highlight this important debate in the community, which was a great story on equal par to your honouring the assassins story.
See Patricia – while you may not give a hoot about what the community thinks or is unhappy about (and I’m talking the entire community and not just your moderate friends) – the reputation of your newspaper will suffer and it will continue to lose respect among not just Sikhs but other ethnic communities who are becoming a dominant force here.
It is already evident that your newspaper is years behind newspapers like the Toronto Star and even the Globe and Mail who have given much more time and resources to diversity than your newspaper or your chain for that matter. That is a shame given that the newspaper is owned by prominent members of the Jewish community, which wears suffrage on their sleeves. I do hope that you will give the Sikh community more thought, seek out more diverse voices and give reasoned and intelligent people (there are a lot of them here) and their stories more space in the newspaper instead of always trumpeting temple yahoos who are not truly representative of this very vibrant and passionate community.
Sincerely,
R. Paul Dhillon
Editor
PS. I hope to hear your thoughts on all this as I will be reporting on it.
——————————————————-
Voice Editor And Vancouver Sun Editor Duke It Out!
A 40-minute or so fight by emails between Sun’s editor-in-chief Patricia Graham and Voice editor Rattan Mall erupted after Mall questioned her about using the word “Sikh” for a Surrey shooting incident. Mall argues that it is this type of bias that prejudices the public against Indo-Canadians. “They never say ‘Christians’ when two white guys are involved in a shooting incident, do they? “
Here is what transpired:
Mall: Hi Patricia,
This is to bring to your notice the heading in your newspaper: “Two men seriously injured after shooting outside house where Sikhs were gathered.”
Do you guys ever give headings such as: Two men seriuosly injured after shooting outside house where CHRISTIANS were gathered”?
NO!
Indeed, if you did, your paper would be filled with the word CHRISTIAN(S) for neagtive stories. Why dont you STOP THIS RACISM? I eagerly await your response – as do my newspaper’s readers.
Thank you
Rattan Mall
Editor
The Indo-Canadian Voice
Patricia Graham (Sun Editor): You continue to see things where nothing exists.
Mall Re: STOP THIS RACISM!
Also, Patricia, you just don’t seem to get it – which is a real tragedy. As a white person, why would you give a damn how the Sikhs suffer because of your distorted and biased approach to news when it comes to non-whites or non-Christians?
Rattan
Graham: Subject: Re: STOP THIS RACISM!
Being a white person doesn’t disqualify me. As for you, you lack credibility. You rant rather than reason. You are only interested in setting up bogeymen to raise your own profile. And we all remember you trying to get a job here.
Mall: STOP THIS RACISM!
Patricia, you are REALLY a PETTY MINDED WOMAN. I could never imagine a person of your calibre stooping so low as to write: “And we all remember you trying to get a job here.”
Yes, those times were different when Ian Haysom had the vision to pursue a multicultural policy. Even then I faced racism in your paper – as I once wrote about the Rafays murder case in The VOICE in which your bigwigs believed the white suspect’s father that I had misrepresented myself as a Province reporter – until I produced a recording (thanks to the taperecorder in my pocket) that clearly showed that I had introduced myself as a
Vancouver Sun reporter.
And my not getting a job at the time in your all-white paper just PROVES YOUR RACISM! You only want bootlickers – you don’t want honest ethnic reporters!
Have I ever asked you for a job?
Shame on you!
I think you should have the decency to apologize for your low remarks. I will produce all this in my paper to let the readers know the facts and judge for themselves.
Cheers
Rattan
Graham: Re: STOP THIS RACISM!
As long as you reproduce ALL of it.
Mall: STOP THIS RACISM!
You bet I will – I am not like your selective-type reporting. Have a great day. I really hope you seriously reconsider your approach to headings. I am not a Sikh but I know how they feel about it – the hurt – and that is what I am trying to get through to you.
Cheers
Rattan
Graham: Re: STOP THIS RACISM!
All of it? Without one of your self-serving lead-ins? I shall see.
Well, here’s my follow-up to last week’s lead story, “Putting Sikhs in a bad light? Editor-in-chief of Vancouver Sun just doesn’t get it!”
But first of all, I must thank Paul Dhillon, Editor of The Link newspaper, for ripping into Vancouver Sun Editor-in-chief Patricia Graham in an email in which he bluntly pointed out the Sun’s biased coverage of Indo-Canadian affairs. Dhillon is also a budding producer and director.
So, let’s get down to business – especially with Graham’s ‘famous’ line to me: “As for you, you lack credibility.”
No, Patricia dear, YOU and YOUR STAFF lack credibility, especially in our community – and we are here to stay and grow and prosper. So just get used to us. We are not going anywhere, believe me.
According to one source I found on the Internet (http://www.marcedge.com/pacpresscirc.doc), The Vancouver Sun’s circulation went down from 201,271 in 2001 (all figures for period ended March 31) to 178,448 in 2005 and the Province’s declined from 168,065 in 2001 to 150,410 in 2005 – and all this when the Lower Mainland’s POPULATION INCREASED CONSIDERABLY!
In fact, The Globe and Mail, whose circulation has been increasing among the more sophisticated readers in Vancouver who are ditching the Vancouver Sun, reported on May 9 that for the six-month period ended March 31: “In the Vancouver market, The Vancouver Sun and The Province both reported drops in their weekday circulation of 4.4 per cent and 2.6 per cent, respectively.”
However, for the well-respected national newspaper the Globe and Mail, which is based in Toronto but also has a BC edition, there was good news. Average weekday circulation increased 2.1 per cent to 320,835, compared with the same period last year. The Globe’s Saturday circulation rose 3.8 per cent, to 410,266.
On the other hand, the rightwing Toronto-based National Post (that hardly loves visible minorities and non-white immigrants!), which competes with the Globe and Mail fell 3.2 per cent during the week, to 228,187, and 3.9 per cent on Saturday, to 246,527. The Post is owned by the same guys who own the Vancouver Sun and the Province.
If you want to learn about the way the Vancouver Sun tries to inflate its circulation figures, please go to http://www.straight.com/content.cfm?id=5162 for Georgia Straight’s Charlie Smith’s report of September 23, 2004, entiltled: “Newspaper Giveaways Recorded as “Paid”.”
This is what Smith, who’s now the editor of the paper, wrote in his introduction:
“On September 21, transit users passing through the Burrard or Waterfront SkyTrain stations in the morning might have spotted young people handing out free copies of the Vancouver Sun and Province. However, it’s unlikely that anyone apart from a few CanWest Global Communications Corp. employees knew that this free reading material is presented as “paid” circulation to advertisers.
“The Audit Bureau of Circulations monitors daily newspaper and periodical circulation in Canada and the United States. Higher paid-circulation figures translate into higher revenues for publishers because they’re delivering a larger audience of committed readers to advertisers. ABC chairman Robert Troutbeck, a Toronto advertising executive, told the Georgia Straight that “sponsored” circulation–in this case by TransLink–permits CanWest Global, owner of the two Vancouver dailies, to count the copies as paid, even though they’re given away.”
Now don’t be lazy and go to the webpage stated above and read the full report!
In fact, the Vancouver Sun is SO DESPERATE that it is FORCING PAPERS DOWN READERS’ THROATS!
A Surrey public school teacher friend of mine who lives in Vancouver told me last week that he was so shocked to receive a letter from the Vancouver Sun on Thursday that he had been selected to receive their paper “for the next four weeks, compliments of the VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation Millionaire Lottery” – although he hates that paper! And the very next day he started receiving what he considers to be a RAG! (I have a copy of that letter).
Another friend of mine who subscribes to the Vancouver Sun started receiving free copies of the National Post!
So, dear readers, now you know what’s going on.
You can read the response to last week’s story from three readers in the “YOUR TURN” section.
Here are three reactions on last week’s lead story – Putting Sikhs in a bad light? Editor-in-chief of Vancouver Sun just doesn’t get it!”
#1. This is from JATINDER JIMMY LACHAR:
My name is Jatinder Jimmy Lachar and I am currently a UBC student. I have been reading the online edition of the Indo-Canadian Voice for the last six months and I just wanted to let your staff and you know that you are doing an excellent job in portraying the news occurring in BC in a unbiased way. I completely agree with your view in the article, “Putting Sikhs in a bad light? Editor-in-chief of Vancouver Sun just doesn’t get it!” in which the religion is emphasized of the individuals involved in the unfortunate shooting incident in Surrey. I constantly also see the blatant racism and stereotyping that occurs in all our local media, be it in the print, Internet or television media. As I am myself a young Indo-Canadian and a young South Asian, I am disgusted by the emphasis on the nationality, religion, skin color and ethnic background of Indo-Canadians, who are repeatedly portrayed in a negative fashion. It is very unfortunate that you too, being a respected reporter, had to face racism while you worked with the Vancouver Sun, but I personally would read The VOICE before the Vancouver Sun any day. I have already and I will be recommending The VOICE to other young Indo-Canadians and I urge you to keep up with the good work. It is nice to hear an objective voice coming from an Indo-Canadian, rather than a subjective voice from many of the writers in other newspapers, who have many times written prejudicial and racist things. Best of luck with The VOICE.
#2. This is from KANWALJIT SINGH GILL (who also had taken up the issue of negative stories and negative headlines with Vancouver Sun’s editor-in-chief):
It was nice to read your news about the Vancouver Sun news coverage. We have to keep pointing it to them – their unfair racially prejudiced news coverage against our community. Hopefully one day we’ll make them realize that what they are doing is wrong and should have the news coverage in a fair manner. The Sun’s editor-in-chief never tried to explain why they always use Sikh or Indo-Canadian titles whenever there is a negative news story about our community. Like you pointed out, we never see headlines about Christians fighting or involved in criminal activity. Then why do they always have to make our negative news headlines? But the same Vancouver Sun has never made any positive headlines about our community: collecting money for hospitals, organizing blood donor things, etc. Then their excuse is we didn’t know about that thing. Sun has a news reporter who knows every little negative news about our community. Then how come she doesn’t know about the positive news? I think they knowingly just want to present negative news headlines and ignore the positive news stories. Some people in our community have good relations with the Sun reporter and should ask her why she writes all these negative news stories and ignores the positive news. Anyway it was nice to see you make an effort and I hope more people from our community will let the Vancouver Sun know that we want fair news coverage without the Indo-Canadian headlines. Keep up the good work and keep our community aware of such negative news headlines and hopefully one day we’ll change this racially prejudiced news reporting by Vancouver Sun.
#3. This is from J.V. DESAI of Vancouver:
Bravo for exposing prejudice in the media with the full exchanges between your Editor Rattan Mall and Editor-in-chief Patricia Graham of the Vancouver Sun. The latter’s responses are immature and childish.
However you are not quite correct in describing Christian and non-Christian differences. The BASIC problem is White and Non-White, or European and NON-European. England had enacted anti-non-European laws in the old white British Empire (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa) and British colonies and trusteeship countries.
England discovered RACIALISM and I would not be surprised if Graham is a White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP).
The general tone of this comment was racially motivated, so we could not approve it but we have summarized it here. Basically the person who made this comment was saying that the Vancouver Sun uses stories about ethnicity and colour to sell their paper, and that stories about Caucasians who are involved in similar or worse situations go unreported due to this bias. The author also wrote that the racism she felt has led her to become racist against the majority herself. She feels that reporters who capitalize on the hunger for racist propaganda are pathetic and need to get a life, and questions why they don’t profile the ways in which the Sikh community is making British Columbia a better province and supporting many needy people through the langar and other facilities.
Did you guys hear about another racist article Kim Bolan wrote about Navdeep Singh Bains and his father in-lawn? She never stops!
I urge all free minded people to expose this racist Kim Bolan. She is venom and agent in the pay of the devil (brahmin indian govt + spy agency). Report on this [expletives], expose her background, find criminality in her family history. Make websites and video’s detailing her consistant persecution of Sikhs in the media. It is time she tasted her own medicine and other people like that who cant do good jouneralism.
Kim Bolan lit her hair on fire with the MP Bains story which was factually incorrect and the wildest suggestion that she made was that the entire liberal party’s position on two clauses of the anti-terror is somehow influenced by the fact that Bains’s father-in-law maybe on a list of WITNESSES that may be required to testify in the Air-India enquiry. The irony of ironies here is that neither Bians nor Saini or the Liberals knew about any of this neither did Ms. Bolan as we know now, So where was the influence or conflict, when no one knew about it??? despite this Mr. Saini says he will testify if asked regardless of the law. Which 99% he won’t be asked to because he is not directly connected to any suspects or to the Air-India story itself, but he had a youth stay at his house in the 80’s who later attacked Tara singh Hayer after he moved to BC. Interestingly Saini was never once asked to testify either in the last 22 years since air-india or 4 years since the enti-terror laws in the meantime the trial or the inquiry were held, simply because of the fact that he is not connected to any of the suspects in any way and has always lived in Toronto. Also, the youth that stayed at his house entered Canada years after air-india happened, and Saini helped him during the time that he had applied for refugee status. The point that Bolan made in the story was Saini helped a youth who applied as a refugee and the youth was later convicted of attacking Hayer(now the reader thinks that he attacked Hayer while he was pursuing his application, or he had already done it and Saini helped him despite that whichis totally false…….the youth was innocent when he came to Canada, but after leaving Saini’s house and geting immigration he moved to BC, where later on the Hayer episode happened). Interestingly Saini and Hayer were good friends and Saini even wrote an open letter to Bagga (the attacker) which was published in Hayer’s paper. Now Bolan often claims that Hayer was her friend(and she claims that she is getting death threats like Hayer) and she used him and his family for the so called info which is really nothing but slander on the opposite group that opposes hayer/gill group in the temple elections. So, Bolan chose to attack Hayer’s friend Saini manufacturing a phoney witness list because now his daughter is married to Navdeep Bains a very well regarded liberal MP from missisauga-brampton south born and raised in Toronto, an MBA from Schulich school of business at York U one of the top ranking Business Schools in NA(ranked number 2 after harvard for many years) and a prominent liberal spokesperson in Toronto. Its important to note that Bains is only 29 and was 9 years old at the time when bagga stayed with saini and has no knowledge of the events from 20 years ago. She chose to do this while certain provisions of the Anti-terror legislation were being debated in teh Parliament and the opposition was opposing two clauses and a minority conservative government could not have retained the law. A day before that she wrote a story linking former liberal PM to Terrorism. Now Bolan goes on to state that Saini was a spokesperson for Babbar khalsa panthic at one time she inserted the word extremist(and some on the internet are using terrorist see how a story and facts could be manipulated) instead of sepratist, but what Bolan didn’t say was that the group was perfectly legal in Canada and was never branded a terror goup or accused of anything during its brief existence in Canada and is now defunct and so is the Sikh seperatist or terror activity in India and has been for 15 years(a group with a similar name Babbar Khalsa ainternational, with no connection to Saini was banned in 2003 by the liberals…again Bolan didnot share this info with the readers and branded it extremist/terrorist). Also Hayer was associated with that movement int he beginning, who like Saini at the time was also a sepratist, but had a huge falling out with Bagri and Parmar(the main suspect who was killed by police in India) whom he later turned against and provided the so called info about them to Bolan and the Sun, which was factually incorrect and defamatory in nature(just allegations and accusations)but neverthless Bolan used it for years in order to make everyone believe that the two accused Bagri/Mallik will be declared guilty just because of their guilt by association. These arguements didnot hold in the court of law and the BC governement didnot appeal because the case had no legs.
She also makes it a point to attack instituions like Khalsa credit Union and Khalsa school that were started by Mallik….but are run by boards and are under some form of government regulation, and comply with BC governement rules. Bolan’s problem(and by extension Vancouver Sun’s and Conservatives) with these institutions seems to be that they are serving sikh religion and culture in BC.
Now read the foillowing lines that she wrote in the Bains story
“Vancouver sun has learned that Liberal MP Navdeep singh Bains’s father-in-law Saini is on an RCMP list of witnesses..and the ability to compel him to testify will be lost”
……if the law was not retained in its entirety……and then she leaves it open ended for people to draw their own conclusion that Saini=witness of hayer v bagga somehow=air-india=bains=liberal’s position on anti-terror laws(never mind the fact that liberals brought in those laws with a limit of 5 years for a reason because they limit fundamental freedoms)
never mind that fact that none of these parties knew of any list and even if there was he is just a witness, when did witnesses become criminal???
Now the Federal Conservatives or the new avataar of the bigoted Reform of the past, made the decision to portray liberals as weak on terror by using a soft target i.e. a Sikh back bench MP(ironically using a potential witness implying witness=criminal just because he is a Sikh and his they guy that is his son-in-law now in 2007 is a liberal MP, what about Bloc or NDP’s opposition???), all of a sudden articles started appearing in the Sun written by Bolan linking Liberals PM’s to the now defunct sikh extremist groups in the past. Teh Paul Martin article appeared on Feb 20, 2007 while the Bains article appeared on Feb1 21, 2007 the same day Bolan was scheduled to appear in an Ottawa area radio station, the same day the Conservative Prime minister Harper tried to smear Bains using a false unsubstantied story full of half truths and allegations. Now, this is not just about Sikhs in Vancouver it became a national story and the whole country started analyzing this story and Bolan’s history and what they found was not pretty. Bloggers analysed every single point made by her in this and previous stories, The Pacific Gazetteer and Red Tory Blogs did some good investigative research and Dan’s report also got a statement from miss Bolan…in which she now says a community source told her that saini might be questioned….but she used the words Van Sun has learned the…..is on RCMP list
Which the Sun didnot really learn but now she says there might be a potential list….but a potential list is not even a list at all. Never mind that saini as a witness had no connection with air-india…..now she told the blogs again that she knew who would be asked by attenting the trial…..interestingly saini’s name didn’t come up at the trial either, because he is in no way a direct witness of air-india, so, why did she go after Saini leaving of hundereds of ‘real’ witnesses in Vancouver…and why did she make this wildest suggestion of laws being voted down and Saini being on the list(never mind that he has said that he will testify if asked regardless of the law, which most likely he never will be as he has never been once either at the trial or inquiry)……so Bolan’s agenda and The Vancouver Sun’s agenda is the Agenda of the Reform/CCRAP/Alliance/Conservative party of Canada’s agenda. Show minorities in bad light and liberals(their principal opponents) to be somehow influenced by them and soft on immigration. But this time she was caught in her own trap and the whole country was watching…….consequently Harper also landed in hot water. Kim Bolan’s reputation is soiled beyond redemption as one of teh readers at the blogs pointed out. Bad Karma finally caught up with her. The whole story fell apart and all her arguements of trying to link Bains or the Liberals to something fell flat.
Kim Bolan has been making these bizarre connections for years now, and no one other thatn the Sikhs noticed, because they thought that the largest paper in their city is a credible source of information. In its heart its a tabloid, worse than the Sun chain in ON and AB which are actually real tabloids like the Province. Ironically, both the Sun and the Province and also BCTV now Global BC have been taken over by Canwest, which also owns the National Post, owned by a prominent Liberal family the Aspers of Winnipeg and are still busy spewing venomous hatred against the minorities. Four sikh seniors have been killed between 1997 and 2005 in racial attacks by white teens…numerous others have been attacked on the streets over the years, mostly in Delta and Surrey. Vancouver Sun and the other right-wing media in GVRD is keeping this fire of racial hatred burning. An excellent example being the two cases of domestic violence that happened with in 2 weeks in November, In the same week 6 white women were killed across Canada….but Vancouver media focused on Indo-Canadian cases. While the average rate of violent death of ino-canadian women in BC is 0.8 per year, and that of White women is 36 per year…infact 90% of all cases of domestic violence involves white males, although white population is 74% of the total population. Now the biggest losers and even more damaging to the community than racists and bigots are the people that co-operate with these people and play along…for example, Wally oppal went on TV Global news to say it was a cancer in the indo-canadian community while the stats say something totally different…he was saying that on an English language channel while most of the types he was talking about don’t watch that channel and mostly get community news from radio stations or multicultural channels. His comments were for white media consumption. First you CREATE a perception then bringin one person from that community who will vindicate your point…that completes and justifies your story. Also, if there was a need to talk to the community after two women died(white pop should have a forum every week by that measure) it should be done at radio India or Indian media. Now the most damaging part here is that the third case was that of a school teacher that went missing, everyone started blaming the husband MP, also a school teacher and his students and colleagues all stood by him, the so called community leaders and the media declared him guilty, now the case is still unsolved and the husband is not even a person of interest. Every case with and EI connection is treated as somehow related to culture or community. One woman was killed by her dad just because she was Indian it became a story for the national media, even the CBC made documentaries about it and showed them over and over again for years. In december 2006 a White father Blair evan Donnely in Kitimat killed his teenage daughter because he didnot want her to be with her boyfriend the story was buried on the third page. If it was and indo-candain it would be on the front page with all the details like cultural background, if the person was an immigrant when and where they came from, and all the speculative gossip that would have blamed the violent east indian and linked it to culture or religion.
Now the most important news category that Bolan has reported on is gangs, she writes a story and at the end would publish a list with the names and dates of gang activity related to Indo-Canadians right from its start in 1991 to 2005(the violence has died down now as the most activity has gone white collar or underground), thus counting every single murder so as to make the number look huge(70 or so i believe) but if you look at it its not even 5 per year on average. Any other big city will laugh at that. Meanwhile, most murders are committed by non EI’s every year(50-60 on average), but 5 EI cases get all the publicity with follow ups and the story continues for weeks on end…if you go to crimestoppers or RCMP news websites its hard to find any EI’s at any given time, but Sun etal have creatd a perception that they are responsible for most violent crime. The sun and the province also used to target the vietnamese, chinese and korean communities as most of the ethnic gang activity in Vancouver in the 80’s was in those communities. But they ignore the mother of all ethnic gangs(as they all work for this gang) the HELLS ANGELS, which is white…and very vicious and organized and you could fill pages with their illegal activity and the drug trade they handle is in the Billions, they are under Police survielance 24/7 and live in houses that are like fortresses, wih bullet proof glass covering sundecks and windows. Hells Angels had thousands of members, as opposed to a few hundered in indo-canadian gangs. There was an incident involving Persian and White gangs in a Richmond park where one group fired 150 shots at the other in a public park if that group included EI’s it will be news for months and the word sikh or indo-canadian would be slipped in somewhere, eventhough many of them are muslims or fijians…..as was the guy that shot a girl that came in his way outside a club(he was ismaili) years ago, it was national news. Now there have been numerous shootings in Canadian night clubs but none have made it to nightly national news. In TO there is a murder in the club districts every month. Surrey’s working class white hangouts have a notorious reputation for murders, also East Van and Dntn Eastside.
There was a story in the province recently according to which a strip mall owner in Langley who happened to be Korean was trying to evict white tenants in order to turn it into a Korean Mall, this in a city paper in a multicultural city any story like that would lead to street peotests and lawsuits in any other major city…but Vancouver minorities don’t protest except for the sikhs(i think they don’t protest enough, not in the streets)….now turns out that the allegations were all wrong the Mall owner was trying to evict tenants who not paying rents and were in default for several months and plus there are hardly any koreans in Langley so why would they need a Korean Mall???
In another story a Taiwanese teen was convicted of running over a person on abridge while street racing, the Sun ran a story on the front page with bold headlines and the story went on to describe that the guy’s parents had immigrated a few years back(in order for people to blame immigration or driving habbits) and called him taiwanese-canadian street car racer why was that relevant??? When several white teens were killed in the Fraser Valley street racing they were called ‘Langley teens’, so why is a Richmond taiwanese not ‘Richmond teen’ just because his paretns are from Taiwan??? In yet another incident a man in Port Moody was accused of road rage and then threatening the other person that was involved with a machette, BCTV news and the Sun made it a point to discuss the fact that the young man was son of Iranian immigratns and that his family had immigrated to Canada for better life and education for their kids…why was that necessary in a story about road rage(just to make redneck viewers call for deportationa and bitch about immigration)???another incident where two indo-candian street racers were convicted of running over a woman in Vancouver the sun and its white readers called for the deportation of one of them who was an immigrant, why did they do that??? are they the courts or the police let the law enforcement do their job. When four neo-nazis killed a sikh temple caretaker in Surrey, no one asked for the deportation of one of the men who had immigrated from Poland with his paretns a few years before that…i fact the Sun went on to sympathise with the man saying that he was having trouble with multiracial Canadian society, and all the usual excuses and compassionate views when its someone white, even if they are extreme right wing neo-nazis, interestingly these neo-nazis had also planned to kill indo-canadian children in Khalsa school, or people at a temple gathering. Now, Balwant gill wants his photo in every article regarding gangs…….do these gangs go to Temples??? why doesn’t a priest comment about hells angels why isn’t that a white community problem, who is Gill to be a speak for the community and what do the indian gangs have to do with the community or culture, anymore than white gangs have to do with WASP/christian culture??? These so called leaders should stop seeking publicity and let he law enforcement do its job.
This is not new for the Sun though. Ther is apattern going back decades, there is even a UNESCO paper witten by Joseph Scanlon back in 1977 titled ‘Sikhs of Vancouver’ in Ethnicity and media, which looks at Sun’s biased articles from 1945-1976, in which he details how the Sun tries to portray them in negative light. In the meantime Sun bought over by different companies but the people at the helm in southam press the publisher of the Sun have remained the same or they’ve hired people who carry on their agenda to the next generation. Its time for the community youth that bear the brunt of this racism to protest the hell out of sun and canwest, in the streets, like sri lankans did in Toronto in the 90’s or jews did with North Shore news in North Van….also write to the CBC, CityTV, Georgia Straight(mostly neutral outlets) about this and make them bring this up in dicussions and make it a talking point, also make your MLA and MP protest on your behalf…also bring this to the attention of National media, especially street protests…before that make wally, gill and dosanjh shut up and stop them from pandering to these racist elements, they don’t belong inthis debate. Make it a community talking point with all the radio stations and papers and if needed pursue legal action this has got to stop now before it racializes the already racialized Vancouver society any further, having lived in other big cities in North America i can tell you, Vancouver looks very divided along cultural lines and still in the dark ages and very uneasy with multiculturalism and race relations. This has to be a community wide effort cutting across party lines, involving young people of all views and political stripes, sikh or non-sikh.
Give the Sun, Province and Global BC bad publicity with the protests by inviting national and city media outlets(globe and mail, CBC, City TV etc.) to cover them….and stop making these bizarre linkages of crime and domestic violence to your culture yourself…this is what they want. This is what Gill, Oppal etc. are giving them. There is nothing like bad publicity for a media outlet, make them the butt of jokes like Fox news and the Toronto Sun(no connection to Canwest) are. Eventually they will become the pariah among Vancouver media outlets. The Sun’s readership is declining, already, as many readers in a left-leaning Vancouver don’t like their right-wing agenda.
- SikhToons.com
I wonder if Kim Bolan has ever read the book ‘Soft Target’ I think it would shut her up once and for all!
I dont blame the papers at all. They are speaking the truth about our community.
And what’s this BS about ‘Indo-Canadians’ anyway. Half of us hate India, support Khalistan.
The Sun is being nice to us : they are saying Indo- Canadians to save our feelings…they should actually be saying ‘Sikh Canadians’.
robin gill is def. an associate with the Vancouver Sun. Did you even read the article? The Vancouver Sun is a joke. How is generalizing the truth of our community?
Gentlemen,
You have made a very good observation. The Vancouver Sun, thinks it can decide to call you what it wants in its paper. But has overlooked one important factor. That it you, and you alone of the Sikh Community that can decide who and what you are. It is all very well to stick or create names, but also the right of those upon who it is used to challenge it. I guess many years back they called the American blacks Negroes, but let the Vancouver Sun, use that terminology today and see what happens.
I will also let you read many of my articles on varied subjects, so that you will understand me better.
Sincerely,
Kenneth T. Tellis
Publisher of Hindustan Times buying shares from CanWest unit. CanWest Global Communications Corp. said Friday June 08 / 2007 its subsidiary, CanWest MediaWorks Ireland Holdings, has accepted a takeover offer from HT Media LTD., publisher of India’s Hindustan Times, for $296-million. HT Media will buy all the shares CanWest MediaWorks Ireland Holdings holds in CanWest MediaWorks Ltd’s New Zeland operations– about 70%–for $1.87 apiece. The acquisition requires approval from New Zeland’s overseas Investment office, expected early next week. A week after that, the shares amounting to $296-million will be transferred. CanWest Global Communications Corp. is Canada’s largest media company. Its subsidiary, CanWest MediaWorks Ltd., represents more than 65 television, radio, newspaper and online brands across Canada as well as several abroad. HT Media Ltd., is controlled by Australian private equity firm Ironbridge Capital Pty Ltd. Its flagship New Delhi-based publication, Hindustan Times, has a circulation of 2.25 million copies.
The following article was published in the GLOBE AND MAIL newspaper on the internet on Sunday June 10 / 2007.
From this article it is clear who the employees are of CanWest and Kim Bolan in particular. When CanWest shares fall, the Hindus come and buy their shares. Also it is important to understand just what 2007-1985=22 years of Air India trial really were. It was psychological warfare designed to isolate Sikhs, cause division, lower morale, making Sikhs lose pride in their religion, way of life, etc. Whatever is printed by Kim Bolan is pro-Hindu propaganda. I have myself asked the editors of this newspaper the Vancouver Sun to consider changing the name of this Anti-Sikh newspaper to the Hindu Sun more than once. Since the Hindustan Times are taking over this company I intend to ask them again and as usual one gets no response.
In kim bolan’s recently speech against Sikhs. She alleges
how many Sikh temples are again displaying banners supporting the creation of Khalistan as if to say to support self determination of a Sikh sovereign nation in their own homeland (punjab), is some how against the law or is immoral or unethnical. I would put it to her that her work is to provide a smoke screen for the covert state terrorism (ie raw indian govt agents)that Indian uses from time to time on foreign soil.
This bolan needs to be sued for defemation, she is a poisonous snake who is funded by right wing hindu fundamenatalist groups who in turn are funded by the Indian Union.
Sikhs do have one voice in all of North America and it is my favourite newspaper, —World Sikh news, their e-mail is http://www.worldsikhnews.com/
This newspaper speaks for Sikhs and also gives the true Sikh opinion unlike Kim Bolan which gives only the pro-Hindu nonsense, and her statements can in essence be called slander considering just how far she goes. A total boycott of CanWest is necessary. In my businesses I refuse to have anything associated with CanWest which includes the Vancouver Sun, Province, Times Colonist and National Post newspapers.
The World Sikh News is the newspaper to support.
Kim Bolan has a reputation for putting together lies about the Sikh community, and hand-picking negative stories to focus on so that she can achieve her goals of portraying the Sikh community in a negative light. However, the larger community is starting to recognize that Sikhs are an integral part of the fabric of Canadian culture. We have been here for over 100 years as a community, and we have contributed to various fields in immensely productive and positive ways. Kim Bolan can try all she wants to bring down a large community of responsible Canadian citizens just because of their choice of faith, which also happens to be the most universal and humanitarian faith ideology available to humans in this age, but she will not be successful in bringing this community down.