Ujjal Dosanjh

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Preceded by
Dan MIller

33rd Premier of British Columbia
February 24, 2000 – June 5, 2001

Succeeded by
Gordon Campbell

• WikiTree Free Space Page: Family of Ujjal Dosanjh

Biography

Ujjal Dosanjh was born in India

Ujjal Dosanjh served as the 33rd premier of British Columbia from 2000 to 2001 and as a Liberal Party of Canada member of Parliament from 2004 to 2011. He served as Minister of Health from 2004 until 2006, when his party was in power, and then served in the Official Opposition from January 2006 until 2011.

Childhood in India

Ujjal Dosanjh was born 9 Sep 1947, in Dosanjh Kalan, a village in Jalandhar, Punjab, India, less than a month after Colonial India gained its independence from the British. Shortly after his birth, his family moved to the village of his grandfather, Jarnail Moola Singh Bains, a former British Raj freedom fighter and socialist who had spent eight years in prison for his political activities. He now ran a primary school he had established. Ujjal gained an early interest in politics from listening to debates between his grandfather and father, who was a follower of Jawaharlal Nehru and the Indian National Congress.

United Kingdom Years

In 1964, at the age of 17, Ujjal left India for the United Kingdom with the intended purpose of enrolling in an electrical engineering college in London. Relatives and former fellow villagers living in London initially gave him shelter and helped him find in a succession of low-level jobs: in a railway yard, in a crayon factory, and as a lab assistant running a projector. But none of these jobs enabled him to pay tuition fees. Discouraged after three-and-a-half years in London, he decided to move to Canada.

Early Years in Canada

In 1968, Ujjal emigrated to British Columbia, Canada, where he lived with an aunt in Vancouver (his mother's sister who had moved to Canada in 1954). His aunt and her husband sponsored him as a landed immigrant and found him work in a sawmill. By 1976, he had completed a BA in Political Science from Simon Fraser University, and had graduated from the University of British Columbia Faculty of Law. He was called to the bar the following year. During this time he taught English as a second language courses at Vancouver Community College and worked as an assistant editor of a local Punjabi newspaper. In 1979, Ujjal established his own law practice, specializing in family and personal injury law.

Ujjal's involvement with community organizations included founding the Farm Workers’ Legal Information Service (later Canadian Farm Workers' Union), serving on the board of directors for BC Civil Liberties Association and the Vancouver Multicultural Society, and the Labour Advocacy Research Association, as well as volunteer work with MOSAIC Immigrant Services Centre, and the South Vancouver Neighbourhood House.

A prominent moderate Sikh in Vancouver, Ujjal often spoke out against violence by Sikh extremists who advocated Khalistani independence from India. As a result of these views, in February 1985 he was attacked in the underground parking lot of his law office by an assailant wielding an iron bar. Ujjal, 37 at the time, suffered a broken hand and received 80 stitches in his head.

In 1979 and 1983, Ujjal ran unsuccessfully as the British Columbia New Democratic Party candidate in the Vancouver South riding provincial elections.

Ujjal and his wife Rami had been booked to fly to Delhi on Air India's tragic flight 182 in June 1985, along with their three sons. This was the flight carrying 329 passengers and crew that was blown up over the Atlantic by a bomb that terrorists had placed on board in Vancouver. They fortuitously cancelled their booking a few days before.

Entry into Politics

In 1991, Ujjai ran in the Vancouver-Kensington riding provincial election, this time winning as his party came into power. He was re-elected in that same riding in the 1996 provincial election.

Ujjal spent his first few years as a Member of the Legislative Assembly as a backbencher. In 1993, he chaired the Select Standing Committee on Parliamentary Reform, Ethical Conduct, Standing Orders and Private Bills. He also served two years as caucus chair for his party. On 10 Apr 1995, Premier Mike Harcourt named Ujjal Minister of Government Services and Minister Responsible for Sports. A month later, in a small cabinet shuffle, Harcourt added Minister Responsible for Multiculturalism and Human Rights to Ujjal's portfolio. In another cabinet shuffle that August, as Ujall's portfolio was changed to Minister Responsible for Multiculturalism, Human Rights and Immigration and he was also appointed Attorney General.

Ujjal was the target of violence again on 26 Dec 1999, when his constituency office was broken into and a Molotov cocktail was left burning on a table.

Premier of British Columbia

Following the resignation of British Columbia's Premier, Glen Clark, Ujjal became Premier on February 24, 2000, Canada's first Indo-Canadian provincial leader. He served as Premier for two and a half sessions of the 36th Parliament, between February 24, 2000 and June 5, 2001.

Following his 2001 election loss Ujjal returned to practicing law.

Canadian Parliament

In March 2004, Prime Minister Paul Martin approached Ujjal to be a candidate for the Canadian Parliament representing the Liberal Party of Canada. Ujjal agreed and in the June election won his riding with 44.5% of the vote. In the 38th Canadian Parliament Ujjal was appointed Minister of Health.

In May 2005, opposition MP Gurmant Grewal accused Ujjal and the Prime Minister's Chief of Staff, Tim Murphy, of attempting to bribe him with an ambassadorship and a senate seat for his wife, Nina Grewal, if he would cross the floor or abstain from a crucial upcoming vote. Grewal released tapes he claimed to have secretly recorded, but Ujjal claimed innocence and accused Grewal of altering the tapes to imply wrongdoing. The Prime Minister dismissed calls to remove Ujjal from the Cabinet. Audio analysis of the tapes eventually concluded that they were indeed altered. The Law Society reviewed the affair and cleared both Ujjal and Murphy of misconduct, determining that it was Grewal who had attempted to elicit rewards for his compliance.

Ujjal was decisively reelected In the January 2006 federal election. With the Liberal party forming the Official Opposition, Ujjal became the critic for National Defense and sat on both the Standing Committee on National Defense and the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development. In December 2006, his critic responsibility was moved to Foreign Affairs.

On the morning of 13 Feb 2007, Ujjal suffered a mild heart attack outside the House of Commons. He was attended by fellow MP Carolyn Bennett, who is also a doctor, and was rushed to a local hospital where he had a successful operation to remove a blood clot near his heart.

In the second session of the 39th Parliament, Ujjal sat on the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security and the Special Committee on the Canadian Mission in Afghanistan. His critic responsibility was moved to Public Safety.

In October 2008, Ujjal again won reelection, but this time by only the slimmest of margins, resulting in two recounts. In the 40th Canadian Parliament, with his party once again forming the official opposition, Ujjal was appointed the National Defense critic for the first parliamentary session. When the 40th Parliament re-convened for its 2nd session, Ujjal continued as the National Defense critic and served on the Standing Committee on National Defense, as well as the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights, and the Special Committee on the Canadian Mission in Afghanistan. In the 3rd session of the 40th Parliament Ujjal continued with the Standing Committee on National Defense and the Special Committee on the Canadian Mission in Afghanistan, and also sat with the Standing Committee on Health. In September 2010 he was reassigned to being the critic on Health for the Liberal Party.

Ujjal was defeated in the 2011 federal election which saw the Liberal Party reduced to third place in the House of Commons.

Marriage and Family

Ujjal married Raminder "Rami" Sandhu, 9 Sep 1972, at Vancouver, British Columbia. She was the daughter of Balram Singh Sandhu. The couple had three sons, Pavel (an attorney), Aseem (an attorney), and Umber (a police officer).

Honors

In January 2003, Ujjal was awarded the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman (Expatriate Indian Honour) from Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in New Delhi. The award recognizes individual excellence in various fields for persons of Indian origin across the world.

Research Notes

• His material grandfather is Jarnail Moola Singh Bains.

Sources

• Wikipedia: Ujjal Dosanjh
• Wikidata: Item Q2474314, en:Wikipedia

• Autobiography: Dosanjh, Ujjal. Journey After Midnight: India, Canada and the Road Beyond (Vancouver, BC: Figure 1 Publishing, 2016).

• The Man in Full by Chris Nuttall-Smith. The Vancouver (BC) Sun, 21 Apr 2001, page 51.