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Death puts focus on arranged marriages |
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The issue of people using arranged marriages with Canadians as a means
of gaining entry into the country has been forced into the spotlight
with investigations being launched into two separate cases.
In the more tragic case, Rani Sandhu, a Winnipeg woman who was on
vacation in India with her husband Amandeep Sandhu, died in mysterious
circumstances last week.
The couple had an arranged marriage. Rani's friends and family believe
she was murdered for the gold jewelry she took back to her former
homeland on vacation.
Rani, who immigrated to Canada in 1999, returned to India in December 2003 for an arranged marriage with Sandhu to satisfy the dying wish of her cancer-stricken father, Gurdev Brar. Three months later, she sponsored Sandhu's move to Canada as a landed immigrant.
Nimmi Ramgotra, a Winnipeg businesswoman who used to drive Rani's father to the cancer clinic in Manitoba, said it was not the first time Canadian women of Indian descent had died under suspicious circumstances. She wants the
federal government to put a stop to the practice of men using arranged marriages to enter Canada.
"This has happened so many times. Canadian girls return to India and die mysteriously," Ramgotra said. "Immigration should stop all this nonsense. He only married her to get into this country."
Meanwhile in another case, a Canadian businessman has lodged police reports in India claiming the woman he married used him to get a visa to come to Canada and join her lover.
Satpaul (Steve) Dhaliwal told Indian media that his wife Rukhwant Kaur Toor used him "as a step to land in Canada."
"I am a Canadian citizen and sponsored her. She went to Canada only to be united with her lover, not with her husband," he was quoted as saying in Indian media.
Dhaliwal says he married Rukhwant in India in March 2003. After five days of marriage, he returned to Canada and began the sponsorship process.
He said that 15 months later, Rukhwant telephoned him, telling him that she had arrived in Surrey, BC.
"A few months ago, I received a request for divorce from Rukhwant, who lives with her boyfriend either in Brampton or Toronto."
Dhaliwal alleged that Rukhwant cheated him claiming: "Rukhwant has taken away all the jewelry, her own as well as the ornaments I gave her, the clothes, and the registry of my ancestral home."
"I had relationships with other women in Canada before I married Rukhwant, but my mother wanted me to marry an Indian girl," he adds.
Dhaliwal said he has lodged a complaint with Indian police against his bride and her family, accusing them of cheating him.
It could not be immediately determined if Dhaliwal had lodged a report on his wife with Immigration Canada.
In October 2004, Immigration Canada took an Indian bride to court in Edmonton after she told her new husband she married him for his Canadian citizenship.
Karmjeet Jaswal, an elementary school teacher, was sentenced to four months in jail in Edmonton for communicating false information, in what is believed to be Canada‘s first successful prosecution of a marriage of convenience.
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Newsfile 