>Guavabutter: Added some further information/content with references

2021-05-23T07:48:47Z

Added some further information/content with references

New page

{{Infobox person
| name = Tara Singh Hayer
| image = 
| alt =
| caption =
| birth_name = 
| birth_date = November 15, 1936
| birth_place = Paddi Jagir, Punjab, India
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1998|11|18|1936|11|18}}
| death_place = [[Guildford, British Columbia|Guildford]], [[Surrey, BC]]
| death_cause = Assassination by shooting
| nationality = [[Canadian]]
| other_names =
| education =
| occupation = newspaper publisher
| known_for = founding the ''[[Indo-Canadian Times]]''; and being the first journalist in Canada killed for their work
| spouse = Baldev Kaur
| children = [[Dave Hayer]] (son); Daljit, Rupinder, and Satpaul (daughters)
| awards = {{plainlist|
* [[Order of British Columbia]]
* [[Commemorative Medal for the 125th Anniversary of the Confederation of Canada|Commemorative Medal for the 125th Anniversary of Canada]]
}}
}}
'''Tara Singh Hayer''', [[Order of British Columbia|OBC]] (November 15, 1936 – November 18, 1998) was a [[Indo-Canadian]] [[Sikhism in Canada|Sikh]] newspaper publisher and editor who was murdered after his outspoken criticism of [[Fundamentalism|fundamentalist]] violence and terrorism.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|title=Tara Singh Hayer|url=https://cpj.org/data/people/tara-singh-hayer/|access-date=2021-05-23|website=Committee to Protect Journalists|language=en-US}}</ref> In particular, he was a key witness in the trial of the [[Air India Flight 182|Air India Flight 182 bombing]].<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|date=2010-06-18|title=CJFE welcomes Air India report; calls for killers of journalist to be brought to justice at last|url=https://ifex.org/cjfe-welcomes-air-india-report-calls-for-killers-of-journalist-to-be-brought-to-justice-at-last/|access-date=2021-05-23|website=IFEX|language=en-US}}</ref>

Hayer was the founder of the ''[[Indo-Canadian Times]]'', the largest and oldest [[Punjabi language|Punjabi-language]] weekly newspaper in Canada and the leading Punjabi-language newspaper in [[North America]].<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|title=Journalist Tara Singh Hayer's assassination still unsolved 20 years after fatal shooting|url=https://vancouversun.com/news/crime/journalist-tara-singh-hayers-assassination-still-unsolved-20-years-after-fatal-shooting|access-date=2021-05-23|website=vancouversun|language=en-CA}}</ref><ref name=":3">{{Cite web|title=1995 Recipient: Tara Singh Hayer – Surrey : Order of BC|url=https://orderofbc.gov.bc.ca/members/obc-1995/1995-tara-singh-hayer/|access-date=2021-05-23|language=en}}</ref> The paper—distributed in Canada, the United States, and England—was regularly used by Hayer to speak out against violent extremist groups.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":3" /><ref name=":4">https://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/lbrr/archives/cn33719-2-2-eng.pdf</ref>

He is the first and one of the only [[Canadian journalism|journalists in Canada]] to have been killed specifically for their work.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":5">{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=2011-11-18|title=Take action to end impunity :Tara Singh Hayer|url=https://www.indexoncensorship.org/2011/11/take-action-to-end-impunity-tara-singh-hayer/|url-status=live|access-date=2021-05-23|website=Index on Censorship|language=en-GB}}</ref>

== History ==

=== Personal life ===
Hayer was born in [[Paddi Jagir]], a small village in [[Punjab, India]]. He emigrated to [[Canada]] in 1970, where he worked as a miner, teacher, truck-driver, manager of a trucking firm, and journalist before establishing a community newspaper, the ''[[Indo-Canadian Times]]'', in 1978.<ref name=":3" /> He is the father of Surrey MLA [[Dave Hayer]].

=== Publishing career ===
Hayer established a community newspaper, the ''[[Indo-Canadian Times]]'', in 1978. The ''Times'' would go on to be the largest and oldest [[Punjabi language|Punjabi-language]] weekly newspaper in Canada and the leading Punjabi-language newspaper in [[North America]].<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":3" /> Throughout his career, Hayer often reported about the "tensions" between the [[Government of India]] and [[Sikhism in India|Sikhs]], both in Canada and abroad, who promote a separate country status for the [[Punjab, India|Punjab area of India]] which would be called [[Khalistan]]," a [[Theocracy|theocratic]] sectarian-based [[Sikh]] homeland.<ref name=":4" />

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]].<ref name=":4" />

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.<ref name=":2" /> In 1987, Hayer was able to meet Prime Minister [[Brian Mulroney]] during the prime minister's address to the Canadian Multicultural Press Association.<ref>{{Cite web|title=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.|url=https://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?Entt=RDMDC-TSPA_0069988F&R=DC-TSPA_0069988F|access-date=2021-05-23|website=Toronto Public Library|language=en}}</ref>

In 1988, Hayer wrote various editorials in his newspaper about how, while visiting a friend in 1985 in [[London]], [[England]], months after the Air India bombing, he overheard a conversation taking place in the offices of the Punjabi-language newspaper ''[[Des Pardes (newspaper)|Des Pardes]]'' in which accused bomber [[Ajaib Singh Bagri]] described to [[Tarsem Singh Purewal]], the editor of ''Des Pardes'', how the bomb was smuggled onto Flight 182.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":6">https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/hayer-air-india-rcmp-sikh-parmar-1.4908923</ref> Hayer began reporting this in April 1988, when he first named Bagri in his publication: "If you remember the Air India flight that blew up in midair, the police connected to this could be keeping an eye on Bagri." Subsequently, in July, he referred to "[[Talwinder Singh Parmar|Talwinder Singh [Parmar]]] and Bagri having a hand in this." He followed up with more specificity in the August edition: "In 1985 in England, Bagri was talking noisily about his involvement in the blowing up of the Air India airplane."<ref name=":6" />

A week after publishing his August report, Hayer survived an attempt on his life that left him in a [[wheelchair]].<ref name="freemedia">{{cite web|title=Tara Singh Hayer|url=http://www.freemedia.at/awards/tara-singh-hayer/|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110609103131/http://www.freemedia.at/awards/tara-singh-hayer/|archive-date=2011-06-09|access-date=2014-11-15}}</ref> He was shot in his newspaper office by '''Harkirat Singh Bagga''', a youth who later pleaded guilty to attempted murder. Bagga turned out to the suspects behind the Air India bombing: the [[.357 Magnum]] that he used was provided by a California man who was also the owner of a gun found in the residence of [[Inderjit Singh Reyat]], the only person convicted in the Air India bombing.<ref name=":2" />

On 15 October 1995, Hayer swore an [[affidavit]] to the [[Royal Canadian Mounted Police|RCMP]] of the overheard conversation, which was made public (but not used as evidence). According to Hayer's account:<ref name=":6" /><blockquote>Bagri stayed talking to Purewal for about 1 hour during which time the subject of the Air India Flight 182 bombing came up. Purewal asked Bagri how he managed to do that. Bagri replied that they (the [[Babbar Khalsa]]) wanted the government of India to come on their knees and give them [[Khalistan movement|Khalistan]]. Bagri then said that if everything would have gone as planned the plane would have blown up at [[Heathrow airport]] with no passengers on it. But because the flight was a half hour or three quarters of an hour late, it blew up over the ocean. Purewal then asked how he managed to have the bomb inside the plane. Bagri said that when the device was ready, [[Surjan Singh Gill]] was supposed to take it to the airport but when it was ready and it was shown to him, he got scared and resigned from the Babbar Khalsa. Bagri then suggested to Talwinder Singh Parmar that they should kill Surjan Singh Gill but Parmar said no because that would bring suspicion on them and so they just warned Gill not to say anything. Bagri then said that he got someone else to take the bomb inside a suitcase to the [[Vancouver International Airport|Vancouver airport]] and put it on the plane.<ref>{{cite news|title=Scanned Document|work=CBC News|url=http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/airindia/documents/hayer.pdf|access-date=2009-08-10}}</ref></blockquote>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.<ref name=":6" />

On January 24 of the following year, Purewal was killed near the offices of ''Des Pardes'', leaving Hayer as the only other witness.<ref name=":7" />

==Death==
{{Quote box
| quote = If they get me, they get me. There’s nothing I can do and I’m not going to stop my work
| author = Tara Singh Hayer
| source =
| width = 30%
| fontsize = 90%
| salign = right
}}
On 18 November 1998, Hayer (aged 62) was shot to death as he arrived home in [[Guildford, British Columbia|Guildford]], [[Surrey, British Columbia|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.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":6" /><ref name=":7" />

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."<ref name=":5" /> The killing was dubbed "an assassination" by the [[Royal Canadian Mounted Police|RCMP]] immediately after it was discovered.<ref name=":6" /> No one was ever charged with Hayer's murder.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":7"> https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/sikh-editor-murdered </ref>

Despite the tragedy, Hayer's wife, Baldev, told their children that they must carry on with the newspaper; they went back to the ''[[Indo-Canadian Times]]'' office that very night to remake the front page with news of Hayer's murder.<ref name=":2" />

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."<ref name=":2" />

=== 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.<ref name=":5" />

On 19 March 1998, months prior to his murder, Hayer wrote to [[Chief superintendent|Chief Supt.]] Terry Smith, the head of Surrey RCMP, about his concerns over the slew of threats he was receiving:<ref name=":2" /><blockquote>Given that these threats are escalating and becoming more severe in nature, I respectfully request your assistance in the investigation of these threats, which I hope will cease as a result. I respectfully request that you take immediate action with this regard. Time is of the essence. I am not capable of defending myself as easily as I used to when I could walk.</blockquote>Smith responded five days later:<ref name=":2" /><blockquote>I am concerned that you have not brought these matters to our attention previously, given that there seems to be an ongoing series of these incidents. We view these circumstances as most serious and if they are ignored or not reported, it makes our job exceedingly more difficult to complete. If you fear for your life, and you feel you are in immediate danger, you should be contacting our complaints line.</blockquote>Accordingly, in her book ''Loss of Faith'', ''[[Vancouver Sun]]'' reporter [[Kim Bolan]] suggests that Hayer's murder was preventable. Bolan argues that the RCMP ignored or bungled numerous clues that suggested the 1988 attempt on his life was part of a larger conspiracy. Bolan also argues that the RCMP's attempts to penetrate into radical Sikh organizations brought the police "up against powerful people with connections to the highest political levels in Canada." Writing in the ''[[National Post]]'', [[Jonathan Kay]] noted that in December 1998, just a month after Hayer’s funeral, Canadian Prime Minister [[Jean Chrétien]] appeared at a fundraising dinner attended by [[Ripudaman Singh Malik]] and various other Flight 182 suspects.<ref>[http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2008/11/17/a-true-sikh-martyr-jonathan-kay-on-the-10th-anniversary-of-the-assassination-of-tara-singh-hayer.aspx A true Sikh martyr: Jonathan Kay on the 10th anniversary of the assassination of Tara Singh Hayer]{{dead link|date=January 2018|bot=InternetArchiveBot|fix-attempted=yes}} by Jonathan Kay, National Post, November 17, 2008.</ref>

Similarly, following the [[Air India Inquiry|Air India inquiry]], Justice [[John C. Major]]'s 2010 report described the police's efforts to protect their witness as feeble: "nowhere are the RCMP's failures to protect its potential witnesses more dramatic than in relation to Tara Singh Hayer."<ref name=":6" /><ref name=":1" /> Major's report dedicates over 60 pages to a thorough analysis of Hayer’s role as a key witness in the Air India case, the resulting threats and attacks on Hayer, and the RCMP’s inability to provide Hayer and his family with the protection that he requested and evidently needed.<ref name=":1" />

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.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" /><ref name=":6" />

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.'"<ref name=":1" />

Major concluded his report with the following:<ref name=":1" /><blockquote>[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.</blockquote>

=== Investigation ===
Following Hayer's assassination, the investigation into his 1988 attempted murder was reopened and new evidence gathered. As such, when charges for the [[Air India Flight 182|Air India bombing]] were laid against [[Ajaib Singh Bagri]] and [[Ripudaman Singh Malik]] in 2000, Bagri was also charged in the 1988 plot against Hayer. Hayer's elder son, [[Dave Hayer]] gave his account of what he called a confession by one of the accused; however, his statement was ruled [[rules of evidence|inadmissible as evidence]]. The charge against Bagri was later [[Stay of proceedings|stayed]], when the key witness said that he no longer wanted to testify.<ref name=":2" />

Malik and Bagri were acquitted of all charges related to Air India in 2005.<ref name=":2" /> 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.<ref name=":0" />

The RCMP subsequently heightened its investigation into the Hayer murder, launching '''Project Expedio''' in 2005.<ref name=":2" />

As part of Project Expedio, investigators conducted '[[Mr. Big (police procedure)|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.<ref name=":2" />

In 2018, retired RCMP deputy commissioner Gary Bass said that Expedio came close to laying charges in the Hayer murder.<ref name=":2" />

==Awards and recognition==
In 1992, Hayer was honored with the [[Commemorative Medal for the 125th Anniversary of the Confederation of Canada|Commemorative Medal for the 125th Anniversary of Canada]] and a Certificate of Appreciation from the [[Royal Canadian Mounted Police]] (RCMP). Among his other awards, he received the Journalist Award by the Municipality of [[Surrey, British Columbia|Surrey]] for courageous and outstanding contribution to Punjabi journalism in Canada, and the International Award of Distinction for Journalism from the International Association of Punjabi Authors and Artists. In 1995, he received the [[Order of British Columbia]].<ref name=":3" />[[Image:Order British Columbia ribbon bar.svg|right|150px]]

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.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Award winners {{!}} CJFE|url=https://www.cjfe.org/cjfe_gala/award_winners|access-date=2021-05-23|website=www.cjfe.org}}</ref> The CJFE also has the "'''Tara Singh Hayer Award for Bravery in Journalism'''," which is typically awarded posthumously to murdered journalists, but not always.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Murder Without Borders by Terry Gould, Awarded Prestigious Tara Singh Hayer Award|url=https://www.nsb.com/blog/murder-without-borders-by-terry-gould-awarded-prestigious-tara-singh-hayer-award/|access-date=2021-05-23|website=National Speakers Bureau|language=en}}</ref>

In 2000, journalist [[Gordon Donaldson (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.<ref>"Inducted into hall of fame," ''[[National Post]]'', January 6, 2001, pg. B.6.</ref> In May that year, Hayer was also selected as one of the [[International Press Institute World Press Freedom Heroes]] of the past 50 years.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.freemedia.at/awards/world-press-freedom-heroes/ |title=World Press Freedom Heroes: Symbols of courage in global journalism |year=2012 |publisher=[[International Press Institute]] |access-date=2012-01-26}}</ref> 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.<ref>
"[http://www.asianjournal.ca/21st-commemoration-of-the-assassination-of-newspaper-editor-and-publisher-tara-singh-hayer/ 21st Commemoration of the assassination of newspaper editor and publisher Tara Singh Hayer]"</ref>

In 2010, former Supreme Court Justice [[John C. Major]] described Hayer as a "courageous opponent of terrorism."<ref name=":1" />

==See also==
*[[Air India Flight 182]]
*[[Ujjal Dosanjh]]
*[[Press freedom in Canada]]
*[[Freedom of expression in Canada]]
*[[List of unsolved murders (20th century)|List of unsolved murders]]
*[[International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists]]

==References==
<references/>

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hayer, Tara Sing}}
[[Category:1936 births]]
[[Category:1990s murders in Canada]]
[[Category:1998 crimes in Canada]]
[[Category:1998 deaths]]
[[Category:1998 murders in North America]]
[[Category:20th-century Canadian journalists]]
[[Category:20th-century Canadian newspaper publishers (people)]]
[[Category:Air India Flight 182]]
[[Category:Assassinated Canadian journalists]]
[[Category:Assassinated newspaper publishers (people)]]
[[Category:Businesspeople from British Columbia]]
[[Category:Canadian male journalists]]
[[Category:Canadian newspaper founders]]
[[Category:Canadian newspaper journalists]]
[[Category:Canadian Sikhs]]
[[Category:Canadian writers of Asian descent]]
[[Category:Deaths by firearm in British Columbia]]
[[Category:Indian emigrants to Canada]]
[[Category:Indian newspaper founders]]
[[Category:Indian people murdered abroad]]
[[Category:Khalistan movement]]
[[Category:Male murder victims]]
[[Category:Members of the Order of British Columbia]]
[[Category:People murdered in British Columbia]]
[[Category:Punjabi people]]
[[Category:Sikh terrorism in Canada]]
[[Category:Writers from British Columbia]]
[[Category:Unsolved murders in Canada]]

Tara Singh Hayer - Revision history

>Guavabutter: Added some further information/content with references