Runaway Grooms sues wife and government and immigration

[HoneyBird]

http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1030459--runaway-groom-sues-estranged-wife-government?bn=1
A 31-year-old man in India is suing the Canada Border Services Agency for $10 million, claiming he was pressured to surrender his permanent resident card, landing documents and to leave Canada.

“I was treated very badly . . . I had no choice but to leave Canada,” Manjit Shahi said in a phone interview from Punjab.

He is also suing his estranged wife, Ashpreet Badwal, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney and two former Liberal MPs.

Shahi is the “runaway groom” whose story ignited a maelstrom about fraudulent marriages in the Toronto area last summer.

It started in 2006 when Shahi, who lived in England at the time, met Badwal online. She travelled to India the following year where they married.

Badwal, who lives in Brampton, is 36, five years older than Shahi, has polio and needs a wheelchair.

On returning to Canada, she filed an application to sponsor her husband in March 2008. The application was rejected because of their age difference and compatibility issues, Badwal told the Star last year.

She hired a high-profile Bay Street law firm to fight her case and won on appeal, spending thousands of dollars in the process.

On June 26, 2010, Shahi got his Canadian visa. Two days later, he was on a British Airways flight to Toronto. Badwal said Shahi fled from the airport and she never saw him.

Shahi has always refuted that, reducing it to a he-said, she-said smackdown.

He voluntarily left Canada in December.

In a notice of motion filed in the Federal Court in Toronto last month, Shahi says Border Services Agency officers handcuffed him and detained him for 10 days but never showed any arrest warrants or charges against him.

Shahi said border agents never told him what evidence they had of misrepresentation or fraud.

He said he lost his job because of the detention and didn’t have any money to fight his case.

“I didn’t have a place to stay, food to eat or money for a lawyer,” said Shahi. “I had no choice but to leave.”

Shahi said his permanent resident card and original landing documents were taken from him on Nov. 24. He is asking they be returned.

Shahi, who has also named former Liberal MPs Gurbax Malhi and Ruby Dhalla in the lawsuit, claims they overstepped their jurisdiction when they wrote letters to the immigration minister asking that Shahi be deported.

“There was an election . . . they (Malhi and Dhalla) wanted to impress the Punjabi votebank and made me a scapegoat,” said Shahi.

There was no comment from either the CBSA or Kenney’s office on Monday. Malhi called the notice of motion “unnecessary harassment.”

The claims have not been proven in court and no statement of defence has been filed.

Meanwhile, Badwal, who is aware of the lawsuit, said she is tired of the continuing saga. “Everything he is saying is false . . . all nonsense. I have had enough of him,” she said.

“I wish I’d never married him.”

I just find that this is sooooooooo incredibly funny. Maybe this is a wake up call for the Government in how it treats fraudsters. Cause it seems they have recourse too...

 

[Kedeisha]

wow interesting article

 

[HoneyBird]

http://www.thestar.com/news/article/905962--runaway-groom-returns-to-india
The other side of the story...how can you marry someone and not know they have polio? Sounds fishy

Five months after Manjit Shahi arrived in Canada and allegedly abandoned his new bride, reigniting a maelstrom about fraudulent marriages, he has voluntarily returned to India.

“I am the victim, not her, but because she's in a wheelchair, she got all the sympathy,” Shahi said by phone from Ludhiana, an industrial city in northern India.

“I was never given a chance to tell my side of the story,” he said.

The couple's story, which has more twists and turns than a Bollywood tear-jerker, started in 2006 when Shahi, who then lived in England, met Brampton's Ashpreet Badwal online. In late 2007, Badwal travelled to India; they married.

Badwal is 35, five years older than Shahi, has polio and needs a wheelchair.

Badwal returned to Canada and filed an application to sponsor her husband in March 2008. In December, the application was rejected because of the age difference and compatibility issues, Badwal told the Star. She hired a Bay Street law firm to fight her case and won on appeal.

On June 26, Shahi got his Canadian visa. Two days later, he was on a British Airways flight to Toronto. But Badwal says she never saw him and he fled from the airport.

Fraudulent marriages are not a new phenomenon in the South Asian community; dozens of cases are reported every year where people get married so they can immigrate to Canada, and once here abandon their spouses.

But this case hit a nerve because Badwal uses a wheelchair. She spent thousands of dollars appealing an earlier Citizenship and Immigration decision rejecting her application to sponsor Shahi.

In the ensuing furor in the community, Shahi says nobody cared for his side of the story.

“She never told me she had polio or that she was five years older,” said Shahi, adding that Badwal sent “glamorous photos of herself.”

He says he realized that she had polio on the day of the wedding. “I couldn't have walked out on her . . . I quietly married her and we later had a chat,” he said.

Shahi, his voice choking, said Badwal told him they should stay married so he could come to Canada. “She said I could do anything once I got there,” he said. “We weren't even supposed to meet at the airport that day.”

That's all untrue, says Badwal.

“He always knew that I had polio . . . and there was no such pact,” she said angrily. “He used me to come to Canada and because it didn't go the way he had expected, he's now saying all these things.”

Shahi, meanwhile, says he opted not to stay in Canada after all this bitterness.


Initially, he hired an immigration lawyer to fight his case and even went for a half-dozen interviews with agents of Canadian Border Services Agency. To be deported, he would have had a hearing with the Immigration and Refugee Board. If ordered to leave the country, he would have had the right the appeal.

Shahi says he wasn't up for all that, especially since he didn't have much money to pay his lawyer and was couch-surfing or sleeping in a car.

He surrendered his Permanent Resident card and on early Wednesday morning boarded an Air India flight to New Delhi.

“I want to close this chapter in my life,” he said. “I don't know what I am going to do, even where I'm going to live but anything will be better than what I went through.”

 

[HoneyBird]

THIS GUY HAS NO LEG TO STAND ON..HE ENTERED CANADA UNDER FALSE PRETENSE. HE ADMITS IT HERE:


Shahi, his voice choking, said Badwal told him they should stay married so he could come to Canada. “She said I could do anything once I got there,” he said. “We weren't even supposed to meet at the airport that day.”

HE LIED AT IMMIGRATION..unbelievable. just unbelievable.

 

[Kedeisha]

that's a good catch good eye

 

[HoneyBird]

I don't understand how he doesn't understand that he is the criminal and hence the reason he was treated as such? And why he thinks he is entitled to a permanent residency card although it was under false pretense? This girl paid so much money for review. Yet he sees only his suffering? And his statements that he has nothing to go back to is hogwash. Doesn't he have family in India? Is it only in Canada, a land foreign to him that he can make a living? I am so upset by this....I hope the canadian authorities uses his own words against him as stated in the Newspapers. And God knows how this will affect applications going through...immigration might just tighten and tighten up on real couples. He is directly suing the immigration minister. That is not going to be taken lightly.

 

[canadianwoman]

This is absolutely ridiculous. The government had better not settle with him.
The most ridiculous thing about it is that even if you take his side of the story, and believe him, he was still committing immigration fraud - saying that the two agreed to pretend to be really married so he could come to Canada. That's the best spin he can put on his case. He doesn't even try to pretend it was ever a real marriage, and yet he thinks he should be allowed to come back to Canada or to get compensation!?

 

[Kedeisha]

i fully agree with you 2 he is saying she is seeking sympathy because she is in welfare YET she spent thousands appealing he is ungrateful

 

[HoneyBird]

No i don't think she is on welfare. She is just a polio victim. This case is so horrid. Despicable. What a total rat he is.

 

[Kedeisha]

sorry wheelchair haha this is what i get when i snoop this site on my work dont pay attention when i am writing

 

[dair2dv8103100]

What the hell is so great about Canada?? I mean seriously...life is hard no matter where you go and unless you are completely destitute Canada is no easier than anywhere else.

It blows me away how many people I have talked to in other countries and when I convert the Canadian dollar into their currancy they are all excited .... BUT.... when I then convert my bills, rent, insurance etc into their currancy they are like... WHOA... I think I will just stay here. Also, 43% of our income here (for working people that is) goes to the government in taxes......so sure we are a rich country ... but looking at this you begin to realise why!!

This guy also goes on in the article to say it is better to go back after what he has endured here....well let him go back and appreciate what he has or doesn't have there... I really hope he is not allowed back into Canada.

 

[confusednscared]

My two cents to the moral of this entire story and CIC.

CHC-INDIA still fast tracks Spousal applications in under 6 months (the fastest I have seen in this forum is under 3 months) even though all these bogus marriages coming mainly from India haven't opened their eyes or ring a bell that their Immigration Officers should pay closer attention to these applications and assess them on proper merits - not just Indian boy meets Indian girl and the Bolloywood movie scene kicks off where they live happily ever after - pure BS

These are just a few stories we know of. How many of you have heard personally of people within the Indian community in Canada who still participate in marriages of convenience or do stupid things to get a loved one or family member over to Canada? I think the % of these fake marriages are higher coming from India then any other parts of the world - no stats to back this up - I am not going to say further ...........

 

[Kedeisha]

My two cents to the moral of this entire story and CIC.

CHC-INDIA still fast tracks Spousal applications in under 6 months (the fastest I have seen in this forum is under 3 months) even though all these bogus marriages coming mainly from India haven't opened their eyes or ring a bell that their Immigration Officers should pay closer attention to these applications and assess them on proper merits - not just Indian boy meets Indian girl and the Bolloywood movie scene kicks off where they live happily ever after - pure BS

These are just a few stories we know of. How many of you have heard personally of people within the Indian community in Canada who still participate in marriages of convenience or do stupid things to get a loved one or family member over to Canada? I think the % of these fake marriages are higher coming from India then any other parts of the world - no stats to back this up - I am not going to say further ...........

agreed 100%

 

[HoneyBird]

I have to lean to what Confused is saying...

Do you all recently remember another case involving a canadian indian who told immigration that he was withdrawing sponsorship, but his wife still landed and wanted to remain? She had already gotten the Permanent Residency paperwork when he changed his mind. He said he had fallen in love with someone else. She said, that because her family was unable to pay the dowry $50,000. He had withdrawn. She was adamant about remaining in Canada because she had nothing to go back to. Although we can argue if she had no husband in Canada, then she had nothing to come too...I will look for that case.

 

[HoneyBird]

Got the Case. I remember some group were campaigning for her cause she was a woman in need of protection...



http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/story/2011/03/18/toronto-pakistan-arranged-marriage-pearson.html


A Toronto man who allegedly rejected his Pakistani bride at Pearson Airport says he wanted a divorce and told his wife to stay home.

The woman, Aisha Noor, says her husband, Owais Qurni, told her he was excited about their reunion and didn't learn he was backing away until she had landed.
Aisha Noor says her Pashtun culture will stigmatize her if she returns to Pakistan divorced.Aisha Noor says her Pashtun culture will stigmatize her if she returns to Pakistan divorced. CBC

"I have been crying since I came to Canada," said the 23-year-old, who says she is speaking to highlight the issue of so-called abandoned brides.

Immigration officials have given Noor until Sunday to leave the country.

Qurni and Noor were married in August 2009 during an arranged marriage in Peshawar, Pakistan.

In an email to CBC News, Qurni, 22, said the marriage was never consummated and had only been held to start the immigration process. Noor's visa was issued in January, but Qurni had second thoughts, he wrote.
Conflicting stories

He says he told Noor before she arrived March 4 that the marriage would be a failure because there was no chemistry between them and that they didn't share any interests.

"I decided to back off from this wedding before it was too late and both our lives were further ruined," he wrote. He says he sent the application to withdraw his sponsorship to Noor's father last month.

Qurni says he had no idea Noor was flying to Canada.

"I did not find out that she had landed in Canada until an immigration official contacted me on the phone and confirmed my cancellation of sponsorship, which I confirmed," he wrote. "It was after that that Miss Aisha Noor decided to call me from the airport and asked me to pick her up. This was shocking for me because I advised her against coming because I was not willing to go ahead with preparations anymore."

Noor claims that's not what happened. She says he told her he loved her and couldn't wait for her to arrive.

"His emails, his video chat, I still remember," she said. "That was all fake."

Noor also accuses Qurni of withdrawing her immigration sponsorship because her family refused to pay thousands of dollars. Qurni says those allegations are "completely false."
Couple have not met in Canada

Qurni refuses to see Noor. She says she was never served with divorce papers and can't understand his behaviour.

Noor hopes to stay in Canada because she says she'll be stigmatized in their Pashtun culture if she's forced to go back to Pakistan after a divorce. Qurni admits that divorced women are stigmatized in Pakistan, but says it would be worse for Noor if the marriage had been consummated.

"In that regard her life was not ruined because we had no physical contact whatsoever," he said. Qurni said he only went along with the marriage out of respect for his parents and wants to marry somebody he loves.

Noor hopes that immigration officials will allow her to remain in Canada on compassionate grounds. It can take years for a spouse to be sponsored, but sponsorship can be cancelled in just days, sometimes with just a phone call. Critics say it leaves young brides open to extortion and blackmail.

Shalini Konanur, executive director of the South Asian Legal clinic, said it's up to Canadians "to decide whether we value these women enough even though they're not Canadians, and that we value women in general internationally."

Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said all spouses should check on their sponsorship status before getting on a plane to Canada.