Raminder Gill, the first Indian-origin MPP in Ontario, recalls the journey of his grandfather and uncles from Moga to Canada
By our reporter
MISSISSAUGA: Raminder Gill is known because he was the first Indo-Canadian to become an MPP in Ontario, getting elected from the riding of Bramalea-Gore-Malton-Springdale in 1999 and serving at Queen’s Park till 2003.
Raminder is known because he also served as a citizenship judge from 2006 to 2012 and administed the oath to so many new citizens.
Raminder is also known as the founder of the reputed Gill International Travel – the airline ticketing agency famous among Indo-Canadians.
But what most Indo-Canadians don’t know about Raminder is that his family – his father’s elder cousin Jimmy Gill – was the first Indian family to come to Ontario in 1930.
“My taya (father’s elder cousin) Jamiat Gill – later known as Jimmy Gill – came to Vancouver on a student visa in 1926 from our native Nathuwala Jadid village near Moga in Punjab. He also started working in a mill to earn some money. Since his student visa didn’t permit him to work, somebody snitched him to the RCMP. So he ran away from British Columbia and came to Toronto in 1930,” narrates Raminder, sitting in his beautiful, 19th-penthouse condo in Erin Mill in Mississauga.
Raminder says his tayaji Jamiat Gill was probably the first person of Indian origin to come to Toronto.
Jamiat Gill was soon joined by his brother Maghar Gill – later known as Major Gill.
“In the early 1930s, the two Gill brothers married two Nepalese Rajput sisters Kamal and Kusum in Toronto. The brothers were also the first Indians in Toronto to buy a home at 3 Bixby Court in Don Mills in the early 1940s. They also started Gill Transport to haul lumber from Buffalo in the US to Toronto on frozen lakes. I don’t which lakes and how they hauled the lumber,” wonders Raminder.
Raminder says the Gill brothers were also the first to start an Indian grocery shop in Toronto in the early 1950s.
“The two brothers started India Trading Company at 113 Dupont Street in Toronto. It was the only Indian food store in Ontario and people used to drive from Ottawa, Buffalo and other places to buy groceries from them,” recalls Raminder.
He also reveals that the Gill brothers started the first Indian pub in Ontario in the late 1950s.
“The pub was called India House Tavern and it was located at 594 Yonge Street in downtown Toronto. Lots of politicians from Queen’s Park used to come there and the Gill brothers became friends with them. One of them was the famous NDP leader Stephen Lewis. The pub was sold for millions in 1982,” says Raminder.
He says while Jimmy Gill had no children, Major Gill had two daughters and one son. They and their extended families live in Toronto.
Raminder’s personal journey in Canada began in 1968 when his parents left Punjab and landed in Toronto to join the already established Gill clan here.
“I was 17 at that time and had just finished my pre-engineering in Punjab. When I went to Toronto university for admission to chemical engineering course, they said I had to first do high school again. I had no choice, but I did it in fourth months and joined the engineering course,” he recalls.
Raminder says he was inspired to become a chemical engineer by one of his uncles – named Kirpal Singh Gill – who was given a scholarship in the early 1940s by the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) to go to Chicago for his Ph.D in chemical engineering.
“He came back to India after his Ph.D from Chicago and served as head of the Bhakra fertiliser plant and chief of IFFCO and the ICI.”
Raminder remembers that when he landed in Toronto there were only about 25 Indian families here at that time. “There was no gurdwara here in 1968.”
He says his family were the first Indians to buy a home in Malton in 1970.
“We bought that five-bedroom house for $28,000 in Malton. There were hardly any Indians in Malton at that time. There was no 410. Airport Road used to have only single lane,” recalls Raminder.
After completing his chemical engineering degree, he joined the pharma industry, working for various companies such as Abbott, Pennwalt, etc.
He married his wife Pam, now a family physician, in 1980.
“In 1979, I went to Delhi where I was introduced to Pam by my uncle Kirpal Singh. She was doing her post-graduation in anatomy at the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences. I sponsored her and we got married at Malton gurdwara on Aug 2, 1980. She struggled for five years as she had to redo her courses. She started her practice as a family doctor in 1985 and continues to this day.”
Raminder says he got involved in local community affairs, inspired by his grandfather Mewa Singh.
He says Mewa Singh was actually one of the 376 passengers on the famous Komagata Maru ship which was returned to India from Vancouver in 1914.
“My grandfather (Mewa Singh) and two others actually got off the Komagata Maru when it was in Mexico. He worked on farms to earn money, entered the US and then travelled to British Columbia where he worked on railroad.”
Raminder says when his grandfather went to India after spending five years in British Columbia, he developed lower body paralysis and never returned to Canada.
“We were a joint family in our Nathuwala Jadid village. My grandfather used to read Preetlari and drink Nestle coffee (a Nestle plant had come up near Moga by then). My grandfatehr would say: Canada is a great country. You should go there and get involved in local community affairs. He died in 1966 at our native village,” narrates Raminder.
With his grandfather’s words at the back of his mind, Raminder first ran as a Peel School Board trustee in 1982.
Years later, he joined the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario in 1991.
“The idea was to get involved in provincial politics. I contested in the 1999 Ontario elections and became the first Indo-Canadian MPP to sit at Queen’s Park. I also served as a parliamentary secretary to Premier Mike Harris.”
From 2006 to 2012, Raminder also served as a citizenship judge.
Interestingly, he was also one of the founders of Gill International travel agency.
“Actually, my brother-in-law Lakhwinder (Lucky) Grewal came to Canada in 1980. He was doing odd jobs for survival. As my wife’s side had been running a travel agency in BC since 1950s, I told Lucky to start a travel agency. He said he had no idea. I said: `Okay, I will join you.” We both did our travel agency course and started Gill International from home.”
Gill International opened its first office at 7162 Airport Road.
“I put my name on it because we wanted to deal only in truth. We used to tell the exact truth to our clients. Our business flourished. Lucky also had a great business sense. Now he runs it. It is one of our legacies.”
Indeed, Gill International is one of the many legacies in Canada of the famous Gill family of Nathuwala Jadid village in Punjab’s Moga.
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