Airport taxi drivers wait at the feeder station, which is where they stand by before they are called to the taxi stand to pick up passengers at the Edmonton International Airport on April 16, 2012. Photograph by: Ed Kaiser , edmontonjournal.com

Taxi drivers offered chance to train for transit jobs
By Elise Stolte, edmontonjournal.com April 16, 2012

(…)
EDMONTON – Two-hundred and fifty Leduc-based Airport Taxi drivers are losing their jobs at the airport, but might get the chance to drive public transit buses or work as cab drivers in the city.

Coun. Amarjeet Sohi said the City of Edmonton has agreed to cover the fees for drivers to attend a transit operators preparation course at NorQuest College. Letters inviting them to sign up are being sent out this week.

“The success rate from that course is phenomenal,” Sohi said. “People graduate from that training program, the majority of them are able to get employment with transit authorities.”

Other drivers might be able to get jobs with Airport Taxi’s new Edmonton-based blue fleet — the royal blue-coloured cabs parked at their new stand in front of the Crown Plaza Hotel downtown — or with other Edmonton taxi brokers.

They can take night shifts driving other cab owners’ cars in Edmonton, said Sohi. “There’s a commitment from the brokers to accommodate whoever wants to work in the industry.”

Crown says woman’s two other marriages linked to immigration scheme

By JENNIFER SALTMAN, The Province

Ranjit Singh realized his marriage was a sham on his wedding night.

Renbinder Kandola, the first husband of Jotika Ashni Reddy, leaves BC Sumpreme Court in New Westminster on Tuesday, April 03, 2012 after taking the stand. Reddy is charged with four counts related to a marriage of convenience scheme. She allegedly married two men while already married to Kandola.

When it came time to go home after the reception, he said he was told that his new wife, Jotika Reddy, would not be going with him.

“I felt quite taken aback,” Singh testified through an interpreter Tuesday at Reddy’s B.C. Supreme Court trial.

Reddy has pleaded not guilty to two counts of knowingly misrepresenting or withholding material facts under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act and two counts of bigamy in connection with an alleged marriage scheme.

Singh testified that his marriage to Reddy was arranged by an immigration consultant in September 2006. Singh said he planned to apply for refugee status but was persuaded that marriage was a better option.

Singh paid the consultant $9,000, which he thought was for the wedding and other expenses.

He met his bride two days before the ceremony. Singh said he felt “OK” after the meeting because arranged marriages are not unusual in Indian culture.

By Jonathan Hamelin, Leader-Post

gggg

After a month of appealing a Canadian immigration mix-up, one Regina resident will now have her mother’s support as her first child is born  and for a long time after.

Liza Parekh and her husband are originally from India, but have lived in Regina since 2010. With the couple expecting its first baby in April, and Parekh battling gestational diabetes, she wanted her mother by her side.

Her mother applied for a Super Visa, a new option for visitors to Canada  announced in November  that would allow them to travel in and out of Canada and visit their family over a period of 10 years, with each stay lasting two years. Her mother completed the process but, when she showed up at the border on Feb. 18, border officials granted her only a sixmonth stay.

Born in Canada, government wants him sent to India

By Gary Dimmock, Ottawa Citizen

An Ottawa-born thief is taking the federal government to court to fight a deportation order.

Deepan Budlakoti’s lawyer has filed a motion seeking a hearing in Federal Court with the hopes his client won’t be deported to India.

The Tory government in June issued the deportation order against Budlakoti, who is the son of one-time domestic servants employed by the High Commission of India.

Budlakoti, who born at the old Grace Hospital in 1989, has always believed he was Canadian. So did his parents.

So much so that when his parents won citizenship in 1997, they did not make an application for him.

In fact, his father, who is now a hospital janitor, wrote on his application back then that his son was already a Canadian because he was born here, according to government files obtained by the Citizen.

Uncertain future for kids of Surrey woman murdered overseas

By Kevin Diakiw – Surrey North Delta Leader

With their mother murdered and father in a Dutch prison, three Surrey kids whose visas are about to run out are facing an uncertain future.

Kamaljit Kaur flew to her former home in The Hague in January to tidy up some post-divorce matters, such as the sale of her car and house.

Her body was found Feb. 1 in the living room of her Netherlands home.

Her estranged husband in is jail after being arrested for an alleged assault on Kaur last year.

Meanwhile, Kaur’s body is being flown back to Surrey Friday for a Saturday funeral.

Kaur’s 14-year-old daughter Preet, and sons Goldy, 12 and Sunny, 5, are now staying in Newton with Kaur’s mother Gurbax, but their status in this country is in question.

Charan Gill, CEO of Progressive Intercultural Community Services (PICS), has been asked to help the family “navigate the system,” and has begun to raise funds for the funeral services and the cost of the children’s continued care.

Trial Date Set in Coalhurst Stabbing Death

Bryan Jeannotte Monday, February 13th 2012 11:48

Dhillon, glad to be in Canada

A new trial date has been set for a former Lethbridge man who’s charged with second degree murder.

A new trial date has been set for a former Lethbridge man who’s charged with second degree murder in relation to an incident in Coalhurst over a year ago. Harpal Singh Dhillon is charged in connection with the death of 21 year old Jiwanjoyt Ghai, who was stabbed to death outside the Coalhurst Community Centre in November, 2010. Two weeks have now been set aside for the trial that’s scheduled to start on December 10th. -