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But, she said, there is an expectation that the slayings that have occurred will be solved.

“We expect to see prosecutions and justice in cases of journalists murdered in Canada and the U.S. I think there is an expectation that those cases will be given high priority and they will be solved,” Ellerbeck said.

Solving the cases of murdered journalists “is such an important message for press freedom globally,” she said.

“Truth and justice are just so important for the families and the communities. It is really hard to overstate that. It is really frustrating, especially when there is a decent amount of evidence and information.”

Photo by Jason Payne / PNG

‘I am not capable of defending myself’

The 62-year-old founder of the Indo-Canadian Times was gunned down just before dinner on Nov. 18, 1998, as he arrived at his Guildford home from his newspaper office.

Already paralyzed from a 1988 assassination attempt, he was transferring himself from his car to his wheelchair when his killer or killers struck. He didn’t have a chance.

For years, Hayer had used his Punjabi newspaper to become a vocal critic of violent extremist groups such as those linked to the 1985 Air India bombing plot that left 331 dead.

He had even agreed to be a Crown witness in the terrorism case, telling police that years earlier, while visiting a British colleague, he had overheard a confession by Ajaib Singh Bagri, one of the men later charged and acquitted in the bombing.

Hayer was no stranger to threats. In January 1986, a bomb targeting him was left on the doorstep of his family’s print shop. His son-in-law saw the wires sticking out of a McDonald’s bag and called police. Then in August 1988, days after he had published details of the confession he says he overheard, Hayer was shot in his newspaper office by a youth who later pleaded guilty to attempted murder.