Manbir Mani Amar was killed in a physical altercation between two neighbors in the 14100-block of 61 Avenue, Surrey, on August 31, 2022. Photo: IHIT jpg

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Friends and family of a Surrey filmmaker who dedicated his life to ending gang violence in BC’s South Asian community are vowing to continue the work after his death.

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Karen Reid Sidhu, executive director of the Surrey Crime Prevention Society, said Manbir Amar’s death left a big gap in gang prevention efforts among South Asian youth. Start your day with a roundup of BC-focused news and opinion delivered straight to your inbox at 7am, Monday to Friday. By clicking the subscribe button you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link at the bottom of our emails. Postmedia Network Inc. | 365 Bloor Street East, Toronto, Ontario, M4W 3L4 | 416-383-2300

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“We have an obligation to carry on his legacy,” he said. For nearly a decade, Sidhu worked alongside Amar to facilitate a youth mentoring program. “He told me a story once where he was sitting in a teenager’s bedroom while his mother quietly poured out an empty glass of milk. It was on a cot next to a 9mm pistol, but the parent was not feeling,” Sidhu said. “That really shook him.” Police found Amar Wednesday with fatal injuries just before 2 a.m. at a home on 61st Avenue near 141st Street. He died after a dispute with a neighbor turned violent, said Sgt. Timothy Pierotti of the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team.

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“This was an isolated incident between two neighbors. Tragically, this situation escalated to the point where a life was taken.” While a suspect was arrested at the scene Wednesday, no charges have yet been filed. While police investigators have not revealed anything else about the circumstances of Amar’s death, his community has begun to speak out about the care the father, son and friend showed in his activism and relationships. “Mani touched the lives of many people,” his brother Gurbinder said in a statement on Friday. “He was a talented individual who dedicated his life to activism and the arts. Through poetry, prose, philosophy, painting, photography and filmmaking.” Amar produced three films: a short, a feature, and an award-winning 2009 documentary called A Warrior’s Religion that provided an inside look at gang life in Metro Vancouver’s South Asian communities through dozens of interviews.

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Kal Dosanjh, a former Vancouver police officer, credits Amar’s work with fueling a dramatic paradigm shift in gang prevention work in the South Asian community. “He was a real visionary,” said Dosanjh, who leads presentations at the school encouraging young people to avoid gang involvement. “I remember Mani telling me how he snuck into Vancouver General Hospital to interview Bal Bhuttar, a notorious South Asian gangster,” Dosanjh recalls. “He asked Bal what got him into the gang world, Bal told him about his childhood. “This prompted a deep, insightful dive from the South Asian community to explore the impact that abuse and dysfunction in the household has on driving children to pursue drugs, gangs and crime.”

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Amar’s feature film Footsteps Into Gangland is described on IMDB as “an adaptation of true events that have devastated Metro Vancouver’s South Asian community.” Lead actor Arvind Johal told Postmedia that Amar was so passionate about making sure the story came to life on screen that he financed the project himself using personal bank loans and lines of credit. “He felt it was the only way for the youth to feel the impact of the ugliness of what can happen in the gang lifestyle,” Johal said. For years after the film’s release in 2011, the actor said “people came up to me to say how much it affected them … and (made them) rethink their life choices.” Amar’s work with vulnerable people extended beyond the South Asian community to those affected by poverty and substance use disorder in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.

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Friend Ranjit Dhaliwal said the Surrey resident was known to frequent shelters and parks and give out free meals during the COVID-19 pandemic. “He asked me to volunteer with him at a soup kitchen in East Hastings to help feed those who live on the street,” Dhaliwal said. “I was scared, but because of him I opened my heart and was able to serve without judgment.” Anyone with information is asked to call the IHIT Information Line at 1-877-551-4448 or email [email protected] [email protected] twitter.com/sarahgrochowski More news, less ads: Our in-depth journalism is made possible by the support of our subscribers. For just $3.50 a week, you can get unlimited, ad-lite access to the Vancouver Sun, The Province, the National Post and 13 other Canadian news sites. Support us by subscribing today: The Vancouver Sun | The Province.

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