(CJFE/IFEX) – The following is a CJFE letter to British Columbia’s Attorney General expressing concern over death threats received by Kim Bolan, a journalist with the “Vancouver Sun” daily newspaper: **New case and update to IFEX alert of 19 November 1998** March 12, 1999 Ujjal Dosanjh Attorney General of British Colombia PO 9044 Station Provincial […]
(CJFE/IFEX) – The following is a CJFE letter to British Columbia’s
Attorney
General expressing concern over death threats received by Kim Bolan, a
journalist with the “Vancouver Sun” daily newspaper:
**New case and update to IFEX alert of 19 November 1998**
March 12, 1999
Ujjal Dosanjh
Attorney General of British Colombia
PO 9044 Station Provincial Government
Victoria, B.C., Canada
V8W 9E2
Fax: 250-387-6411
email: ATTORNEY.GENERAL@ag.gov.bc.ca
Dear Attorney General Dosanjh,
On behalf of Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE), I am
writing
to express my alarm and concern over the death threats received by Kim
Bolan, a journalist with the Vancouver Sun daily newspaper. The threats
are
the result of Bolan’s coverage of the Indo-Canadian community, including
the
murder of newspaper publisher Tara Singh Hayer, who was shot to death
upon
his return home in Surrey, British Columbia on 18 November 1998. As an
organization that promotes and protects freedom of expression worldwide,
CJFE is alarmed that journalists in British Columbia are being attacked
simply for the practise of their profession. We insist that you offer
Bolan
the highest security possible, and that you search out those responsible
for
these death threats.
In November last year, Bolan reported on the assassination of Tara Singh
Hayer, who published the “Indo-Canadian Times”, Canada’s largest and
oldest
Punjabi weekly. Hayer was an outspoken critic of violent Sikh
fundamentalists and had already been the target of an assassination
attempt
at his newspaper office in 1988. At that time, he was left partially
paralysed, and when he was shot last November, he was moving from his
car to
his wheelchair in his garage.
These recent death threats against Bolan are actually the second such
threats she has received in the course of covering the activities of
Sikh
fundamentalists. This time, however, the threats are considered much
more
serious by police.
In a news story in The Vancouver Sun on Wednesday, March 10, Detective
George Kristensen of the Vancouver police department said: “There is a
credible threat and she is receiving police protection. We will not
comment
on the nature of the threat or the source it came from.” Kristensen said
compared to the last threats, these ones “are much more credible.”
It is our understanding that Bolan has been targetted because she linked
Hayer’s assassination with a group of extremists who are strongly
suspected
of planning and carrying out in 1985 the Air India bombing in which all
329
passengers and crew members were killed, and the Narita, Japan bombing
which
killed two baggage handlers. An individual linked to Sikh separatists in
Vancouver was convicted in the Narita bombing. Soon we are expecting
charges
to be laid in the Air India bombing. It is believed that those
implicated in
the bombing think that by silencing Bolan they can stop the process of
bringing them to justice.
In March 1998, about 250 Sikh protesters gathered in front of The
Vancouver
Sun’s downtown editorial offices to demand Bolan not be permitted to
cover
B.C.’s 150,000-member Sikh community. The protesters carried signs
reading:
“Kim to go,” “We are traditional, don’t call us fundamentalist” and “If
Kim
is Goliath, Sikhs are David.”
To counter the demonstration, a coalition of 36 B.C. Sikh societies,
including the groups that control the largest temples, issued a news
release
defending The Sun’s coverage of Sikh issues as “fair and balanced.” The
Sikh
societies said media stories about conflict among Sikhs have been caused
by
“the violence and intimidation of a small, extremist element in our
community….Certainly the perpetrators of those acts are the ones
responsible for the negative coverage, not the media that has reported
on
them.”
Attorney-General Dosanjh, we cannot have a free society without a free
media. We cannot have a free media if journalists must pay with their
lives
for informing the public about events of vital importance in their
communities. To allow these threats and acts of violence to go unchecked
will have a silencing effect upon the media – the resulting silence will
harm everyone’s rights to freely impart and receive information, as
guaranteed by Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
to
which Canada is a signatory.
The CJFE insists that you inform this office and the public of your
progress
in the investigation into the murder of Tara Singh Hayer, and that you
ensure the safety of journalist Kim Bolan.
Sincerely,
Wayne Sharpe
Executive Director
Canadian Journalists for Free Expression
tel: 416-515-9622
fax: 416-515-7879
cjfe@cjfe.org
Similar appeals can be sent to:
Appeals To
Ujjal Dosanjh
Attorney General of British Colombia
PO 9044 Station Provincial Government
Victoria, B.C., Canada
V8W 9E2
Fax: +1 250 387 6411
email: ATTORNEY.GENERAL@ag.gov.bc.ca
Please copy appeals to the source if possible.
