'A good father': Regina community remembers young father killed in Air India crash
Article content
'He was a good father and he was doing everything for them,' Dhurvest Patel told The Leader-Post Tuesday when speaking about his late cousin Piyushkumar Patel, who had just wrapped up a month-long work trip in India and was on his way to surprise his little girl when tragedy struck.
Article content
Article content
Article content
Dhurvest was among the approximately 100 people who attended a memorial service at the Shree Swaminarayan Gurukul Rajkot Sansthan temple in south Regina Monday evening to pray for the at least 270 lives lost when London-bound flight AI 171 crashed into a residential building shortly after taking off from Ahmedabad, India on June 12.
Article content
Article content
Mostly wearing white to symbolize purity and peace, the group joined together in an invocation prayer of Om Shanti Shanti Shanti — a wish for peace for the departed souls and strength for the grieving family.
Article content
People came up to a microphone one at a time to reflect on the lives lost in western India. Some women wiped tears from their face, inhaling before joining everyone in softly clapping along with the calm chanting songs.
Article content
Dhurvest — who, aside from Piyushkumar's wife and children, is his only other relative in Regina — said he is especially thankful for the support of the local Gujarat community, which has wrapped around the family in mourning.
Article content
Article content
'We are making ourselves strong so his wife and kids get a better life,' Dhurvest said.
Article content
Article content
Article content
'They don't know'
Article content
Dhurvest said he learned about the crash a few hours after it happened from his mother in India.
Article content
He said his thoughts immediately turned to his cousin's young family here in Regina, to whom he had to deliver the news.
Article content
'It was a hard time for me, but there was a responsibility for me,' Dhurvest said. 'His wife and his two small daughters are here and they don't know.'
Article content
Ruchita and daughters Kiya, seven, and Pranshi, two, flew back to the western state of Gujarat to identify Piyushkumar's body at the hospital on Saturday, Dhurvest said. Kiya, whose seventh birthday was that day, provided a DNA sample to match to her father's remains, he said.
Article content
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Globe and Mail
7 hours ago
- Globe and Mail
Families of Canadian veterans gather in Ottawa to mark 80 years since the end of the Second World War
Relatives of war veterans gathered at the National War Memorial in Ottawa on Friday to mark the 80th anniversary of Japan's surrender and the official end of the Second World War. Sweat poured down the faces of those assembled in the August midday heat as the Canadian Armed Forces bugler performed the Last Post. Michael Babin, president of the Hong Kong Veterans Commemorative Association, said there are no living veterans remaining out of the nearly 2,000 Canadians who took part in the Battle of Hong Kong in December 1941. He said the last known veteran from that fight died a little more than a year and a half ago, at the age of 106. Mr. Babin is one of many with direct ties to the war who expressed the concern on Friday that the history of that battle – and the stories of the many Canadians who fought and died there – are not being passed on to younger generations. 'There are no veterans left any more to tell their stories, so it's up to us – the children and the grandchildren — to tell their stories and to remember them,' he said. 'Most Canadians don't [know about this battle] because most of the action took place in Europe and that's what Canadians heard about and that's what's taught in the schools. But to send 2,000 men and two nursing sisters to Hong Kong was significant, and all of them were volunteers.' From the archives | Opinion: Almost 80 years after the end of the Second World War, a small piece of a lost soldier's life finds its way back to Japan From the archives: The far-reaching impact of Canada's role during the Second World War Mr. Babin said that of the 1,975 Canadian volunteers who went to Hong Kong, only 1,418 returned – 290 were killed in the battle and others later died as prisoners. His own father, Alfred Babin, was released from nearly four years of captivity as a prisoner of war on Aug. 15, 1941. Mitzi Ross said her father, Lance Ross, was hit in the neck by shrapnel but survived the battle. He was captured and sent to Japan to work in a mine as a prisoner of war. 'All of the men that were in these camps had to work in mines or shipyards, things like that. It was really a horrible, horrible experience. When they came back they all had PTSD but nobody knew what it was at the time,' she said. 'They all had hard lives after their return [to Canada].' Francois Vigneault, a retired captain who served 36 years with the Royal Canadian Air Force, said his father's cousin, Laureat Vigneault, was killed in the Battle of Hong Kong. He said his body was never recovered and, thanks to a bureaucratic error, it took his family years to learn that he had been killed in action. 'For me, it's a very important battle [but] it's very unknown for Canadians,' he said. Anne Okaley said her father became a PoW after the Hong Kong conflict; she's still researching what his exact role was in the battle. Ms. Okaley said she worries about people forgetting these stories as time passes – and the risk of grim history repeating itself. 'I just hope the memory carries on,' she said. 'We're not going to be here forever to carry it on, so I'm really grateful for my nephew who is going to carry the torch forward.'
CTV News
12 hours ago
- CTV News
Sask. Polytechnic parking lot selected for enhanced emergency shelter
The City of Saskatoon says a Saskatchewan Polytechnic parking lot has been proposed for a 60-bed enhanced emergency shelter. The shelter, which is operated by the Mustard Seed -a Christian non-profit from Alberta - will be located at 170, 31 St. E. in the Central Industrial Area. According to the city, the site, which owned by the province, meets the city council-approved criteria, including space for 60 beds, office space, showers, bathrooms, kitchen, and internal and external gathering spaces. The province will lead the design and construction of the shelter and provide funding for its ongoing operations. The city says it will contribute to preparing the site, including sidewalk construction and fence installation, at an estimated cost of $400,000. An opening date of the new 60-bed enhanced emergency shelter will be finalized in the coming months. The recent point-in-time homeless count revealing a record-high 1,499 people experiencing homelessness in Saskatoon, nearly triple the number recorded in 2022. A temporary location downtown at 210 Pacific Avenue opened in April while the search for a permanent site continued. The enhanced emergency shelter will operate 24/7, providing clients with shelter, meals, case planning, and access to wrap-around supports. According to the city, neighbourhood information sessions will be held in September to inform the community about shelter operations and safety plans.
CBC
20 hours ago
- CBC
'Gopher-pocalypse': fed-up farmers fight massive Sask. rodent population
This is Saskatchewan Laura Sciarpelletti This is Saskatchewan podcast dives into why gophers are persona non grata in the province People in Saskatchewan have a love/hate relationship with gophers. Gainer, the cuddly mascot for the Saskatchewan Roughriders, is a beloved gopher that hails from the small town of Parkbeg, approximately 60 kilometres west of Moose Jaw. But people who deal with gophers and their prolific hole digging often find themselves at war with the furry creatures. Chuck Toney, who farms near Gull Lake in southwest Saskatchewan, sees first-hand the scale of the damage gophers can do to cropland. He said that after successive years of drought, gophers have thrived, especially in his meadow brome pastures. "Meadow brome isn't really drought tolerant and it just gave up and quit. The gophers moved in with a vengeance because there's no forage there to hide them," Toney said, adding that gophers love overgrazed pastures and bare ground so they can spot predators. "Their population just exploded. I call it 'gopher-pocalypse.'" Legacy of gopher destruction Gophers are not a new problem. Back in 1917, Saskatchewan declared May 1 a working holiday. More than 900 schools were closed for the day and kids were set loose in the country. Their goal was to catch, shoot or snare gophers that were wreaking havoc on agricultural land. The child who killed the most gophers was gifted a Shetland Pony. For years, the provincial government offered a bounty on gopher tails. Today, Toney is one of many Saskatchewan's farmers who see their land as a battlefield. And where there are a lot of gophers, there are also a lot of badgers ready to eat the smaller rodents. Badgers dig especially big holes that can harm farm equipment and animals like horses and cows, leading to expensive repairs. Toney said he has spent a lot of money on poison, guns and ammo to clear his land of as many gophers as he can. While this effort means his farm is not a 'gopherpocalypse' anymore, he has to be consistently on top of the issue. Gopher-plagued farmers team up with hunters The Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities (SARM) and the Saskatchewan Wildlife Federations are looking for ways to reduce to gopher population. Darrell Crabbe, executive director of the Saskatchewan Wildlife Federation, said a good way to do this is find hunting enthusiasts who are interested in taking care of the gopher madness. "[We've been] putting the hunting community in touch with landowners that were experiencing that issue. So we just thought this was a very, very straightforward opportunity for us to be the, you know, just the conduit for the two different interests and put them together," Crabbe said. Using poison Methods for controlling the gopher population have changed over the years. Poison, including strychnine, was widely used in Saskatchewan and Alberta until it was banned by Health Canada in 2023. The federal department determined it was poisoning more than just the intended gophers. Toney uses poison in his ongoing battle with the critters: Rozol, which is in a lot of rat poisons, and the zinc phosphide rodenticide poison Borozeit. Shawn Sherwood, who runs Poulin's Pest Control in Regina, said there are other methods for those who have small clusters of gopher holes in their yards and other property. One is called Giant Destroyer, which contains a sulfur gas cartridge. "You light the cartridge, put it down into the hole, shovel wadded up piece of paper in, and then cover it with dirt. The newspaper prevents the dirt from snuffing out the cartridge and it pumps out a ton of sulfur gas and it suffocates the little monsters," Sherwood said. What are gophers good for? Toney is certainly not a fan of gophers, but admits they are part of the ecosystem and therefore important. He said Mother Nature can take care of things, as long at the gopher population is at a healthy level and the ecosystem is diverse. And while Sherwood's whole business is getting rid of pesky critters, he said he accepts and recognizes the need for a certain percentage of gophers in the wild. "They are a food source for a lot of animals and they do have benefits. But at times you get a massive overpopulation and at the end of the day you have to sit down and say, 'OK, do I benefit the rodents, or do I benefit the humans?'" This story is from CBC's This is Saskatchewan podcast — your connection to the stories Saskatchewan is talking about. Every week, Sam Maciag and Nichole Huck will cover local issues that matter. Hear the voices that are creating change, shaping policy and fuelling creativity in Saskatchewan.
