The Dhaliwal Family
Paul Singh Dhaliwal - Years before Paul Singh Dhaliwal's birth, May 14, 1914 in India, his father had come to work in B.C. He arrived in 1905 or 1906, working for about three years at Fraser Mill, Marpole Sawmill and perhaps other locations. He then returned to India. When Paul Singh Dhaliwal came to Canada, it was with the help of his uncle as his father had passed away. His uncle wrote a letter to Mr. Dhaliwal's eldest brother and asked him to send Paul to Canada. He said it was a nice country. Mr. Dhaliwal arrived on May 9, 1932 when he was 16, not quite 17, years old. Indian rupees paid for the boat from Calcutta to Hong Kong. There, after passing a medical examination, he borrowed the $95 in Canadian currency required for passage from Hong Kong to Vancouver from as he put it, "my village man there". While he knew many of the people on the first boat, he knew only one person on the second one, Nand Singh. In Vancouver, he felt lonesome but just followed the guy he was with around. His friend knew people in the 1600 block of 2nd Avenue so he stayed there for a couple of days before coming to Abbotsford. His uncle was surprised as Mr. Dhaliwal arrived a week ahead of schedule. He didn't understand what people were saying in English. He had a book though. He studied the book and then tried talking to someone, learning English in that way. It wasn't long after he arrived in Abbotsford that he got a job working at Green Lake sawmill in Squamish. He earned 15 cents an hour. All the East Indians stayed in one place and had one man cooking for everyone (120 people). There was no medical, no unemployment insurance, no welfare, no nothing. When he was sick in the general hospital for about a month, Mr. Dhaliwal had to pay $4 per day! After about four or five months, the mill shut down for winter. Mr. Dhaliwal returned to Abbotsford. In about a month, he had another job in Duncan at the Hillcrest Mill. He says that all the Punjabi people lived together in one big house. Besides dividing up the cost of groceries for the month, each man working at the mill paid one day's pay to the man who stayed home and did the cooking. If there were 40 men working at the mill, the cook could make 40 days pay in only one month! Mr. Dhaliwal says that the cook had to work hard for it though, getting up very early in the morning. There was a Gurdwara at the mill, so he could attend each Sunday. He says that nobody had a phone in the house then. If he wanted to call to Abbotsford, he went to the telephone office to have the call placed by the operator.
Paul Dhaliwal also used to go to the Western Sport Club at Carol and Main Streets. He coached himself and he must have been a pretty good coach because when a promoter, Ted Pye, saw him, he wanted to hire him to work the wrestling circuit in the western United States. If there was a big crowd he could make $200 or $100. He was a professional wrestler for about three years (1947-50). Mr. Dhaliwal got married in the late 40's to Mohinder Kaur Dhaliwal and they had one kid named Vicky Gurjeet Dhaliwal. When he started his first hauling business he bought a second hand truck. It was war time. Mr. Dhaliwal remembers how every town had a siren which was used to warn people to go to a safe place as quickly as possible. Also, you couldn't buy anything from the store as everything was rationed. Although some of his friends served in the armed forces, Mr. Dhaliwal could not. He answered his call to service but a heart condition prevented him from serving. Government regulations didn't permit new business so Mr. Dhaliwal had to wait for an opportunity to buy out an existing one. He hauled wood and sawdust. At the time, sawdust was often burned in kitchen stoves and furnaces. He says that electric stoves and other more modern appliances and machinery weren't found here much before or during the war. After the war, "everything came up right away". It wasn't until well after the war that citizenship was finally granted to Indo-Canadians. Mr. Dhaliwal said that the main difference this made to him was that then he could go across the "line" (international boundary) as often as he liked. During his professional wrestling career, his promoter had to get special permission from the American Embassy in Vancouver and take personal responsibility for Mr. Dhaliwal to enable him to travel to California and other western states. It was because of his professional wrestling career that he cut his hair. He also commented that you would never go downtown and see an lady wearing Indian clothes. They wore coats, dresses, and suits to fit into Canadian culture. He also said that Indo-Canadian ladies never worked outside the home; not even when they lived very close to a cannery where many people came to work in the summer. Then, a man could make a living for his family. He said that now it seems like the whole family has to work to make a living. He also commented that now "they are living pretty high" with TVs and cars; living like Canadians. He has many close Canadian friends. He feels the Indo-Canadian community is closer now than it has been because of the resurgence of Indian culture; the man who takes roti for lunch, even though sandwiches would be more convenient, because it is what he likes. His humor and humanity as well as his contributions to his community make Paul Singh Dhaliwal a pioneer who will not easily be forgotten. |
