Charan Gill

Charan Pal Singh Gill (17 June 19362 February 2021) was a Canadian social activist and South-Asian community leader in British Columbia. Through his work, he focused on improving the living conditions, wages, and working conditions of farmworkers across British Columbia and Canada. He was an inductee to the Order of British Columbia in 1999, a recipient of the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal in 2002, and the BC Achievement Foundation Community Award in 2010 for his contributions toward community service and social justice advocacy.

Early life

Gill was born into a Punjabi family in colonial Hong Kong on 17 June 1936. His family returned to India, two years after his birth in 1938. He was raised by his mother Harnam Kaur Gill, after the death of his father in 1939. He obtained a Master of Arts degree in Punjabi literature from Panjab University in 1959 and worked in Hong Kong at a bank through his 20s. He moved to Canada in 1967 at the age of 31, with his family joining him in 1969.

He was the co-founder of British Columbia Organization to Fight Racism in the early 1980s, which was set up to counter the actions of right-wing extremist groups including the local Ku Klux Klan. He was also the recipient of the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal in 2002.

In 2010, Gill was one of the recipients of the Top 25 Canadian Immigrant Awards presented by Canadian Immigrant magazine.

Personal life

Gill and his wife, Daljit Gill, had three children. The family moved to Canada from India in 1969, two years after Gill moved. He died on 2 February 2021, in Langley, British Columbia, from cancer. He was 84.