TORONTO: A Canadian court has upheld the constitutionality of keeping two “Khalistani terrorists” on the country’s no-fly list, designed to stop suspected terrorists from boarding an aeroplane. Canada’s National Post reported that there were problems with the way the government handled the cases of two men on the list it was deemed “reasonable” to keep them on it.
Bhagat Singh Brar, of Brampton, Ontario, and Parvkar Singh Dulai, of Vancouver, BC, was placed on the no-fly list in 2018. Both had challenged the no-fly list, the first appeals of the Secure Air Travel Act, the law under which the list has run since 2015.
Brar was secretly placed on the list in April 2018. The Canadian authorities took this decision a day before he tried to board a plane to return from Vancouver to Toronto.
Subsequently, Brar complained about the designation and even appealed to the Federal Court in April 2019. Similarly, Dulai, a business partner of Brar’s, was placed on the list in March 2018, and also complained, after he found out that he was on the list. Brar is reportedly the son of Lakhbir Brar, who is the leader of the designated terrorist group International Sikh Youth Federation, the National Post reported.
Dulai, a vocal supporter of Khalistan, was said to be the organizer of the parade that included a tribute to a man involved in the 1985 Air India bombing that killed 329. Both Brar and Dulai, are alleged in court documents to be suspected to be a “facilitator of terrorist-related activities” and featured allegations from Canada’s spy agency.
According to the Canadian daily, both men had challenged the constitutionality of the list and how it was applied to them. However, the government argued the law is sound and both men should remain on the list. While giving the verdict, Justice Simon Noel writes he weighed “the tension between individual rights and collective interests in security.”
As per the ruling, the government made the decision that there were reasonable grounds to suspect they would either engage or attempt to engage in an act that would threaten transportation or travel by air for the purpose of committing a terrorism offence.
Both Brar and Dulai, remain on the list, court said, after their appeals were denied. Both deny terrorist activity, the report added. (ANI)
Also Read: UK Sikhs push back against Khalistani elements, laud Modi’s steps for community
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