Border agency ‘systemic collapse’ allows man found guilty of immigration fraud to walk free and sue Canada

Gurpreet Singh, a 40-year-old Indian national, is suing the Canadian government and employees of the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), alleging they prosecuted him maliciously and violated his charter rights.

It’s the latest twist in a massive immigration fraud saga in Saskatchewan that has been winding its way through the justice system for many years.

At the heart of that drama lies a big mistake by the CBSA.

“This was not a single lapse in judgement by a single individual,” Justice Naheed Bardai wrote in a July 2025 Saskatoon Court of King’s Bench decision.

“This was a systemic collapse.” 

In 2022, Bardai found Singh guilty of running an immigration fraud scheme — making fake job-offer letters and providing them to would-be immigrants from India. 

But instead of convicting Singh and sending him to jail, the judge threw out the entire case, allowing Singh to walk free. The surprising turn of events began just moments before Singh was to be sentenced for his crimes.

His lawyers asked Bardai to declare a mistrial, alleging the CBSA and the Crown withheld crucial information that might have exonerated Singh. They also claimed a lead CBSA investigator intimidated witnesses.

The resulting mistrial hearing set off an unprecedented string of events — a series of bad decisions by CBSA officials that ended up undoing their two-year immigration fraud investigation.

In his July 23, 2025 ruling, Bardai granted a stay of proceedings in the criminal case against Singh, meaning he would receive no jail sentence and no criminal record.

Bardai said he made this move even though he continued to believe beyond a reasonable doubt that Singh was guilty. He said his hand was forced by the CBSA’s conduct, which “offends society’s sense of fair play and decency.”

Now Singh is pursuing compensation from the Canadian government in civil court and permanent residency in Canada on humanitarian and compassionate grounds.

One of his lawyers, Tavengwa Runyowa, said while some might look at this case and think Singh got off on a technicality, they should keep an open mind.

“He’s now always going to have this watermark of alleged guilt on him … based on an investigation that was not just severely flawed but that was designed, in our view, to give the court an inaccurate view of what the reality was,” Runyowa said.

‘A big immigration fraud’

CBSA officers arrested Singh in December 2018 after a lengthy immigration fraud investigation. 

Singh had arrived in Canada three years earlier on a temporary resident visa. He was employed as a religious worker at a Sikh temple. 

On a laptop seized from his Regina home, CBSA investigators found letters to a dozen foreign nationals, offering them religious worker jobs at Sikh temples in Regina and Kelowna. 

According to the judge’s ruling, these were “fake letters,” offering non-existent jobs. Bardai said foreign nationals “used those letters to gain entry into Canada under false pretenses.”  

In an interview with CBC, Bhavan Jaggi, Singh’s other lawyer, conceded the letters were fake and the jobs were not real.

He said that without a doubt, immigration fraud was happening on a massive scale. 

“It’s a big conspiracy racket. A big immigration fraud,” Jaggi said. “It’s not only in Saskatchewan but it was happening in entire Canada.” 

Jaggi also conceded that the fraud was happening right under Singh’s nose — using a phone, a computer and a bank account that Singh had access to and used. 

But, he argued, Singh was not consciously participating in the fraud.  

Innocent pawn or active fraudster?

Jaggi said his client was an innocent man — a pawn in someone else’s scheme. 

He said Singh shared the phone, computer and bank account with his roommates, “so it was a whole mess.” 

He added that in Singh’s culture, it’s common for people to pool resources for the benefit of all.

“They were sharing everything.”

In court, Jaggi argued that Singh was being used by his friend Daljeet, another Indian national who has since returned to his home country. In court, Daljeet testified by phone from India, saying that he was, in fact, the mastermind behind the scheme. 

“The defence theory was that Gurpreet [Singh] was nothing more than an unwitting courier who passed [fake] letters between Daljeet and those seeking to immigrate to Canada,” the judge wrote. 

But Justice Bardai didn’t buy it, writing in his decision that Daljeet’s “evidence at trial was unbelievable, and I did not find him credible for a litany of reasons.” 

He concluded Singh was consciously running the scheme.

“Gurpreet [Singh] prepared the false employment letters and provided them to foreign nationals to help foreign nationals gain entry into Canada or stay in Canada under false pretenses,” Bardai ruled.

On Dec. 20, 2022, four years after he was arrested, Singh was found guilty of 10 of the 12 charges he was facing. He was found not guilty of two counts of intimidating witnesses. 

A sentencing hearing was set for Feb. 6, 2023.   

Just one day before that hearing, a fresh set of allegations completely derailed the case. 

Dueling allegations

On Feb. 5, 2023, Jaggi told the Crown he intended to ask the judge to declare a mistrial based on new, troubling information he had received since the December 2022 verdict.  

Jaggi said he had learned that the CBSA had conducted several interviews that were not recorded and not disclosed to the defence. He said he’d also found evidence that the lead CBSA investigator, Toban Tisdale, had intimidated witnesses and made promises to them in exchange for their testimony.

Jaggi’s claims set off a chain reaction.  

The Crown asked the judge to strike Jaggi’s mistrial application, alleging he was engaging in “unethical conduct.”

Jaggi told CBC that the Crown was trying to intimidate him, saying, “How dare you bring in the application? Because you have no proof.” 

Because of the dueling allegations, lawyers on both sides had to get their own lawyers.

‘They are coming for you’

Tisdale, who the judge called a “highly respected officer” with 23 years of experience at the CBSA, learned of the allegations against himself from the Crown prosecutor the day before Singh’s sentencing. 

Andrea Curliss, the prosecutor, told Tisdale that Jaggi was alleging he had intimidated witnesses.

Tisdale learned that two of them were going to change their stories, though he didn’t know which two.

According to Bardai’s ruling, the very next day — the day set aside for sentencing — Jaggi approached Tisdale and told him “they are coming for you.”

Tisdale interpreted that to be in reference to Balvir Singh, another Indian national who is facing similar charges to Gurpreet Singh.

Tisdale was already on edge. This set him off. 

“Officer Toban [Tisdale] understood this to mean that Balvir was coming after him and was going to tell lies about him,” Bardai wrote in his decision. He said Tisdale was understandably concerned for his safety and reputation. 

“Officer Toban, when faced with accusations of intimidation … acted as many would; he sought to defend himself,” Bardai wrote.  

“Unfortunately,” over the next couple of weeks Tisdale made “some extremely poor decisions” while under a “tremendous amount of stress,” he wrote. 

Those decisions, in effect, nullified Tisdale’s painstaking two-year investigation and in so doing, the judge said, “undermined the integrity of the justice system and breached … the charter.”

Investigator investigates himself 

Tisdale told his colleague Ryan Mayoh-Bauce that he was launching an investigation into potential witness tampering with a focus on Balvir, and he asked for Mayoh-Bauce’s help.

However, Bardai found that Tisdale’s most important motivation lay elsewhere. 

“The primary purpose behind these calls was to get witnesses on tape saying they had not been intimidated by Officer Toban [Tisdale] in case they later changed their stories,” Bardai wrote. 

On Feb. 13, 2023, Tisdale and Mayoh-Bauce called Paramdeep Singh Sidhu, a Crown witness, and recorded the call. 

Tisdale told Paramdeep “I’m worried that someone might contact you and ask you to say things,” adding that if anyone did reach out to Paramdeep, he should contact Tisdale. 

Then he handed over the call to Mayoh-Bauce and left the room, “to make sure Paramdeep felt free to speak.” However, he stood in the hall where he was able to hear the entire call. 

Mayoh-Bauce asked Paramdeep if he had ever been threatened by Tisdale. 

“No, he is a very good person,” Paramdeep replied.

Would the Court or public accept the results of such an investigation? The simple answer is no.– Justice Naheed Bardai

After a bit more questioning, Tisdale came back into the room and told Paramdeep he was quite worried that someone was going to “make up stories about me.” Paramdeep replied that Tisdale was a “very good” and “honest person.”  

The two investigators made several other calls around that time, including to a witness named Sarbmeet Singh. 

Mayoh-Bauce asked him “if he was ever threatened by Officer Toban or promised anything by Officer Toban, to which Sarbmeet said no,” Bardai wrote. 

The judge noted that Tisdale was in the room with Mayoh-Bauce during that call.

“Sarbmeet is therefore asked whether one of the people on the call ever intimidated him,” the judge said.

‘A serious lapse in judgement’

Bardai described Tisdale as “a vigilant officer with a sterling reputation and distinguished career,” but said his actions reflected “a serious lapse in judgement.”

To illustrate the gravity of his mistake, Bardai offered a stark illustration. 

“Officer Toban’s involvement in the investigation into himself is like having Gurpreet [Singh] investigate whether he authored fraudulent letters and committed the offences which bring him before the Court,” the judge wrote.

“Would we expect him to find wrongdoing? Would the Court or public accept the results of such an investigation? The simple answer is no.” 

Bardai said Tisdale’s conduct was allowed to continue by those around him who should have known better and could have stopped him. 

During Tisdale’s investigation of his own conduct, he kept in touch with Curliss, the Crown prosecutor. 

Initially, she had suggested to him that someone else should be making calls to witnesses. 

But as Tisdale’s investigation proceeded, she seemed supportive. 

In a Feb. 13, 2023 text message quoted in Bardai’s decision, Tisdale updated Curliss about his investigation after the call with Paramdeep. 

“We got ahold of Param in India. No one has gotten to him yet,” Tisdale told Curliss. “Ryan [Mayou-Bauce] asked him if I ever threatened him or made him promises. He answered no and said that I am a good and honest person. We have it on audio.” 

“That’s good about him saying he wasn’t threatened or promised,” Curliss texted.  

Tisdale then offered an update on another call, noting the witness “told Ryan [Mayou-Bauce] that he didn’t feel threatened and that I was polite and nice.” 

“Perfect!!” Curliss replied.  

The judge said Curliss should have insisted that Tisdale not investigate himself, but she failed to do that.  

She wasn’t alone. 

Tisdale’s superiors played a role 

Nathan Thomas, Tisdale’s supervisor at the CBSA, was notified about the mistrial application and the allegations of intimidation against Tisdale. 

Bardai wrote that Thomas should have immediately “pulled Toban from the file and asked that officers outside the Regina CBSA investigate.” 

He didn’t. 

When questioned in court, Thomas said the CBSA won’t start an investigation into an officer merely because a complaint was laid. “It depends on the nature of the allegation,” he said.

In this case, he didn’t launch an internal investigation “because there was no substance to the allegations, no specifics,” he said. 

Instead, Thomas “adopted a wait and see approach,” Bardai wrote. 

“This was another mistake.”  

A level up in the CBSA management structure was assistant director Richard Stefaniuk.

The judge wrote that while Stefaniuk was not aware that Tisdale was investigating himself, he did tip his hand in favour of his employee because of his “immense amount of trust in Officer Toban.” 

“Stefaniuk approached the allegation with a clear preconception that Officer Toban did not do the things alleged,” said Bardai. “This demonstrates a clear lack of objectivity.”

Like Thomas, Stefaniuk should have taken Tisdale off the case and ordered an independent investigation, which he failed to do, the judge found. 

Bardai did not find the CBSA or the Crown acted in bad faith or with malice. Still, he said the entire affair “was a systemic collapse.” 

The most ‘extreme remedy’

In the mistrial hearing, Singh’s lawyers told the judge that because of the CBSA’s conduct, the guilty verdict against their client should not be allowed to stand. They presented three key arguments.

1. Singh’s lawyers claimed the Crown and the CBSA withheld evidence.

Bardai said while that is true, he found the evidence was withheld inadvertently and would not have changed his guilty verdict. 

2. Singh’s lawyers said Tisdale had intimidated witnesses. That allegation was groundless, the judge found.

“Frankly, the evidence tendered at trial and during the course of the mistrial application falls woefully short of demonstrating any intimidation on the part of Officer Toban, the CBSA or the Crown,” Bardai wrote. 

3. They said the case should be thrown out because Tisdale investigated himself, putting the integrity of the justice system in doubt.

On this point, Bardai agreed.

After considering his options — declaration of innocence, a finding of not guilty, a mistrial or a stay of proceedings — he opted for the latter.

He said a stay of proceedings, which would permanently end the case and leave Singh without a criminal record or sentence, is an “extreme remedy.” But he said that’s why this option exists — “for the clearest of cases when no other remedy will do.”

“It is a remedy that I do not grant lightly as it results in a windfall to the accused as the evidence does not leave me with reasonable doubt as to his guilt,” Bardai wrote. 

Singh’s permanent residency ‘refused’

Singh says this has not felt like a windfall for him. He did not get off scot-free. 

He was arrested shortly before the start of his criminal trial and remained behind bars on remand for more than a year. 

In an interview, he told CBC that this was an extra hardship because as a Sikh and a vegetarian, he was forced to eat meat in jail in order to survive — a shameful thing in his faith. 

He maintains his innocence and says he has been harmed by the actions of a few.

Speaking through an interpreter, he said he “is not blaming the system or the court” because it was fair and listened to him. He said “a few officers are making the system bad.”

Despite that, he said, he came to Canada for a better life and he still wants to stay here.

But that may not happen.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada recently rejected his request to be granted permanent residency on humanitarian and compassionate grounds. 

It said Singh has provided no compelling reason why he can’t go back to India, where he is a citizen, knows the language and culture, was educated and where his wife and teen son still live. 

The decision of the immigration officer who reviewed his case for permanent residency in October 2025 was stark. 

“The application is refused.”

Unpaid taxes and injustice

Singh is appealing that decision to federal court.

He argues that he feels established in Canada after a decade in the country and it would be a hardship to leave. He says moving back to India after facing criminal charges in Canada could make it hard to find work there. 

The immigration officer reviewing his case said Singh had been doing work in Canada that was not authorized under his work permit.

“It is noted that an applicant cannot expect to profit from years in which they worked in Canada illegally,” the official wrote.

“The applicant has shown a disrespect of Canadian immigration law which attracts negative weight in this assessment.” 

The officer also noted that Singh failed to file income taxes in any of the 10 years he was in this country which also “attracts negative weight.”

In Singh’s affidavit, he chastised the immigration official for being more concerned about his “lack of paying taxes” than the injustice he has had to endure at the hands of the CBSA and the courts.  

“The visa officer in their assessment of [Singh’s] financial situation unreasonably gave more weight to failing to file taxes and did not consider [Singh] could not send money to his family for more than one year when remanded in corrections,” wrote Omer Khayyam, Singh’s lawyer for his immigration matters. 

That matter continues to wind its way through federal court. 

Singh said he’s also seeking justice through civil court in Saskatchewan. 

Lawsuit launched 

On Jan. 30, he filed a lawsuit against Toban Tisdale, Nathan Thomas, Richard Stefaniuk and the CBSA, as represented by the Attorney General of Canada. 

His statement of claim alleges malicious prosecution, malfeasance in public office, negligent investigation, unlawful conspiracy and various violations of his charter rights.

The statement of claim contains allegations that have not been tested in court. The CBSA has not yet filed a statement of defence. When reached by email, the agency said it won’t comment as the matter is before the courts.

Tavengwa Runyowa, who represents Singh in that lawsuit, says it will show that his client is the victim of a law enforcement body that is more inclined to “circle the wagons” than pursue accountability.

“It’s an organization that seems incapable of introspection and that introspection is going to have to be enforced by our politicians and the court,” Runyowa told CBC in an interview. 

He said this lawsuit will unearth evidence that was not disclosed at Singh’s trial because of CBSA’s misconduct.

He said law enforcement officials have to pursue justice justly.

“I understand police pressure to get bad guys, especially in a country where we’ve got a charter that provides protections for everyone regardless of whether they’re guilty or not,” Runyowa said. 

Runyowa said that when due process is thrown out “we’ve got an even bigger problem than trying to grasp the wind of immigration frauds across the country.”

Article source: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/canada-border-agency-misconduct-immigration-fraud-sask-9.7125144?cmp=rss