Public Demands

Law, sanctuary, and the eventual deportation of Laibar Singh

Bibliographic Data

ID12891444
AuthorsBonar Buffam (0000-0002-6690-4956, University of British Columbia, corresponding author)
Year2013
Volume9
Issue1
Pages29-37
Publication date2013-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueSikh Formations (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1744-8727 • E-ISSN: 1744-8735
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/17448727.2013.799728
OpenAlexW2334290943
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited15

In November 2008, Canadian immigration officers affected the deportation of paralysed refugee claimant Laibar Singh. For 15 months, Singh had evaded previous deportation orders by claiming legal sanctuary in gurdwaras across the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, arousing public concerns about the laxity of law. This paper examines the public saga of Singh's deportation to illuminate how law constitutes the secular topography of the public sphere. To explicate the racial relations of scrutiny that govern Sikh and South Asian populations in Vancouver, I analyse a variety of media and legal texts about Singh's continued presence in Canada. By attending to a series of public demands of law made during this stay, this paper illustrates how law figures as both a conduit and arbiter of divergent public sentiments about migration, religion, and political dissent

Criminology · Deportation · Immigration · Immigration law · Plaintiff · Political science · Politics · Public sphere · Refugee · Scrutiny · Sociology · Law · Migration, Refugees, and Integration · North African History and Literature · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies

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