Vancouver street racer deported to India

A driver who killed a woman during a Vancouver street race in 2000 has been deported to India, a spokeswoman for the Canada Border Services Agency said Wednesday.

Sukhvir Singh Khosa was ordered deported from Canada to India in April 2003 after he was convicted of criminal negligence causing the death of Irene Thorpe, 51, who he struck and killed in November 2000.

Khosa, a permanent resident who immigrated to Canada in 1996 at age 14 with his family, fought to stay on humanitarian and compassionate grounds and filed a series of appeals. A Federal Court of Appeal decision allowed him to stay in the country, but the Supreme Court of Canada upheld the original deportation order last month.

Faith St. John, a CBSA spokeswoman in B.C., said Khosa boarded a plane and left Vancouver on Tuesday.

Bahadur Singh Bhalru, the co-accused in the street-racing death, was deported four years ago after being convicted of criminal negligence causing death.

Both Khosa and Bhalru received conditional sentences of two years less a day with house arrest, community service and a five-year driving ban.

In November 2000, Khosa was racing his car at more than 120 kilometres an hour in a 50 km/h zone when he lost control and slammed into Thorpe as she was out on an evening walk on a sidewalk along Marine Drive in south Vancouver.

He fought to stay on "compassionate and humanitarian grounds?" what grounds would he basing that on exactly? personally, I think that is used WAY too much in deportation cases, like COME ON buddy! that along with house arrests, community service I think are handed down as sentences way too often by our justice system here, a 5 year driving ban? that's it? all of that is a slap on the wrist considering he killed someone, and for what? a stupid street race, the street aren't meant for racing, that's why race tracks are built (hence the term "race tracks"????) both of these guys (Sukhvir Singh Khosa was 18 in 2001 and Bahadur Singh Balru was 21) were old enough to know better then to wrecklessly race around city streets, they weren't kids that "didn't know any better" .

Sending him simply back home to India I feel is the easy way out (HE KILLED SOMEONE!!!!) being east indian myself (although yes, admittedly, I've never personally been to India) What's he going to get there? he gets to go home once he's off the plane, go hang out with friends (from how I hear it, life in india, especially if you have some money, which he probably does, at least a little, and a semi decent job you're pretty well set there...the kicker? the job will probably be, working for a company, in Canada, that hires workers in India!!) What should have happened is a deal of some sort worked out with his country (India) if they were going to send him back there, for him to serve time in there prison system for a few years, I hear there prison system isn't the slap on the wrist system we have here, it would have taught him the lesson I feel he hasn't learned yet, because at his age (come on, he's still young) out with buddies, doing whatever, if a lesson isn't pounded into you yet, you're more then likely to make a stupid mistake again, the streets of India are much worse, a hell of a lot busier, where you're sharing the road with buses, rickshaws (not sure I spelt that right) cars, bicycyles, motorcyles, trucks, cows, sheeps, buffalos, people, and whatever the heck else... the rules are a lot more relaxed as well, more like a kill or be killed atmosphere, make it from point A to point B and hope you don't get killed!! can you imagine this guy racing on those streets?

What's worse is, give it a few years for "things to settle down" and this guy will probably try coming back here, show that he's "matured", will probably be let back in, who cares that he took a life his first time around here in Canada... An absolute joke!!

It really makes you wonder how we much value we have for a life in this country! This slapping on the wrist thing needs to end right NOW! THESE INDIVIDUALS TOOK A LIFE! Lock them up in jail for life and throw away the key (or better yet, grind the key up, make a locket out of it, and give it to the family of the person they've killed!)! The Canadian Justice System has moved beyond being a joke, BEYOND!!

Individuals who commit crimes like murder are walking free a few years later after being put on house arrest?! Does this sound right to anyone else?

CBC in hot water over use of slur

HNIC bans the use of the word “pansification”

I don't know if it's even a real word, nonetheless, the CBC has banned the use of the word "pansification"

The Globe and Mail has revealed that Hockey Night in Canada came under fire from Ottawa-based gay advocacy group Egale Canada after the word was used by the show’s personalities to describe how the game would be affected if fighting were prohibited.

The word was invented by HNIC commentator Mike Milbury, and was repeated by host Ron MacLean. The usually outspoken Don Cherry kept mum, refusing – smartly, wow never thought I'd say that and Don Cherry in the same sentence – to not use the word.

"I'm smarter than that," the Hockey Night commentator told The Globe a few days ago. "I know right away you don't fool with those guys, a group like that."

In a letter to the Globe, Scott Moore, the executive director of CBC Sports says, "While we're not generally inclined either to censor the language or views presented on Hockey Night in Canada, we've decided to refrain from using that word in future."

"Upon reflection, we're going to take Don Cherry's sage advice on this one. While, as we originally said, absolutely no offence was intended, we recognize we've offended some and for that we're sorry.”

CBC’s initial response was to defend the word’s use, saying that it was not a slur against homosexuals.

Helen Kennedy, the executive director of Egale Canada, said: "That's really good news. One of our big concerns was that ‘pansy’ is a word used regularly to bully young boys."

Do-Not-Call scam

I found this scam warning and I thought that I would post it here for anyone that may be reading:

Cellphone providers are warning against a scam circulating via e-mail regarding the CRTC's recently implemented do-not-call telemarketing list.

The e-mail warns recipients that cellphone providers are releasing their customers' numbers to telemarketers, so they should expect calls that will inevitably waste their airtime. Recipients are urged to call one of two phone numbers purportedly attached to the national do-not-call list, which the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission launched on Sept. 30, in order to block such unwanted calls.

"All cellphone numbers are being released to telemarketing companies and you will start to receive sale calls," the e-mail says. "You will be charged for these calls."

The e-mail suggests the release of number databases has been confirmed by Telus Corp. and urges recipients to pass the message on to their friends.

Telus, however, issued an advisory on Tuesday evening warning that the e-mail was "fraudulent and dangerous" and urged customers not to respond to it or forward it.

Spokesman Shawn Hall said the company has no intention of releasing wireless numbers to telemarketers.

"We have no plans to do that ever," he said.

Telus is working on determining the source of the e-mail. Marc Choma, spokesman for the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association, said a similar scam was run a few years ago in the United States when the country rolled out its own do-not-call list.

One of the numbers in the e-mail is in fact the CRTC's do-not-call contact number, but the other has been linked to telemarketing scams going back a number of years, Hall said.

The do-not-call list allows Canadians to add their phone numbers - both landline and wireless - to a database that is circulated to telemarketers. A telemarketer that calls a number on the list is liable for a fine up to $15,000.

While the CRTC requires landline providers to list customers' numbers in the phone book, it is illegal for wireless companies to release cellphone numbers without their subscribers' express consent.

Telus has polled customers as to whether they would want their wireless numbers published in the phone book but found the majority believed their contact information to be private.

"It came back rather resoundingly that people did not want their cellphones listed in the phone book, and we respect that," Hall said.

Thank you to Sympatico, Telus, and the CBC for the heads up


Until next time........