THE ADVOCATE 753
VOL. 79 PART 5 SEPTEMBER 2021
NEW JUDGES
By R.C. Tino Bella
The Honourable Judge Satinder Kaur Sidhu
In March 2020, Satinder Kaur Sidhu was appointed to
the Provincial Court of British Columbia to sit in Surrey.
It is entirely appropriate that she now presides
at the Surrey courthouse, since that is where she
began her exemplary career as Crown counsel.
Although she hails from Kamloops, Satinder was
born in India and immigrated to Canada when she
was four years old. Her father, Kewal Sidhu, had first moved to Canada in
search of a better life for his young family. After he found work in a sawmill
in Kamloops, his wife Gurdip, Satinder and her oldest sister Jasvinder
moved to Kamloops to join him. Their story is familiar: Kewal and Gurdip
worked hard to provide for the growing family and to provide opportunities
for their children.
Their efforts paid off in a very big way, as all five of their children are
extremely successful, down-to-earth and genuinely nice people. Jasvinder
is a teacher as are Satinder’s younger twin sisters, Jasbir and Balbir. Her
brother Gurminder is a loyalty help representative at TELUS.
Satinder attended high school at NorKam Secondary School and then went
to the University of Calgary for her first year of undergraduate studies.
Although she enjoyed the university, she did not like having snow underfoot
from Thanksgiving until after Easter, so she returned to British Columbia and
completed her business administration degree at Simon Fraser University.
Satinder then entered law school at UBC, graduating with her LL.B. in 1995.
Unsurprisingly, Satinder was offered and accepted one of the highly
sought-after articled student positions at the B.C. Attorney General’s office.
Upon her call to the bar, and having made an impression during her articles,
Satinder was offered a position as Crown counsel in Surrey. She readily