Daughter-in-law, friend dispute official claim Sgro's accuser
was a no-show

TORONTO, January 22, 2005
CP

Testimony at a detention hearing Friday for the man who accused former immigration minister Judy Sgro of influence-peddling contradicted earlier statements by officials who said he failed to report to authorities as required.

Immigration officers arrested Harjit Singh late last month because they said he had violated his monthly reporting conditions, but he argues he did report and that his detention is unwarranted.

Singh, 49, maintains he was only arrested and ordered deported because Sgro wanted him out of the country. He claims Sgro feared exposure over having promised him he could stay in Canada if he helped her election campaign.

Sgro resigned last week, but called the allegations outrageous.

In support of Singh's claim, his daughter-in-law testified Friday she was "certain" she was with him at the Immigration reporting office on Dec. 6.

"My father-in-law passed the sign-in sheet to the lady that was behind the glass," Harkamal Virk told the hearing.

"She took the sheet. She held onto the sheet."

Virk's account sharply contradicts evidence from Elaine McPherson-Porter, who testified Thursday that she took the sheet, initialled it and returned it right away to the man in front of her.

The immigration enforcement assistant said it was only then that she realized from a photograph that the person at the counter was not Singh, but a man later identified from another photograph as his son, who is married to Virk.

McPherson-Porter admitted she was wrong to have initialled the sheet before verifying the identity of the bearer, but said she didn't ask for it back because she didn't want to alert the man that anything might be wrong.

Virk said her husband was at the family-run Pizza Market that day and requested Immigration video-surveillance tape be produced.

"It provides the proof that my father-in-law and I were present on that date," Virk said.

Frederica Douglas, who is chairing the detention review, said lawyers involved could view the tape, but agreed with a government request not to make it public for privacy reasons.

That decision prompted a challenge from two Media outlets, which Douglas said she would hear Tuesday when the hearing resumes.

Virk also offered all her savings of $3,500 as surety if Singh was released pending his deportation to India, now scheduled for Feb. 2.

The issue of whether he reported Dec. 6 is of special concern to his friend Harinder Brar, a limousine airport driver who makes $45,000 a year.

Brar has forfeited $30,000 in surety on the basis that Singh violated his reporting conditions.

He testified Friday that he drove Singh and Virk to the Immigration centre near the airport.

"I dropped him off in front of the doors," Brar said.

Brar, who is now fighting to have his surety restored, said he "never had any doubts" Singh was meeting his release requirements

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