'Imprisoned in my own home': Sikh activists claim India is using no-fly list to harass them

At one point during Parvkar Singh Dulai's six-year legal battle to get off Canada's no-fly list, a federal court judge asked the B.C. man why he wouldn't simply meet with Indian officials to say, "I'm not a terrorist."

Dulai, an outspoken champion of an independent Sikh homeland, claimed an "elected Canadian official" had told him a sit-down with India's national security advisor at the country's consulate in Vancouver could make all his troubles go away.

It was a prospect Dulai — who was born and raised in Surrey, B.C. — said he found chilling.

"I mean, our system is being manipulated by Indian officials for anyone that is speaking out against India," he told judge Simon Noël.

"And me being a Canadian in Canada, being a champion of human rights, of freedom of speech, I don't think I should have to meet a foreign official to settle issues in Canada ... That scares me."

Listing based on flimsy evidence, men say

Dulai and fellow Sikh activist Bhagat Singh Brar have been unable to fly since 2018. The two men are now taking their fight with Canada's public safety minister to the country's top court. 

Dulai and Brar — who are also business partners — want the Supreme Court of Canada to overturn a decision made under the Secure Air Travel Act after the minister decided there were "reasonable grounds to suspect" they would travel by air to commit a terrorist offence.

The men claim the listing has upended their lives — denying them rights guaranteed under Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms and placing them in danger by publicly branding them as terrorists — and that it's based on flimsy evidence, only some of which has been publicly disclosed.

It's a case that could have implications for the way Canada's no-fly list operates — one given new significance in light of recent accusations India has supported a campaign of violence against its enemies on Canadian soil.

Dulai and Brar declined to comment on the case itself while the Supreme Court of Canada considers their application for leave to appeal, but their lawyers gave CBC News a statement noting both men have "consistently denied the allegations against them and the validity of their listings."

"To this day, they do not know the substance of some of the allegations against them or the source of many of the allegations," the statement reads.

"Recently, the Canadian government has alleged foreign interference and violence by the Indian government against Sikh activists in this country. These allegations are consistent with criminal proceedings in both the United States and Canada, including for the killing of [Sikh activist Hardeep Singh] Nijjar."

Brar and Dulai's lawyers said both men have received warnings from police in recent years that their safety could be in danger.

"This risk was considered sufficiently serious that [B.C.'s] Ministry of Children and Family Development invoked a safety plan that required Mr. Dulai to be separated from his child for the duration of the threat," the statement reads.

Public Safety Canada would not comment while the case is before the courts.

In a statement, the agency said the no-fly list "is reviewed every 90 days to determine whether the grounds for which each person's name was added to the list still exist and whether the person's name should remain on the list."

List of names handed to prime minister

CBC News has reviewed hundreds of pages of documents and transcripts from Brar and Dulai's unsuccessful appeals in both Federal Court and the Federal Court of Appeal.

At both levels, the men denied supporting terrorism or advocating violence to achieve political ends; they maintained their belief India was using Canada's no-fly list to attack them.

"I feel like I'm being followed. I feel like I'm in danger. I'm constantly looking over my shoulder. I mean, it's exhausting. It's mentally tiring and it's frustrating," Brar said during his testimony in April 2022.

"I've heard stories about how India operates, especially in countries outside India when they don't have their way and, I mean, anything can happen ... I feel like I'm imprisoned in my own home."

According to trial transcripts, the men date their troubles back to February 2018 when their names allegedly appeared on a list handed by a high-ranking Indian official to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during a state visit to India.

The list — as reported by Indian media — identified nine Canadians accused of agitating for a separate Sikh homeland within India known as Khalistan. The list also reportedly included Nijjar, who was shot outside a Surrey, B.C., temple last year.

Trudeau has since linked Nijjar's killing to Indian agents, and four Indian nationals are facing charges of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder in the death. 

India has denied any complicity in the killing.

Months after Trudeau allegedly received the list, Brar and Dulai found themselves barred from flying — the result of conclusions drawn from travel, work and family histories, Canadian and Indian media articles, and allegations arising from Canadian Security Intelligence Service investigations.

'I'm retweeting and that's a crime?'

Dulai was born in Canada, whereas Brar arrived with his mother and younger sister in 1987, landing first in B.C. before moving to Brampton, Ont., where he built a car rental company that includes a Richmond, B.C., location co-owned with Dulai — who is also one of the owners of Channel Punjab.

According to court documents, Dulai studied at the Justice Institute of B.C. after graduating from high school, initially pursuing a career as a private eye.

The dossier against him notes Dulai's work as an investigator for renowned B.C. lawyer Richard Peck as part of the team that won an acquittal for Ajaib Singh Bagri, one of two men charged in the 1985 Air India bombings that killed 329 people.

It also cites media articles from 2007, when Dulai was newly installed as a leader of Surrey's Vaisakhi parade the year an event float was found to include a picture of Talwinder Singh Parmar — a B.C. resident slain in India in 1992 who was credited with masterminding the Air India attacks.

In a Globe and Mail article titled "Terrorist or Freedom Fighter," Dulai was quoted explaining why people who "stood up against state oppression" in India might be viewed as "martyrs."

In his federal court testimony, Dulai said he didn't know the photograph of Parmar was going to be included as part of a display that had been inspected by RCMP and city bylaw officials.

"There was never a float — this is the miscommunication I'm talking about — ever attributed to Mr. Parmar," Dulai told Judge Noël in federal court.

"There is a float they put up of Sikh martyrs and then that year there was a picture of Mr. Parmar on that float, but there were probably 70 pictures of people that were killed during the Sikh genocide period, so the float wasn't attributed to him."

Dulai also admitted to meeting Sikh activist Jagtar Singh Johal in 2016, a year before the U.K. man was arrested in India and charged with conspiracy to murder in a case which has drawn international attention over allegations of arbitrary detention and torture.

Part of the evidence against Dulai is his retweet of a post in which Punjabi singer and actor Diljit Dosanjh said he was "saddened to hear the reports of the torture of Jagtar Singh Johal ... every person has the right to a fair trial."

"I'm retweeting and that's a crime? You know, I've been chosen to be put on this list," Dulai testified.

"If this is what's there, it's scary. I mean, I wouldn't recommend any Canadian now to speak their mind. It's scary because you can get put on a no-fly list."

'Easy target because of my family background'

Key to the allegations against Brar is his relationship with his father, who was one of the leaders of the International Sikh Youth Federation (ISYF), a group listed since 2003 in Canada as an illegal terrorist organization.

The dossier against Brar cites confidential sources who identified him as the youth leader of the ISYF in Canada and claimed he was plotting a terrorist attack that saw him travel to India to train two youths, who accused him of teaching them how to use weapons.

Brar denied having a role in the ISYF or any terrorist plot. He claimed he had not travelled to India and had never met the youths who pointed a finger at him.

Like Dulai, he said he had travelled to Pakistan a number of times to visit Sikhism's holy sites. Brar also admitted visiting his father in Islamabad while he was recovering from heart surgery in April 2018 — shortly before he was placed on the no-fly list.

Brar believes his name was added to the list allegedly given to Trudeau because of his role as a director for the Ontario Gurdwara Committee when the group banned Indian consulate officials from attending gurdwaras in their official capacities in early 2018.

A news release issued at the time with Brar's name on it accused the officials of collecting information about people who were openly expressing support for Khalistan with a view to denying them visas.

"So, I think this press release or this ban that was imposed on the Indian officials really kind of stung the Indian government and then they started going after whoever was involved in it," Brar testified in federal court.

"I believe I was an easy target because of my family background, because of my father and, therefore, they went after me pretty hard and I'm facing the consequences right here."

'No such thing in this country as a thought crime'

The proceedings to date have taken place in two phases: Dulai and Brar's lawyers represented the two men in open court; then so-called amici curiae (Latin for "friends of the court") spoke for the public at hearings held in private to protect confidential sources and national security.

At the Federal Court of Appeal, the amici curiae — lawyers Colin Baxter and Gib van Ert — questioned both the application of the Secure Air Travel Act and the listing of Brar and Dulai.

They accused the Public Safety Minister of drawing on "after-the fact" evidence to "backfill" decisions that spoke more to a "vibe" than suspicions connected to specific offences.

"The allegations presented ... may be reasonable grounds to suspect Mr. Brar of being a bad man," their argument reads.

"But the Secure Air Travel Act does not empower the minister to list people for being bad."

Likewise, the amici curiae claimed the "point" of dredging up old allegations against Dulai and the Vaisakhi parade from 2007 seemed to be "to paint Mr. Dulai as a Sikh radical."

Even if Dulai were a Sikh radical, Baxter and van Ert wrote, the Secure Air Travel Act "would not, without more, permit his listing" on the no-fly list.

"There is no such thing in this country as a thought crime," they added.

'A possibility, but not necessarily a probability'

In his Federal Court rulings, Noël contrasted the "lower standard" threshold for the no-fly list — "reasonable grounds to suspect" —  with the "reasonable and probable grounds to believe" a crime has or is about to be committed that police need to arrest an accused.

"Such a threshold implies that the evidentiary record must show grounds that are more than mere suspicion and less than belief, and it must be based on objective evidence that suggests a possibility, but not necessarily a probability," Noël wrote.

By that standard, the judge concluded that the decisions were reasonable. He also claimed neither the public nor the confidential evidence pointed to "political interference" from Trudeau's visit to India and the list reportedly containing their names.

Both the federal and appeal courts also rejected challenges related to Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms: Dulai claimed his right to mobility was breached and both men claimed they were denied the opportunity to know — and challenge — the full case against them.

The Appeal Court judges recognized the "sky-high" stakes involved in trying to prevent the "very real risks of harm to property, public safety and human life" represented by terrorism.

"Imaginings, musings, hunches, speculations or guesses, educated or otherwise, do not meet the standard," they concluded.

"Rather, the standard is met through evidence and inferences drawn from evidence that create a constellation of objective, discernable and ascertainable facts."

'I feel betrayed'

The first Federal Court ruling was handed down in August 2022, less than a year before Hardeep Singh Nijjar's death.

The Appeal Court ruled in June 2024, a month after charges were announced in relation to Nijjar's death, which Trudeau has publicly accused India of orchestrating.

Ottawa has since expelled six senior diplomats and RCMP have accused Indian government agents of involvement in "widespread violence" within Canadian borders — echoing allegations Brar and Dulai made in their federal court testimony.

Without citing any names, Dulai claimed a Canadian politician urged him to make peace with India.

"I've been pressured, saying, 'Hey, why don't you sit down with them? They'll let you go to India,'" he told Noël.

"This is a Canadian elected official. I mean, our system is being manipulated by Indian officials for anyone that is speaking out against India to go sit with the Indian consulate."

How — if at all — recent events might play into further legal proceedings is hard to predict. The Supreme Court of Canada won't likely decide for months whether to hear Brar and Dulai's appeals.

But in their conclusions, the Appeal Court judges hit on an element of the case that inadvertently speaks to the shifting nature of Canada's relationship with India when it comes to applying laws like the Secure Air Travel Act — which is meant to protect citizens of both countries.

"All recognize that future harm may be better defined by new information. All can be based on security information that, by its nature, is ever-evolving," the judges said.

"This works both ways: the new evidence can enhance the state's case or weaken it."

At the end of both Brar and Dulai's testimony, their lawyers asked them to describe the psychological impacts of being identified as a terrorist.

"It's saddening, it's frustrating, and yeah, I feel betrayed," Dulai said. "I don't think Canada thinks I'm doing this. I know they're getting it through someone."

Brar said he felt "stupid."

"I feel ashamed. I mean, here's the country I've been living in for 35 years. I have not committed any crime whatsoever. I mean, the worst I've done is gotten a parking ticket or a speeding ticket and I'm labelled a terrorist," he said.

"That's all I can say. It's just frustrating."