Surrey anti-gang ‘visionary,’ filmmaker mourned after lethal dispute with neighbour

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Family and friends of a Surrey filmmaker who devoted his life to placing an finish to gang violence in B.C.’s South Asian neighborhood are pledging to hold on the work within the wake of his demise.

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Karen Reid Sidhu, government director of the Surrey Crime Prevention Society, stated Manbir Amar’s demise has left a big void in gang-prevention efforts amongst South Asian youth.

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“Now we have an obligation to hold on his legacy,” she stated. For near a decade, Sidhu labored alongside Amar to facilitate a youth mentorship program.

“He advised me a narrative as soon as the place he sat in a teen’s bed room whereas his mom quietly retrieved an empty glass of milk. It was situated on a bedstand beside a 9-millimetre handgun however the dad or mum was unfazed,” Sidhu stated. “This actually shocked him.”

Police discovered Amar Wednesday with deadly accidents simply earlier than 2 p.m. at a house on 61 Avenue close to 141 Avenue. He died following a dispute with a neighbour that escalated to violence, stated Sgt. Timothy Pierotti of the Built-in Murder Investigation Crew.

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“This was an remoted incident between two neighbours. Tragically this case escalated to some extent the place a life was taken.”

Whereas a suspect was arrested on-scene Wednesday, prices have but to be laid.

Whereas police investigators have launched little else in regards to the circumstances surrounding Amar’s demise, his neighborhood has began to talk out in regards to the care the daddy, son and good friend confirmed in his activism and relationships.

“Mani touched the lives of many people,” his brother Gurbinder stated in an announcement Friday. “He was a gifted particular person who devoted his life to activism and the humanities. By poetry, prose, philosophy, portray, pictures and filmmaking.”

Amar produced three movies: a brief, a characteristic movie and an award-winning 2009 documentary titled A Warrior’s Faith that offered an inside take a look at gang life in Metro Vancouver’s South Asian communities via dozens of interviews.

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Kal Dosanjh, a former Vancouver Police officer, credit Amar’s work as fuelling an impactful paradigm shift in gang-prevention work within the South Asian neighborhood.

“He was an actual visionary,” stated Dosanjh, who leads in-school shows that encourage youth to avoid gang involvement.

“I bear in mind Mani telling me about how he snuck into Vancouver Common Hospital to interview Bal Bhuttar, a infamous South Asian gangster,” Dosanjh recalled. “He requested Bal what led him down the trail into the world of gangs, Bal advised him about his childhood.

“This precipitated a deep, insightful dive from the South Asian neighborhood to discover the affect that abuse and dysfunction within the family have on pushing children to pursue medicine, gangs and crime.”

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Amar’s characteristic movie, Footsteps Into Gangland, is described on IMDB as “an adaptation of true occasions which have shattered Metro Vancouver’s South Asian neighborhood.”

Lead actor Arvind Johal advised Postmedia that Amar was so passionate to make sure the story got here to life on display screen that he financed the mission himself utilizing private financial institution loans and features of credit score.

“He felt it was the one approach for youth to really feel the affect of the ugliness of what can occur within the gang life-style,” Johal stated.

For years after the movie was launched, in 2011, the actor stated “individuals got here as much as me to say how a lot it affected them … and (made them) rethink their life decisions.”

Amar’s work with weak individuals prolonged past the South Asian neighborhood, to these affected by poverty and substance use dysfunction in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.

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Good friend Ranjit Dhaliwal stated the Surrey resident was identified to frequent shelters and parks and provides out free meals throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

“He requested me to volunteer alongside him at a soup kitchen on East Hastings to assist feed these residing on the road,” Dhaliwal stated. “I used to be scared however due to him I opened my coronary heart and was capable of serve with out judgment.”

Anybody with info is requested to name the IHIT Data Line at 1-877-551-4448 or e-mail ihitinfo@rcmp-grc.gc.ca.

sgrochowski@postmedia.com

twitter.com/sarahgrochowski

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