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Indian community newspapers and websites are buzzing after a major newspaper ran the story of a Sikh immigrant whose application to let his new wife join him in Canada was rejected because the couple looked "too stiff" in their wedding pictures.
The Vancouver Sun reported that Parminder Singh Pannu, 55, was left frustrated after spending three years and over $50,000 on legal bills and trips to India in a failed bid to bring his wife to Canada.
Pannu married 36-year-old Ranjit in India in November 2002, some three years after his first wife Anupinder died of cancer.
The Delta resident, who has lived in Canada for 35 years, says the federal immigration department rejected his application, calling the marriage bogus.
"I have worked hard in this country for 35 years. I have never broken the law or committed fraud. Why would I do this?" Pannu was quoted as saying in the Sun.
Pannu said he began thinking of a second marriage at the urging of his three children, who knew how much he had suffered in recent years. After from losing his first wife to breast cancer at 43, he had almost died himself when he was sliced from head to hip by a dagger at Surrey's Guru Nanak temple during a protest by fundamentalist Sikhs six years ago.
Pannu told the Sun he learned of Ranjit through an old family friend. He went to India, met her, became engaged and married the childless divorcee in front of 150 people.
As soon as he returned to Canada, he applied for her to join him.
However his application was repeatedly rejected by Canadian officials.
"Your marriage is not genuine and was entered into primarily for the purpose of acquiring permanent residence in Canada," a 2005 rejection letter states.
But Pannu told the Sun he has spent more than $50,000 on legal bills and trips back to Punjab to be with his wife over the last three years.
"Why would someone do that if it is not real?" he asked. "I am willing to put up a bond to support her for 10 years if necessary. She will not be a burden to Canada."
Pannu showed the newspaper documents he says proves his marriage is legitimate. He also has years' worth of phone bills showing he calls his wife three times a week, often talking for more than an hour. Ranjit writes him letters at least twice a month.
There are many photographs of the pair together and hotel receipts from their trips to Delhi to visit the Canadian High Commission.
One of the government rejection letters said the pair looks too stiff in some pictures to be a real married couple, the Sun reported.
Pannu and Ranjit "do not depict the comfort level that is visible in photographs of a married couple. You and [Pannu] look distant and aloof in the photographs," said the letter signed by Heather Dube, a first secretary at the high commission in Delhi.
Family friend and community activist Gurnam Singh Sanghera told the newspaper the comment is outrageous and shows the Canadian official does not understand Sikh culture, in which public shows of affection are not typical.
"I have probably never hugged my wife in public," Sanghera said. "How can they tell this from a picture? Are they psychic?"
Pannu has launched another appeal to Ottawa to allow his wife to come.
His 23-year-old daughter Darpan, a social worker, said she feels her dad is being treated like a second-class Canadian, which the family feels is unfair.
"It is frustrating because we know who he is. My dad raised us to be good citizens and to be honest. Now they are treating him like he is a liar."
Pannu's plight has struck a chord with the Indian immigrant community across Canada, with several newspapers carrying the Sun report. Indian expatriate-related websites have also featured the story.
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Newsfile 
