Tara Singh Hayer
Tara Singh Hayer Indo-Canadian Times; and being the first journalist in Canada killed for their work | |
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Spouse | Baldev Kaur |
Children | 4, including Dave |
Awards |
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Tara Singh Hayer OBC (November 15, 1936 – November 18, 1998) was an Indian-Canadian newspaper publisher and editor who was murdered after his outspoken criticism of fundamentalist violence and terrorism.[1] In particular, he was a key witness in the trial of the Air India Flight 182 bombing.[2]
Hayer was the founder of the
He is the first, and one of the few
History
Personal life
Hayer was born in
Publishing career
Hayer established a community newspaper, the
Hayer was a strong supporter of the Khalistan movement. However, after the continuous terrorist acts by Khalistani extremists against Sikhs and non-Sikhs in Punjab and the later bombing of Air India Flight 182 in 1985, Hayer began to speak out against violence in the Sikh separatist movement. In other words, though supporting the overall idea of Khalistan, he rejected the promotion of it through violent means. Moreover, following the Air India bombing, Hayer became a community contact for Canadian Security Intelligence Service.[5]
In January 1986, a bomb targeting Hayer was left on the doorstep of his family’s print shop. Police were called after his son-in-law noticed the wires sticking out of a McDonald’s bag.[3] In 1987, Hayer was able to meet Prime Minister Brian Mulroney during the prime minister's address to the Canadian Multicultural Press Association.[7]
In 1988, Hayer wrote various editorials in his newspaper about how, while visiting a friend in 1985 in
A week after publishing his August report, Hayer survived an attempt on his life that left him in a
On October 15, 1995, Hayer swore an
Hayer's account was consistent with other evidence about the placing of the bomb. He repeated his account on videotape and indicated he was willing to testify.[8]
On January 24 of the following year, Purewal was killed near the offices of Des Pardes, leaving Hayer as the only other witness.[11]
Death
If they get me, they get me. There’s nothing I can do and I’m not going to stop my work.
Tara Singh Hayer
On November 18, 1998, Hayer (aged 62) was shot to death as he arrived home in Guildford, Surrey, from his office. Already paralyzed from the 1988 assassination attempt, he was gunned down while transferring himself from his specially-designed car to his wheelchair.[3][8][11]
A week before his death, he said, "If they get me, they get me. There’s nothing I can do and I’m not going to stop my work."[6] The killing was dubbed "an assassination" by the RCMP immediately after it was discovered.[8] No one was ever charged with Hayer's murder.[3][11]
Despite the tragedy, Hayer's wife, Baldev, told their children that they must carry on with the newspaper; they went back to the
Alexandra Ellerbeck, of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, said that it is extremely rare for a journalist to be murdered in Canada or the United States. Similarly, retired RCMP deputy commissioner Gary Bass said the public loses sight of "the fact that he is probably still the only journalist in Canada that has been killed for what he was doing," a fact that "kind of gets glossed over."[3]
Alleged negligence of police
Police have been accused of failing to provide Hayer with adequate protection, mismanaging his case, and dismissing the possibility of a link between Hayer’s death and the Air India bombing.[6]
On March 19, 1998, months prior to his murder, Hayer wrote to
Similarly, following the
Moreover, while the police did place surveillance cameras around Hayer's house, they evidently did not capture any footage on the night Hayer was killed; in fact, the cameras had not been working for months, but were never fixed, nor was the family ever told that they were useless.[2][3][8]
The report states that Hayer’s son, Dave, testified that "his father felt that the failure of the police to take any action led to a greater and greater escalation of the threats. He was of the view that, if the police had laid even minor charges against the perpetrators, it might have helped to prevent this escalation. Instead, he felt, police did not understand the culture and just 'dismiss(ed) it.'"[2]
Major concluded his report with the following:[2]
[T]ragically, the murder of Tara Singh Hayer, while he was supposedly under the watch of the RCMP, not only snuffed out the life of a courageous opponent of terrorism, but permanently foreclosed the possibility of his assistance in bringing the perpetrators of the bombing of Flight 182 to justice.
Investigation
Following Hayer's assassination, the investigation into his 1988 attempted murder was reopened and new evidence gathered. As such, when charges for the
Malik and Bagri were acquitted of all charges related to Air India in 2005.[3] The Committee to Protect Journalists claims to have urged then-Canadian prime minister Jean Chrétien to ensure the aggressive investigation into Hayer's murder, as well as having written to then-Indian prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee asking him to cooperate fully with the investigation.[1]
The RCMP subsequently heightened its investigation into the Hayer murder, launching Project Expedio in 2005.[3]
As part of Project Expedio, investigators conducted 'Mr. Big' operations. The second of these operations used an undercover cop posing as a South-American drug lord to target a suspect in the bomb plot named Jean Gaetan Gingras. Gingras admitted to having arranged for a device to be placed at Hayer’s office in January 1986 at the request of a Babbar Khalsa member in Montreal. However, he told the undercover cop that the bomb was just to send Hayer a message and that no one was supposed to get hurt.[3]
In 2018, retired RCMP deputy commissioner Gary Bass said that Expedio came close to laying charges in the Hayer murder.[3]
Awards and recognition
In 1992, Hayer was honored with the
In 1999, Canadian Journalists for Free Expression renamed its Press Freedom Award the "Tara Singh Hayer Press Freedom Award" in Hayer's honour. Each year, the award is given to a Canadian journalist who, through his or her work, has made an important contribution to reinforcing and promoting the principle of freedom of the press in Canada or elsewhere.[13] The CJFE also has the "Tara Singh Hayer Award for Bravery in Journalism," which is typically awarded posthumously to murdered journalists, but not always.[14]
In 2000, journalist Gordon Donaldson added Hayer to the Canadian News Hall of Fame, making him the first Canadian of non-English, non-French origin to be added to the Hall.[15] In May that year, Hayer was also selected as one of the International Press Institute World Press Freedom Heroes of the past 50 years.[16] One of the presenters of this award was American senator Ted Kennedy, and it was accepted by Dave Hayer and Isabelle Martinez Hayer on behalf of the Hayer family.[17]
In 2010, former Supreme Court Justice John C. Major described Hayer as a "courageous opponent of terrorism."[2]
See also
- Air India Flight 182
- Ujjal Dosanjh
- Press freedom in Canada
- Freedom of expression in Canada
- List of unsolved murders
- International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists
References
- ^ a b "Tara Singh Hayer". Committee to Protect Journalists. Archived from the original on May 23, 2021. Retrieved May 23, 2021.
- ^ a b c d e f g "CJFE welcomes Air India report; calls for killers of journalist to be brought to justice at last". IFEX. June 18, 2010. Archived from the original on May 23, 2021. Retrieved May 23, 2021.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s "Journalist Tara Singh Hayer's assassination still unsolved 20 years after fatal shooting". vancouversun. Archived from the original on May 23, 2021. Retrieved May 23, 2021.
- ^ a b c d e "1995 Recipient: Tara Singh Hayer – Surrey : Order of BC". Archived from the original on May 23, 2021. Retrieved May 23, 2021.
- ^ a b c https://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/lbrr/archives/cn33719-2-2-eng.pdf Archived September 1, 2020, at the Wayback Machine [bare URL PDF]
- ^ a b c "Take action to end impunity :Tara Singh Hayer". Index on Censorship. November 18, 2011. Archived from the original on October 16, 2021. Retrieved May 23, 2021.
- ^ "Wooing votes: Prime Minister Brian Mulroney shakes hands with Kuldip Singh Sodhi, head of the Ontario Federation of Sikhs, watched by Tara Singh Hayer, centre, editor of a Vancouver newspaper. Mulroney addressed the Canadian Multicultural Press Association in metro yesterday". Toronto Public Library. Archived from the original on May 23, 2021. Retrieved May 23, 2021.
- ^ a b c d e f g h "Tara Singh Hayer and the 'incentive to kill' | CBC News". Archived from the original on May 7, 2021. Retrieved May 23, 2021.
- ^ "Tara Singh Hayer". Archived from the original on June 9, 2011. Retrieved November 15, 2014.
- ^ "Scanned Document" (PDF). CBC News. Archived (PDF) from the original on March 30, 2004. Retrieved August 10, 2009.
- ^ a b c "Sikh Editor Murdered | the Canadian Encyclopedia". Archived from the original on June 27, 2020. Retrieved June 25, 2020.
- ^ A true Sikh martyr: Jonathan Kay on the 10th anniversary of the assassination of Tara Singh Hayer [permanent dead link] by Jonathan Kay, National Post, November 17, 2008.
- ^ "Award winners | CJFE". www.cjfe.org. Archived from the original on May 23, 2021. Retrieved May 23, 2021.
- ^ "Murder Without Borders by Terry Gould, Awarded Prestigious Tara Singh Hayer Award". National Speakers Bureau. Archived from the original on May 23, 2021. Retrieved May 23, 2021.
- ^ "Inducted into hall of fame," National Post, January 6, 2001, pg. B.6.
- ^ "World Press Freedom Heroes: Symbols of courage in global journalism". International Press Institute. 2012. Archived from the original on January 16, 2012. Retrieved January 26, 2012.
- ^ "21st Commemoration of the assassination of newspaper editor and publisher Tara Singh Hayer Archived November 19, 2019, at the Wayback Machine"