https://thebcreview.ca/2025/08/08/2626-verzuh-sekha/
The Permanent Residence blues
Frosty Lanes
by Harpreet Sekha (translated by Akal Amrit Kaur and Inderpal Kaur)
Chhanna, India: Rethink Books, 2025
$20.00* / 9789348092922
Reviewed by Ron Verzuh
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Meet Karanvir, a young Punjabi truck driver who is freshly arrived in Canada. He’s hoping to get PR (permanent residence) status so he can start a new life in his adopted country. Standing in his way are several established Punjabi business owners who use the system to exploit new immigrants. Like many others, Karanvir is caught in a vicious cycle that promises to rob him of his earnings.
One of the chief exploiters is Shaminder, a trucking company owner in Ontario who is working the immigration system by holding out the carrot of a LMIA (Labour Market Impact Assessment). The coveted LMIA is a document that confirms a Canadian employer can hire a foreign worker because no qualified Canadian worker or permanent resident is available.
Shaminder and others like him lure workers like Karanvir into doing jobs under threat of not having the LMIA and consequently not moving toward PR status and their dreams of a successful migration to Canada. Their concern intensifies when their families expect to join them once they are settled in jobs.
As we follow Karanvir from one ordeal to another, Surrey author Harpreet Sekha (Journal of a Taxi Driver) introduces meet Jiti, a young food worker who captivates him. Together, they begin to envisage a future. Even so, level-headed Jiti refuses to marry the impetuous Karanvir until they are more established.
(Karanvir is so enthralled with her that he consults Google to learn how to behave on a date—“When he boarded the bus, he felt nostalgic once again as [if] he was going to date some girl for the first time. It was a wonderful feeling . . . He had asked Google many times—what a boy should do on a first date? And what things should he avoid?”)
Gursir, who had arrived in Canada earlier, is trying to earn enough money to send for his wife Amrit, but he is also caught in the LMIA scam. Shaminder demands that he train Karanvir on the big, cross-country trucks and he resents having to do so, but Shaminder shows little concern.
“Oh, bhaji (brother or boss), have mercy on me,” Gursir pleads with Shaminder at one point. “Give me some advance. I have also to send my wife’s ticket. I have not paid the rent of the basement for two months.” Gursir trembles while he says all this.
The two young men illustrate how immigrants can fall into the feared trap that immigration can represent. They are determined and yet barriers are erected at every stage. Perhaps the title is meant to refer to both the slippery roads, such as the scary winter drive on BC’s Coquihalla Highway, and the shifty road to PR that they are forced to navigate.
Sekha leaves us hanging in the end as Karanvir and Gursir drive down a snowy highway, their future’s uncertain as are those of many others in the book. Sekha’s political views are explained by translators Akal Amrit Kaur and Interpal Kaur in their “Narrative of the Notion of a Better Future.” In it they reveal the novel’s ideological perspective: “Capitalism claims an individual’s freedom . . . but the situation becomes ironic when it neglects class unity and constantly tries to keep human beings away from social liberty.”
The book’s translation poses some difficulty to English readers in that the grammar and sentence structure often mimic Punjabi accents and turns of phrase, with the result that the text can be jarring or confusing at times. Nevertheless, the story of Punjabi immigrants and their tribulations clearly reveals the difficult path they have chosen and the roadblocks they encounter. Sekha shares with us the power of their determination to succeed and the social forces that are standing in their way.
[*Editor’s note: Frosty Lanes is available via Amazon.in or the publisher; locally, the novel is stocked in Surrey at India Book World.]
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Ron Verzuh is a writer and historian. [Editor’s note: Ron has recently reviewed books by Simon Fraser University Retirees Association, Bill Arnott, R.D. Rowberry, Christy K. Lee, Colin Campbell, and Megan McDougall for BCR.]
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The British Columbia Review
Interim Editors, 2023-26: Trevor Marc Hughes (non-fiction), Brett Josef Grubisic (fiction and poetry)
Publisher: Richard Mackie
Formerly The Ormsby Review, The British Columbia Review is an online book review and journal service for BC writers and readers. The Advisory Board now consists of Jean Barman, Wade Davis, Robin Fisher, Barry Gough, Hugh Johnston, Kathy Mezei, Patricia Roy, and Graeme Wynn. Provincial Government Patron (since September 2018): Creative BC. Honorary Patron: Yosef Wosk. Scholarly Patron: SFU Graduate Liberal Studies. The British Columbia Review was founded in 2016 by Richard Mackie and Alan Twigg.
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