Amarjeet Sohi's political rise from prison to power

The story of Amarjeet Sohi's rise to the heights of political power is anything but typical.

In the past 30 years he has been an actor, a social activist, an immigrant who arrived in Canada speaking virtually no English, a political prisoner back home in his native India, and finally a university student, a bus driverand a city councillor.

Now he is a federal cabinet minister in charge of a department that will dole out billions of dollars for infrastructure projects across the country.

Through it all, Jagdev Sohi has watched his younger brother work hard and learn and climb the ladder in the country he loves.

"Canada, like he puts it, is a magical country. You can bewhatever you want to be, if you put your heart to it. And he is living proof of that."

In 1988, Amarjeet Sohi was a young social activistworking in India. He was accused of being a terrorist, chargedand imprisonedfor 18 months.

"It was 18 months of hell, let's put it that way," his brother said this week. "Because it was just both of us and our kids here at that time. My parents were in India at that time."

Jagdev's wife, Rajinder, said the family lives constantly with those memories. "It's fresh, as he said, always in our minds. We can't forget."

Life is measured in moments and milestones. Wednesday, when her brother-in-law joined the federal cabinet as infrastructure minister, was an important one, Rajinder said.

"The first milestone for me was when he came out of the jail. That was a big thing. But this is the second one. The first one was much more important, as far as I'm concerned, because that time his life was involved."

Jagdev Sohi said he is confident his brother will approach his new job the way he has tackled all the other challenges he has faced.

His brother, he said,will take with him to Ottawa"his dedication to his joband his dedication to the people."

The Sohis are used to having a busy politician in the family.

"Sometimes, even here, we didn't see him for weeks," Jagdev said. "We would go to his place our dad lives next door to him with our middle brother and he wouldn't see him for days. That's how he is;he works so hard. Once he puts his mind and heart to something . . . .I'm sure he'll be successful in this position too."