A Sikh priest is back with his community after Canadian Border Services apprehended his passport and told him to leave the country in six days.

Harinder Singh was on his way back to Merritt on March 8 when the Canada Border Services Agency stopped him at the Aldergrove crossing during a regular check.

He was told to return to India by March 14.

Singh was also required to return to Canada Border Services Agency in Aldergrove on March 10 to show confirmation of an airline ticket to India.

But after community outcry to keep the religious leader at the Merritt Gurudwara Sikh Temple, a total of 19 pages of petitions were signed in 28 hours containing over 500 signatures, and a letter was sent to local provincial and federal politicians.

“The phone calls in my office and the emails received from a variety of sources throughout the community of Merritt made it very loud and clear that people wanted Mr. Singh to be able to stay,” said MP Okanagan-Coquihalla Dan Albas. “From time to time, these cases do happen.”

Due to the amount of community support that was demonstrated for Singh, Albas was able to get the attention of Immigration Minister Jason Kenney, who wrote a special one-year residency permit, which will give Singh time to attempt to attain permanent status.

“We were able to ascertain there was a very good case to make an appeal,” Albas noted. “[Kenney] and his staff took it very seriously and found there was some merit in the case.”

Kenney didn’t return Merritt Herald phone calls by press time.

Peter Samra, vice-president of the Merritt Sikh Society, was key in organizing the petition to keep Singh in Canada.

He said in a statement he is impressed with how the community responded.

“With strong community support here in the Nicola Valley … the Punjabi community and the community at large were very much in favour of having [Singh] stay in Merritt and continue to serve as the Sikh priest in our Sikh Temple,” he said. “I already knew that Merritt has a strong sense of community and this situation has brought us closer together.”

Prior to his passport being apprehended, Singh gained approval from the Labour Market Opinion to work in Merritt for another two years.

Singh commented but later retracted his statements.