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Racially motivated Arsonist suspected in a deadly fire that destroyed Motel Owned by Punjabi Sikh family
10-13-2016
On October 9, a deadly fire destroyed a central Alberta motel. The residents of Bashaw watched early Sunday morning the Bashaw Motor Inn burn to the ground.
Bashaw Fire Department spent the night controlling the structure fire with the amazing support of Mirror Fire Department, Maskwacis Fire Department, RCMP and EMS personnel.
RCMP announced Monday they had discovered the remains of one person in the debris. The body is as yet unidentified.
On Wednesday morning RCMP released a few details mentioning there was "graffiti damage to property" at the Bashaw Motor Inn.
Later Policed issued another press release after CBC posted that the graffiti contained hate speech: a racial slur painted on the property.
The town of 870 people over two days have raised over $13,000 and rallied around the Tiwana family who lived in and operated the motel.
Six years ago Rajvir Parbhvir Enterprises Ltd. bought the property and the building. The two directors: Gurprett Tiwana and Barinder Tiwana are members of the Punjabi Sikh community.
Tejinder Singh Sidhu the Vice President for WSO Alberta issued a press release stating “We offer our deepest condolences to the Tiwana family for the loss they have suffered. This was a horrific tragedy and we are very concerned by reports that racist graffiti was found on the scene. We have confidence in the RCMP to fully investigate this matter and ensure that if this was a hate crime those responsible are quickly brought to justice. We continue to closely monitor this situation on an ongoing basis.”
Bashaw Volunteer Firefighters have conducted a food bank drive and are raising money for the Tiwana family.
Bashaw resident Jackie Northey said “Our small community cares for one another in times of loss and times of celebration. The Tiwana family was one of our families. Their sons graduated from school here and contributed to our younger community members in sports and school activities.”
She has started an online campaign for donations via the GoFundMe portal which you can also support here: https://www.gofundme.com/tiwanafamily
Thank you in advance for supporting this effort and banding together as a strong community.
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