BC News

By Jennifer Saltman, The Province

Manjit Panghali’s family and friends burst into tears when a judge found her husband Mukhtiar guilty of killing her and burning her body on a beach off Deltaport Way.

Panghali, 39, was charged with second-degree murder and interference with a dead body.

Justice Heather Holmes delivered her verdict in B.C. Supreme Court in New Westminster Friday.

Manjit disappeared after attending a prenatal yoga class in south Surrey on Oct. 18, 2006. She was four months pregnant with her second child. Her remains were found five days later.

An autopsy determined that the 31-year-old had been strangled to death before her body was set on fire.

Holmes said in her verdict that the Crown’s case was entirely circumstantial.

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By Glenda Luymes, The Province

As she always did, Harpreet Kaur Mann decided to walk home from her evening shift at a Surrey KFC restaurant Thursday rather than trouble someone for a ride.

That simple decision, which family say was characteristic of the 37-year-old mother of two, led to tragedy when a car veered off 80th Avenue, crushing her against a telephone pole.

Family are demanding charges be laid against the 47-year-old woman who lost control of her Toyota Corolla and drove on to the sidewalk, killing Mann.

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By Rochelle Baker, Abbotsford Times

Sucha Singh Thandi gingerly unwraps the tissue paper from around a small, creased black and white photo of an elderly Sikh man sporting thick dark-framed glasses, a turban and a snow-white beard.

Sucha, 77, contemplates the image of his uncle Sundar Singh Thandi, affectionately known to Abbotsford's Sikh pioneer families as taya ji or uncle.

Thandi was critical to the establishment of the historic Gur Sikh Temple on South Fraser Way that celebrates its 100-year anniversary this year.

Yesterday afternoon Mayor George Peary and city council made an extraordinary proclamation to kick off a yearlong celebration of Abbotsford's national historic monument, completed in 1911 by struggling Sikh pioneers.

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Police won't say if 'victim' is under investigation

By Rochelle Baker, Abbotsford Times

Abbotsford police are investigating a fourth suspect following the convoluted kidnapping of a mom and two teenage males in Abbotsford last Friday.

The APD announced Monday that three suspects were no longer in custody after the evidence against them was deemed too circumstantial to proceed with charges.

The trio, who were arrested in a car on Highway 1 shortly after the kidnapping, had previous negative contacts with law enforcement and is still under investigation, according to police.

However, the Abbotsford-Mission Times has learned a fourth suspect also had charges dropped against him.

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Gurjinder Basran takes a fascinating look at realities of growing up Indo-Canadian in North Delta
 
By Tracy Sherlock, Vancouver Sun

Everything Was Good-bye By Gurjinder Basran

Gurjinder Basran knows what it's like to be stuck between two cultures and not feel like part of either one. The first-time novelist writes about her experience growing up as an Indo-Canadian in North Delta in her award-winning novel Everything Was Good-bye. The book's main character, Meena, bears some similarity to Basran, but the novel is a work of fiction.

"We have very similar upbringings, Meena and I. I'm the youngest of six daughters, like Meena, and my father died in a similar way to hers," Basran said. "However, outside of that it's really quite fictional. The part that feels very true to me is the duality, you know living between two cultures and not really fitting, or having a sense of freedom or sense of choice in either of them."

Everything Was Good-bye begins when Meena is in high school, and she's feeling a bit rebellious. Her closest friend is Liam, a Canadian boy with an artistic flair who comes from a troubled home. The friendship causes tension between Meena and her mother, but that ends when Liam leaves town.

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More Articles ...

  1. Two charged in Chilliwack opium poppy bust
  2. Verdict in Panghali murder trial expected in new year
  3. Pregnant teacher beaten before she was killed, court hears
  4. Former Surrey teacher on trial for murdering pregnant wife