The Leader

To their friends, they were “Manj” and “M.P.” They met at UBC while they were both studying to become teachers.

He was smart, articulate and good with children, and that was appealing to a young woman who had long dreamed of being a mother.

They were both goal-oriented people, a bit driven, but not in a bad way, friends say.

Shortly after they married, for example, they drew up a list of all the countries they wanted to visit. They methodically checked off every one in just a few years.

Manjit was the more outgoing, emotionally expressive member of the partnership, a warmly maternal Martha Stewart type who baked cakes and made elaborate homemade Christmas and birthday cards. She taught at North Ridge Elementary School in Newton.

Mukhtiar was a quiet, hard-working man who worked full-time as a physics teacher at Princess Margaret Secondary School, also in Newton, and ran a small construction business on the side, building and selling new homes, one at a time.