Web desk
Toronto: Two British Columbia Sikh men, who are on Canada’s no-fly list, have failed in their attempt to get their names emoved from it.
Canada’s Federal Court of Appeal this week rejected the appeal by Bhagat Singh Brar and Parvkar Singh Dulai against the ban.
While Dulai is suspected to be a member of the banned Babbar Khalsa, Brar is the son of a former leader of the International Sikh Youth Federation which is also Canada.
The two men have been on Canada’s no-fly list since 2018 when they denied to board planes in Vancouver.
They are banned from flying under Canada’s Secure Air Travel Act which empowers the country’s public security minister to put individuals on the no-fly list.
Brar and Dulai appealed to the Federal Court of Canada in 2019 to remove their names struck from the no-fly list. But their plea was rejected in 2022.
After this, the two men moved the Federal Court of Appeal.
In its ruling this week, the Federal Court of Appeal said there are “reasonable grounds to suspect they will threaten transportation security or travel by air to commit a terrorism offence.”
The ruling said the two Sikh men tried to fly after the ban.But “they could not. They were on the list and the minister had directed that they not fly.”
The court said the minister “had reasonable grounds to suspect that the appellants would travel by air to commit a terrorism offence.”
Brar and Dulai challenged the ban on them on the grounds that it was violative of their rights and freedoms.
But the court justified the ban.
The court told the two men that the country’s Secure Air Travel Act deals with “national security, international relations and global co-operation to prevent terrorism” and is “not directed to past events that are tangible, certain and known.”
While rejecting their petition in 2022, the Federal Court had said that the Canadian government suspected Brar and Dulai had ties to Sikh extremism and are “very vocal” supporters of Khalistan.
