I truly believe the power of oratory.  Though I have never considered myself a natural orator, I was given the honour of writing and reading a few words at a forum held by Langara on January 30th, 2008.

Writing has been a passion of mine since a very early age, I choose to write from the heart and not disguise simple words with complex ones in hopes of sounding unique or ‘fancy’.  I wish my words were heard as clearly as the intent they were written with.

Here is the original transcript of my speech (before I slightly deviated as I read it).

Link to video post of this speech.

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‘First off, I’d like to send my condolences and love out to Rajvinder Kahlon and her family.  A very sad, sad event in the community.

I want to thank everyone who made this forum possible, and everyone in attendance, showing your support.

For all of you who do not know who that was in the scenes you just saw, that was Bal Buttar.  Bal is an admitted former gangster.

I spent a lot of time with Bal last spring.  I tracked him down for research for my documentary.  On average, I spent about 3-4 days a week with him over a period of a couple of months.  Over that period, I learned a lot.  And one of those aspects I have to share with you today.

Though I always believed, now I knew for sure.  That is; if you choose such a path in life, there is truly no way out.  It is almost a certainty that you will be killed or end up in jail.  Bal Butter lingers somewhere in between.  I put my disappointment and disgust aside for his past.  The past that accepts its hand in murders.  I put that aside and got to the core of his being.  Sitting with him, sharing stories that really didn’t differ all that from mine.

It even became a routine where I would assist him, almost like a care-aid would, giving him drinks of water or adjusting his bed.  We became close.  Not intended, but all this to find insights into why we go around killing one another.  Bal didn’t lose his path in life in his teens, no, he lost it as a child in elementary.  When he opened up to me, he entrusted me with things I thought I would never hear.  Things like wanting acceptance from his parents in his interests or how he just wanted friends.  How such simple principles elude our community, communities before us, and communities yet to come.  Where there is the lack of love, there lies the fertile grounds of hate to breed.  Friendship!  Acceptance!  That is it!  Two simple principles of love that I believe could have saved him.  I am not going to blame any one thing as the reasons these issues are happening in our community at an epidemic rate.  No.  Because it is a combination of many possible reasons that causes these issues.  Though it will take time to discover these precursors.  One thing we can do is accept the fact it is happening.  And sorry to say, it starts in our homes.  And until we can accept this, we will surely remain in this wave of ignorance.

Parents, talk to your children and embrace them with hugs when hugs are least expected.  Children, please do the same.  I will not stand here and suggest politically motivated or egotistically driven resolutions.  Instead, I stand here begging for your help to educate the ignorant and bring awareness to the ones in denial.  I want everyone to know that you can make a difference.  Let it be by sharing the stories of your pain, or by your ideologies of love.

As for Bal Buttar, he remains un-embraced by friendship, unaccepted by society, lingering somewhere between death and jail, an almost certainty, that truly there is no way out.

Thank you.’