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Wally worries about Fijian community
BC Attorney General Wally Oppal |
In a statement published by the Fijian media outlet, Oppal described the Fiji community in Canada as hard working and dedicated to their society.
He said an average of 41 people a month migrated from Fiji to settle in Canada, mostly in British Colombia.
“I am concerned and will be asking the gang violence taskforce to work with members of the Fiji community to help them overcome their problems,” Oppal said after his meeting with the former business development manager and representative of the Fiji High Commission in Canada, Ashwant Dwivedi.
Dwivedi said the meeting focussed on gangs, guns and drug violence, including two recent killings.
He said it was unfortunate Fiji people were involved with the dregs of society. Dwivedi welcomed Oppal’s commitment to solving the problems, saying the Fiji community in B.C. appreciates any help they receive from the government and law enforcement agencies.
“I have asked the A-G to see to the possibility of providing funding for community projects in the Fiji community so that funding from the provincial government can be directed toward Fiji families who need assistance to send their kids to school,” he said.
“The Fiji residents who died were shot in Surrey, B.C. in two separate gang-related incidents.
“Three victims were known to police and had been previously charged for various criminal activities while one victim was innocent.” Dwivedi said. Christopher Mohan, 22, according to police, “was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
He died in a gangland shooting in a Surrey high-rise apartment on October 19, last year.
A few days later, Ronal Shakeel Raj of Port Moody was shot dead in the front seat of a Mercedes Benz on Vancouver’s Granville Street. Police say the attack was a targeted hit.
Dwivedi also raised concerns about incidents in which women from Fiji were exploited and “abandoned brides in Fiji.”
Oppal said he was aware of the incidents and had asked the federal government to see what could be done about it.
Dwivedi disclosed that some male Canadian citizens visit Fiji, either get engaged or married under a false identification using nicknames, and settle for some time before taking off for good.
“The men just want to have fun during their stay in Fiji where they use and abuse our island girls in the process. They then leave without a trace leaving our women’s future destroyed,” Dwivedi said.
Dwivedi has suggested that the Office of the Registrar for Marriage retain a copy of the passport of those foreign citizens coming to marry in Fiji as reference.
In a recent case, it was confirmed that one man married two different women from Fiji using his two names, his own and a false one.
The man in question stayed with the pair on separate occasions and then disappeared without returning, leaving the two women behind to fend for themselves.
Dwivedi says that those who exploit innocent Fiji women should be brought to justice.
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