Park Extension, Montreal April 7, 2026
By Gaurav Sharma
In a deeply emotional gathering at the Park Extension borough office, community members and organizations came together on Tuesday to mourn the tragic loss of Manjeet Singh, a man whose quiet struggle ended alone in the bitter cold of a Canadian winter.
Mr. Singh was found in a park this past January, having succumbed to extreme freezing temperatures. He died not just from the cold, but from circumstances that left him without shelter, support, or hope in his final moments.
Back in India, a family waits in grief, his wife, two young children, and elderly parents, all of whom depended on him. Like many who come to Canada seeking a better life, Mr. Singh carried the weight of responsibility across continents. But faced with joblessness and mounting hardship, he found himself unable to secure even the most basic necessity, a place to live.
Representatives from community organizations including CAPE, BIPE, and IWC stood before the crowd, sharing words filled with sorrow, frustration, and urgency. They spoke not only of Mr. Singh, but of many others who remain unseen, people fighting silent battles on the streets.
As candles flickered in the cold evening air, attendees stepped forward to donate what they could. The funds will be sent to support Mr. Singh’s grieving family in India, a small act of compassion in the face of an immense loss.
But for many present, the question lingered painfully, could this have been prevented?
At the Immigrant Workers Centre, we say clearly, this was not inevitable. Migrant workers are pushed into conditions of extreme precarity by design. Denied stable immigration status, excluded from social protections, and forced into low wage and insecure jobs, many are left one step away from homelessness. When winter comes, that precarity becomes deadly.
This is not neglect, it is systemic abandonment. Governments at all levels have created and maintained a system where migrant lives are treated as disposable labour, valuable only when profitable, and abandoned when no longer needed. The same policies that deny migrants access to housing, healthcare, and basic protections are the ones that made this death possible.
Manjeet Singh did not die because of the cold alone. He died because a system failed him at every level.
Manjeet Singh’s death is not just a tragedy, it is a wake up call. A reminder that behind every statistic is a human life, a family, and a story that deserved a different ending.
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