The brutal killing of an activist who made a name for himself in movies that criticised gang culture has stunned the Indo-Canadian community in the Metro Vancouver area of the Canadian province of British Columbia.
Manbir Mani Amar sadly went away on Wednesday afternoon. At 1:50 pm, the Surrey RCMP was alerted to a “report of an argument between two guys.” When the cops came, they located a man who was having medical problems. Despite all efforts by first responders to save him, the man passed away from his wounds at the scene.
The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team is looking into the matter, and while a suspect has been detained, their identity has not yet been released (IHIT). According to IHIT, he passed away as a result of an encounter with a neighbour turning violent, according to local media.
Amar produced two movies criticising the local Indo-Canadian community’s gang culture. Described as “a poetic documentary on the epidemic issue of South Asian gang violence in Metro Vancouver,” A Warrior’s Religion was released in 2009. It took three years to make independently. On his website, Footsteps Into Gangland from 2011 is described as being about “choices” and featuring an underboss of a street gang trying to enlist his cousin.
His passing was “shocking,” according to Balwant Sanghera of the South Asian Community Coalition against Youth Violence. “He was a very talented person. He did a lot of work specially in the area of gang prevention. He had a very interesting way of communicating the message, conveying it to youth,” Sanghera said.
