Dhalla accuses rival of having inappropriate access to immigration minister

Ruby Dhalla, Liberal MP for Brampton?Springdale, in June 2009

BRAMPTON, Ont. - Liberal candidate Ruby Dhalla is urging the auditor general to investigate the Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration over allegations that her Conservative rival has inappropriate access to Minister Jason Kenney. At a news conference Wednesday, Dhalla accused Conservative candidate Parm Gill of trying to buy votes by offering to help residents of the Brampton-Springdale riding obtain visas for their family members. "No political party in our country should be utilizing the Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration for the purpose of buying ethnic votes," Dhalla said. "This is a new low for Canadian democracy. It speaks and smells of corruption, it speaks and smells of fraud." A Gill campaign spokesperson declined comment when contacted by The Canadian Press. A call to Kenney's office wasn't immediately returned. Dhalla alleges that Gill, an unelected candidate, has set himself up as Kenney's official delegate on visas. Brampton-Springdale has a large South Asian population, and Dhalla says immigration is a central issue in the area. But although she says she has been hearing "whispers" about the allegations in the community for some time, as of yet, no one has come forward to say Gill offered to assist them. "There is a great culture of fear, of intimidation," Dhalla told reporters. "Individuals that have been helped are fearful that if they come forward they will put their own particular files in jeopardy." Kenney told the CBC the allegations are ridiculous and said residents may be turning to Gill because they're not getting the help they need from the incumbent Dhalla. She denies this accusation, countering that she has helped thousands of people. Dhalla urged people who have been offered help by Gill's office to "be brave" and come forward with information. "I think the Prime Minister needs to start asking his Conservative candidates very serious questions," she said.

Bio: Ruby Dhalla
Ruby Dhalla may have caught the “political bug” as a young child, but she likely had no idea just how messy political life could get. Despite a number of recent controversies, the Liberal MP is in a tight race to keep her Brampton-Spingdale seat. Dhalla was born in 1974, and raised in a poor neighbourhood in Winnipeg, Man., by a single mother who had arrived from Punjab, India, two years before. Her mother worked as a bookkeeper and child care worker to raise Dhalla and her brother Neil, and made the children watch the news on television each night before going to bed. At the age of ten, Dhalla saw a news report about the massacre at the Golden Temple in Amritsar, India, and was captivated by the report. She wrote a letter to the late prime minister of India Indira Gandhi, urging her to pursue a peaceful solution. Two weeks after the letter was sent, Dhalla received a personalized letter from Gandhi, inviting Dhalla to visit India. Dhalla and her family were in London en route to India to visit Gandhi when she was assassinated in New Delhi on October 31, 1984. Dhalla credits the entire experience as being the catalyst of her interest in politics. Dhalla was student body president in both junior high and in high school. At the age of 12, she participated in a program called Forum for Young Canadians, which required that she get a $100 donation from her local MP. She went to visit MP David Walker, who agreed to provide the donation, on the condition that Dhalla volunteer for the Liberal party. Every Saturday for the next year, Dhalla volunteered her time for the party by answering phones and attending events. She volunteered for David Walker’s campaign to win the parliamentary seat for Winnipeg North Centre in 1988, and became an active member of the Young Liberals.

Academic career
She started her studies at the University of Winnipeg, but her academic career was briefly sidetracked while on a natural sciences scholarship exchange at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ont. Dhalla began to work as a model, and finished second in the Miss India Canada pageant in 1993. She returned to Manitoba and graduated from the University of Winnipeg in 1995 with a degree in biochemistry with a minor in political science. She moved back to Toronto and obtained her Doctor of Chiropractic medicine in 1999, before opening a number of chiropractic clinics in the GTA with her brother. But Dhalla was again drawn to pursue modelling and acting. She appeared in a Hindi film made in Hamilton in 2003 called Kyon Kis Liye (Why? And for Whom?). She continued to model, and appeared in television commercials. In 2004, then Prime Minister Paul Martin approached Dhalla and asked her to represent the Liberals in the next election. She accepted, and won the Brampton-Springdale seat, becoming the first Sikh woman in the House of Commons.

Controversy
Dhalla had her first taste of controversy on a trip to India in January 2008. Two children were beaten by police after an aide’s purse was stolen, and the Indian media portrayed Dhalla as uncaring. Dhalla responded with a statement condemning violence. In March of 2009, Dhalla was attempting to block sales of DVD copies of her movie Kyon Kis Liye, saying her face was placed on someone else’s body in the movie’s publicity material. The producer of the film, an auto body shop owner in Hamilton, countered with a claim that Dhalla had conspired to alter scenes from pirated copies of the DVD to remove scenes she didn’t like. Then another controversy hit Dhallas’s career: allegations that she illegally hired and employed three foreign caregivers in her family’s home in Mississauga, Ont. Dhalla resigned as Critic for Youth and Multiculturalism, and appeared before the Commons immigration committee to defend herself. She claimed the allegations are part of a conspiracy to end her political career. Dhalla wants a judge to force a nanny who claims she was exploited while working at their Mississauga home to accept a $5,000 payment and a gag order not to talk about the deal.The nanny, Richelyn Tongson, has refused to sign the court papers, saying it would stop her from "ever discussing what happened to me while working for the Dhallas and the horrid things which I had been forced to endure in that household."The case returns to court on Monday. Meanwhile, the MP finds herself in another tight race for the Brampton-Springdale seat that she won by a narrow margin in 2008 - fewer than 800 votes. Her opponent, Tory Candidate Parm Gill, has already put Dhalla on the offensive.
A newspaper report from India alleged Dhalla had billed a local Indian government thousands of dollars in expenses during a recent visit as a guest of the state. Federal Conservatives called the media suggest they write a story.The MP defended the January trip, explaining that she was invited to give a keynote speech at a conference and had used the opportunity to promote new business ties in the emerging economy for her constituents.