A “systemic collapse” of the Canada Border Services Agency has led to an Indian national having immigration fraud charges against him dropped, with the man now launching a lawsuit against the CBSA alleging his Charter rights were violated.

Gurpreet Singh, 40, was initially found guilty of running an immigration fraud scheme in 2022 by Justice Naheed Bardai. But as he was due to be sentenced, the entire case against Singh was thrown out after his legal team sought a mistrial.

Singh is now suing the Canadian government and seeking permanent residency on humanitarian grounds.

On Wednesday's Buffalo Roundtable livestream, hosts Drea Humphrey and Lise Merle, along with panellists Marc Nixon and Chris Dacey, weighed in on the years long legal saga.

“I hope that this doesn't even waste our courts' time,” Drea said, hoping the case wouldn't be heard. She found it hard to believe Canada would even “entertain this” argument from Singh, comparing his case to those extortion-linked crimes in British Columbia and those involved seeking refugee status.

“It's madness,” she said.

Go Ad Free

Saskatchewan resident Lise said the immigration fraud perpetrated by those like Singh is “well known” in the province. The CBSA investigation revealed the man's laptop “full of fake letters of employment at Sikh temples,” she said, explaining how those letters made their way to people in India who then travelled to Canada.

Independent content creators are sharing stories like this one, raising awareness of the growing issue, said political commentator Marc Nixon.

“Enough is enough,” he said, slamming the federal Liberal government's decision to pursue an appeal of two lower court rulings regarding the Emergencies Act instead of addressing problems like immigration.

Given the man's non-citizen status and appearing to escape legal recourse through a technicality, “I'm just wondering what recourse there is for such things,” independent journalist Chris Dacey said.

“The CBSA officer didn't do anything out of hand, yet this justice can still just dismiss and toss everything,” he said.

“Here you have a bad guy, who was obviously doing bad things, in a country that he probably shouldn't have been in,” added Lise.

“It should preclude him from applying for any kind of official citizenship or residency in Canada. When you're caught doing stuff like this, it should be the next plane out — the end.”