The Unsolved Mystery Of Hayer

Henry Anatole Grunwald once said- “Journalism can never be silent: that is its greatest virtue and its greatest fault. It must speak, and speak immediately, while the echoes of wonder, the claims of triumph, and the signs of horror are still in the air.” But everyone pays a price- be it for silence or noise. How much price did he pay for it?

An Incentive To Kill?; Image Source: CJFE

We often say that work is worship. But what happens when our profession is the biggest threat to our life? The profession of journalism is considered to be one of the most dangerous jobs of all. While bringing out the truth in front of people is the most important task of a journalist, this very truth lands them in neck-deep trouble. We have often come across news items where we hear about journalists being threatened, kidnapped, or murdered. But why are the bearers of truth under such threat? How can we expect a country to be democratic where journalists are not given the freedom of expression?

One such man from the land of five rivers too showed courage by raising his voice against fundamentalist violence and terrorism. A key witness in the trial of the Air India Flight 182 Bombing, his unstoppable courage came to an abrupt halt when his life was brutally ended so that the light of truth never shines. But how did this start? How did a man from Punjab land into the world of trouble and unexpected deaths? Let’s find out.

Born in a small village of Punjab, Tara emigrated to Canada in 1970. Surviving on some menial jobs like mining, teaching, truck-driving**,** and managing a ****truck firm, he went on to work as a journalist for some years before setting up his community newspaper called the Indo-Canadian Times in 1978. Slowly and steadily with time, the Indo-Canadian Times proved to be one of the most popular, widespread, and oldest Punjabi newspapers to be in circulation in Canada and entire North America.

An ardent supporter of truth and justice, Hayer always tried to showcase the tension between the Government of India and Sikhs. Sikhs all around the world wanted the Government of India to give a separate country status to Punjab, which would be called Khalistan. Singh too supported the Khalistanis and their demand to create a separate nation for the Sikhs. However, with the constant attacks by the Khalistani extremists against the innocent ones and the ferocious bomb attack of Air India Flight 182, Tara did not support the promotion of Khalistan through violent means. After the Air India bombing, he also came into direct contact with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.

Hayer’s involvement in these controversial matters put his life in danger when in 1986, a bomb was implanted in a McDonald’s bag on the front porch of his house.

Two years after this incident, Tara wrote something in the editorial section of his newspaper that changed his life forever. He revealed all the bits and pieces of the conversation that he had heard in the office of the Punjabi language newspaper Des Pardes that revealed the real culprit behind the attack. Soon after publishing this, Hayer was shot in his office by Harkirat Singh Bagga.

Little did Singh know that this was not the last attack or perhaps he did. A week before his death, he said, “If they get me, they get me. There’s nothing I can do and I’m not going to stop my work.”

On the dreadful day of 18 November 1998, Hayer was shot while he was coming back to his house from his office. He was gunned while he was trying to transfer himself from his car to the wheelchair.

There are speculations that police had not given adequate protection to Hayer and they also mismanaged the case by declaring that there was no link between Tara’s death and the Air India bombing. Though the case was reopened later, no one could ever find the mystery behind Hayer’s death.

Though Singh lived a life full of dangerous twists and turns and never got the chance of getting proper recognition for his work, after his death, the Canadian government renamed the Press Freedom Award as Tara Singh Hayer Press Freedom Award. The Canadian Journalists for Free Expression also introduced an award titled Tara Singh Hayer Award for Bravery in Journalism.