Failed Canada-India Diplomatic Relations

"To remain somewhat viable and respectable in the eyes of the United States and Canada and Britain -- the Western world -- he claims to be non-violent."

"And if he didn't [the media] wouldn't give him a nano-second of coverage."

"I think he has bamboozled all of you for a long time."

Ujjal Dosanjh, Sikh, former B.C. premier/federal cabinet minister

"We are just trying to tell India and the world that it's a ticking time bomb which could detonate due to India's constant policy of violently crushing even the peaceful initiative of a referendum."

"The [Prime Minister Narendra] Modi regime's constant policy of crushing the Sikh peoples' initiative of ballots with bullets may, against our wishes, push this purely political conflict into a cycle of violence...SFJ's videos are not inflammatory but rather informatory."

"People under occupation from Punjab to Palestine will react and violence begets violence. If India is going to keep occupying Punjab, there will be a reaction."

"SFK believes in ballots, SFJ believes in votes. The liberation of Punjab is on the cards. India, the choice is yours: ballot or bullet."

Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, exponent, Sikh independence movement: Khalistan

Sikh activist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun stands for a photograph in New York City on Oct. 25. Jeenah Moon for NPR

 

Pannun is a Canadian-American lawyer who has raised an issue of a global referendum to verify the Sikh independence-from-India movement, in a call to split India for the purpose of dividing the Punjab as a gift to Sikhs who view it as their homeland, one they call Khalistan. He is at great pains to deliver the message to Western democracies that his is the voice of reason, and his movement is one of moderation, wanting nothing other than recognition of the right of Sikhs to become a sovereign nation free of India.

He heads the group Sikhs for Justice. And in his online presence speaking for Sikhs for Justice, Pannun's rhetoric is volatile, his social-media posts appear to promote violence. Based in New York, Pannun speaks of the need to "balkanize" India in his mission to carve Punjab away from India's 'occupation', and includes support for other independence movements as well. Including common cause with Chinese President Xi Jinping, recommending he forcefully seize a disputed corner of Indian territory.

"President [Xi] Jinping -- now is the time to order the Chinese army to take Arunachal Padesh back."

"By 2047, the current boundaries and borders of India will be redrawn, and the current borders and boundaries will be wiped out from the world map."

"2024, one India. 2047, none India."

Gurpatwant Singh Pannum

Protesters hold yellow flags with the word Khalistan, as well as a banner with the picture of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh. Photograph:(Reuters)

 

"Violence begets violence" he warns; India has a choice between his referendum and possible armed rebellion: "ballots or bullets", comparing Palestinians to Sikhs in Punjab. In November, Sikhs, he said, should boycott Air India; those who fly on November 19 could endanger themselves. The shadow of 1985's bombing of an Air India flight by Sikh terrorists in Canada. Present at a Calgary rally for Sikhs, he led a chant: "Liberate Punjab, Kill India", a mild display of 'moderation'.

The non-binding referendum run by Sikhs for Justice asks whether Sikhs in Canada, Europe and anywhere the Sikh diaspora exists, asks whether there is support for making Punjab an independent country. Within India itself the issue appears to be of no moment. It is among the large expatriate Sikh community outside India -- particularly in Canada where the largest expatriate community lives -- that the issue of Sikh separation from Hindu India resonates and where Sikh fanatics overwhelm the Sikh-Canadian population uninvolved in the movement.

New Delhi, for which the prospect of such a separation is a non-starter, views Pannum as a terrorist. Interpol has been asked by India to issue a "red notice" for the arrest of the man. After deeming the request political or religious, not criminal, Interpol refused. Canada's large and influential Sikh population -- some 800,000 in number -- does not support political Sikhism/Khalistanis, but they are threatened and silent, harassed and fearful. Canada's Liberal government, however, appears to cater to the Khalistanis; some high-ranking Cabinet members who are Sikh are sympathetic to the Khalistan cause.

 

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau waits to speak to a crowd during Khalsa day celebrations at City Hall in Toronto, Sunday, April 28, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Cole Burston

 

Narendra Modi's government is fiercely opposed, needless to say, and disappointed and frustrated with the Trudeau government's response to its request for extradition of a number of Sikh-Canadians who have been found guilty of violent criminal activities in India. Justin Trudeau's public accusation of the government of India's involvement in the assassination of a committed Khalistani, denied by India, has caused a diplomatic rift in relations between the two countries, each expelling the others' diplomats.

Pannum, from his social media pulpit speaks of "genocidal violence" against Sikhs. In particular memory of the 40 years that have passed since a massacre of Sikhs by Hindus enraged after Indira Ghandi was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards. Sikhs for Justice, he announced in a video, was in support of independence movements in the Indian states of Assam, Nagaland, Manipur and Kashmir. Another, earlier video had him connecting the Palestinian-Israeli conflict to the situation in Punjab: "People under occupation from Punjab to Palestine will react and violence begets violence".

 

 

 

 

"We have repeatedly raised our strong concerns regarding the violent imagery being used by extremist elements in Canada against our political leadership. Display of posters of Indian diplomats have also been put out across Canada threatening violence against them."

"Celebration and glorification of violence should not be a part of any civilized society. Democratic countries which respect the rule of law should not allow intimidation by radical elements in the name of freedom of expression."

"[We are concerned over the] security of our diplomatic representatives in Canada. [Ottawa should stop giving space to] criminal and secessionist elements."

Randhir Jaiswal, spokesperson, India’s foreign ministry

"Politically Condoned Hate Crimes"

"In the light of the current environment where tensions have  heightened, we are taking action to ensure the safety of our diplomats."

"Out of an abundance of caution, we have decided to temporarily adjust staff presence in India."

Global Affairs Canada

"You are aware of the security threats being faced by our high commission and consulates in Canada."

"This has disrupted their normal functioning."

"Accordingly, our high commission and consulates are temporarily unable to process visa applications. We will be reviewing the situation on a regular basis."

"[Canada has a] growing reputation [as a place that shelters religious extremists, and that it's a country] that needs to worry about its international reputation."

Arindam Bagchi, spokesperson, Indian Ministry of External Affairs

Sikhs protest for the independence of Khalistan in front of the Indian consulate in Toronto in July  Getty Images

 

According to Canada's foreign affairs department some of its diplomats abroad in India had received threats on social media platforms. This is part of an unfolding backlash in the wake of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's claims in the House of Commons as it resumed after a long summer break Monday, charging the government of India's having sent agents to Canada to assassinate a Canadian-Sikh Khalistani leader in British Columbia.

New Delhi's response was bemused and swift; absurd allegations. It had no involvement in the June 19 killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a committed secessionist who worked tirelessly on agitating for a Sikh homeland in India's Punjab, called Khalistan. Mr. Nijjar was deeply involved in agitating the Canadian Sikh population toward voting in a 'separation' referendum. He was also president of a Surrey, British Columbia gurdwara.

As it happened, he was also a wanted felon, back in India. He had entered Canada, claiming refugee status failing on his application to divulge information that would have disqualified him from entry to Canada. Nonetheless, his application was refused. He then turned to an oft-used ruse, marrying a woman with Canadian citizenship, who then sponsored him as an immigrant. India had asked for his extradition, registering his status as a terrorist with Interpol.

 

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, left, walks past Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi as they take part in a wreath-laying ceremony at Raj Ghat, Mahatma Gandhi's cremation site, during the G20 Summit in New Delhi on Sunday, Sept. 10, 2023. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Associated Press)

 

When Prime Minister Justin Trudeau travelled to India last week to attend a G7 conference, he had a brief meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi. Mr. Modi expostulated during that meeting India's frustration with Canada's tolerance and indifference to Canadian Khalistanis' threat to India. A threat that saw a terrorist calamity with a bomb placed aboard an Air India jet in 1985, killing 320 onboard as it blew up midair, an act of Khalistani terrorism.

Khalistan protests continue to take place in Canada, during which threats to the life and limb of Indian diplomats based in Canada are issued. Posters of champions of the Khalistan movement who have been involved in murder are revered and marched through demonstrations through the streets of Canada in Vancouver and Toronto. As are hateful posters of assassinated former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, where her visage is mutilated and covered with blood.

This is the atmosphere that Narendra Modi chastised Justin Trudeau for permitting. During their brief ten-minute meeting, where it was made clear that Canada's inattention and inaction in response to such blatant hate messages is unseemly for a collegial democracy, Justin Trudeau insisted it was he who had chastised Mr. Modi -- for having been responsible for the death of a Canadian citizen -- Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

Relations between India and Canada could not possibly have sunk any lower. A deep-freeze, caused by Mr. Trudeau's injudicious charge of involvement in murder by the Indian government that will not any time soon result in a reestablishment of relations. A situation that will cost Canada greatly; the slander against a trusted ally, the sinking of trade between the two nations, an international community response that increasingly views Trudeau as a theatrical poseur and unreliable colleague.

Each country has now expelled senior diplomats from their missions over these stark tensions. India is furious that despite India sharing information relating to criminal acts on Canadian soil, Trudeau took no action. As for the charges of the Indian government involvement in an assassination in Canada, it is scornfully charged as being "politically driven", reflective of a huge Sikh-Canadian population toward whom Trudeau is playing the part of defender against an India that wants its sovereignty whole.

India has had a long grievance with Canada, accusing it of being a haven for Sikh separatists, taking no notice of the need to protect Indian missions and consulates from the group's violent protests. New Delhi issued a warning for its citizens living and studying in Canada -- addressing a huge student population at Canadian post-secondary institutions -- to exercise caution wherever anti-India activities take place, with "politically condoned hate crimes".

Protesters chant outside of the Consulate General of India office in response to the shooting death of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Vancouver on Saturday, June 24, 2023. (Ethan Cairns/The Canadian Press)

How To Make Friends And Influence People Trudeau-Style

"Any involvement of a foreign government in the killing of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil is an unacceptable violation of our sovereignty."

"Canada declared its deep concerns to the top intelligence and security officials of the Indian government last week at the G20. I brought them personally and directly to Prime Minister Modi."

"Canada is a rule-of-law country. The protection of our citizens and defence of our sovereignty are fundamental."

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says any foreign government involvement in the killing of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil is 'an unacceptable violation of our sovereignty.'   CBC

So 'fundamental' that the investigation undertaken by Canada's federal police failed, in investigating the source and cause of the Air India Bombing where hundreds of innocent Canadians and others lost their lives when the aircraft blew up in midair thanks to a bomb placed aboard in a scheme cooked up by a group of extremist Sikh Canadians agitating against India in secessionist plots to divide India's Punjab and create a Sikh 'homeland', 'Khalistan'.  

A bungled investigation led to a trial with an inconclusive result, the guilty parties to the plot failing, due to lack of evidence despite credible witness testimony, to be held responsible for that act of pure terrorism aimed at India and at Indian Hindus that led to the death of 329 people, 280 of whom were Canadian, mostly Indo-Canadians. A substantial, shocking loss of life with no one held accountable, though it was well known the catastrophe resulted from Sikh Khalistan separatists.

The death by assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, president of a Surrey, B.C. Sikh Gurdwara, shot dead by masked gunmen in the parking lot of Guru Nanak Sikh temple could have been carried out by two thugs seeking revenge for the Air India bombing, since he was an important member of the Khalistani movement, and a colleague of the principal suspect in the Air India bombing. If, as prime minister Trudeau asserts, the government of India was involved in this murder, an investigation that is still ongoing, his decision to release this bombshell of an accusation against India was done to serve his own interests; a grudge against Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Hardly how one democracy treats another on the basis of a 'suspected' involvement.

"We have seen and reject the statement of the Canadian prime minister in their Parliament, as also the statement by their foreign minister."

"Allegations of Government of India's involvement in any act of violence in Canada are absurd and motivated".

India Foreign Ministry

Members of the Sikh community are pictured on Monday at the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara where Hardeep Singh Nijjar was murdered in Surrey, B.C. (Ben Nelms/CBC)

 

Canada's leader of the official opposition, while in support of denouncing a presumed act of extreme violence by a foreign government on Canadian soil, criticizes the prime minister for failing to divulge credible evidence implicating India in the killing of a "Canadian citizen". The fact is that Canada has been badly remiss in its responsibilities to another nation with which it has always had amicable relations, one whose expatriate citizens make up a sizeable proportion of the Canadian public. Sikh-Canadians represent 2% of the Canadian population, while Hindi-Canadians make up 2.4%. In his wisdom, charging India with conspiracy to murder, the prime minister who excels at dividing Canadians, has created another schism between Canadian Sikhs and Hindus.

The murdered man lied on his application for refugee status, and he was denied entry as a refugee. He chose an oft-practised ruse, marrying a Canadian citizen who then sponsored him for legal entry to Canada; that practise is now on the radar of Immigration officials. He established himself finally as a Canadian citizen, and has worked tirelessly to rouse Canadian Sikhs to the controversial and troubling cause of a proposed Sikh homeland, to carve a 'Khalistan' out of India's geography in Punjab. Mr. Nijjar organized protests, some of which fulminated against Indian diplomats in Canada, going so far as to recommend their deaths, while celebrating 'martyrs' to Khalistan.

"Diaspora groups bring grievances from their home countries. Even though many Sikh Canadians are first-, second- or third-generation Canadians, that issue [secessionism] resonates."

"There's a lot of history there."

"There's no serious insurgency in Punjab the way there was in the 1980s. I think most Sikhs in India are very pragmatic and know it would never allow one of its major provinces to separate."

Vivek Dihejia, associate professor, Carleton University, Ottawa

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau takes part in a bilateral meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the G20 Summit in New Delhi on Sept. 10. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)

 

India has pleaded with Canada not to permit Sikh Canadians to openly and flagrantly protest against India, threatening violence and in fact often committing violence. Justin Trudeau has turned a deaf ear to India's overtures and has instead left the indelible impression of his complete sympathy with those Canadian Sikhs who are extremists. When India was beset with large and vocal protests by farmers -- mostly Sikhs -- who protested against plans by the Indian government to modernize its agricultural system in food conglomerate payments to farmers, Trudeau openly supported the striking farmers, a clear interference in another country's internal affairs.

Militant Sikhs in the UK which has a Sikh-British population substantially fewer than Canada's, and in the United States, cannot launch the kind of wild protests that Canada sees with its provocative outlines and its celebration of Khalistanis who have run afoul of the law and who have committed deadly crimes, that are seen in Canada. There is legislation to prevent this type of grave propaganda assaults against another country with whom the West has otherwise good relations. Trudeau's motivations are politically charged, to gain the approval and support of a sizeable voting bloc, as though all Sikh Canadians approve of his tolerance for Sikh extremism.

Canada is to India what Pakistan is to the United States, where Osama bin Laden, the architect of the 9/11 attacks, was hosted by and shielded from US vengeance in his Abbottabad compound, located in close proximity to a Pakistani military command compound. A Pakistani medical doctor whose compound was next to the bin Laden compound had cooperated with the US secret service in establishing the identity of bin Laden, and for his part in the drama, he was arrested and imprisoned as a traitor to Pakistan. Canada has done nothing to ratchet down the threats of violence emanating from extremist Sikh Canadians, despite New Delhi asking Ottawa to take the required measures to outlaw them.

"The prime minister hasn't provided any facts. He provided a statement and I want to emphasize that he didn't tell me any more in private [than] he told Canadians in public, so we want to see more information."

"[There would be] real [risk if Trudeau refuses to provide more information or if the allegations turn out to be inaccurate]."

"[Trudeau] said nothing and did nothing [regarding Chinese interference in Canadian affairs for years, even while two Canadians were imprisoned, as compared to his action on allegations against India for the extrajudicial killing]."

Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, House of Commons

Hardeep Singh Nijjar was a leader of a Sikh temple in Surrey, British Columbia  Reuters

Expressing Indian government growing frustration with anti-India sentiments taking place in Canada, PM Modi pointed to a poster produced by a Canadian pro-Khalistan group which featured "KILL INDIA" in block lettering. Hardeep Singh Nijjar who arrived in Canada in 1997 was accused by the government of India of terrorism. The country's Central Bureau of Investigation issued a warrant against him, charging him with attempting to cause an explosion, making or keeping explosives with intent to endanger life or property, and making or possessing explosives under suspicious circumstances. There was an Interpol notice issued for Mr. Nijjar.

Terrorism in Canada

"[He was found] suffering from gunshot wounds. The man was provided first aid by attending officers until Emergency Health Services took over his care. The injured man succumbed to his injuries on scene."

"This appears to be a targeted shooting. A suspect vehicle was located in the 12200-block of 82 Avenue fully engulfed in fire."

"The investigation is in the early stages and police are still looking for the suspects and a second vehicle that may have been used as a getaway vehicle."

Constable Sarbjit K. Sangha

Sikh activist Ripudaman Singh Malik (centre) was found not guilty in the 1985 bombing of an Air India flight   Reuters

 

Back in 1985 a dreadful terrorist attack took place that took the lives of hundreds of Canadian citizens of East Indian origin. Two suitcase bombs had been planted on two Air India passenger jets. One detonated prematurely and took the lives of two Japanese baggage handlers at Narita Airport in Tokyo. The other exploded over the Atlantic and all 320 passengers and crew of Air India Flight 182 were killed. That was June 23, 1985. This pre-dated the 9/11 attack that took thousands of lives as the handiwork of al-Qaeda.

At the time, there was an active anti-India group in British Columbia comprised of Canadian Sikhs who campaigned (illegally in India) for a separate homeland they called Khalistan. After 1948's partition when Pakistan broke away from India to become a Muslim state, and then Bangladesh broke away from Pakistan, it's likely that India felt it had surrendered more than enough of its territory. There is simmering resentment between Hindus and Muslims in the region. 

The breakup of the territory that India claimed as its own gave rise to horrendous slaughter as Hindus and Muslims both lost tens of thousands in virulent bloodshed as Muslims streamed out of India to gather in Pakistan and Hindus left Pakistan to live among their own. Pakistan has the second largest Muslim community in the world, and India still ranks as the third largest home for Muslims in the world, after Indonesia, the most populous Muslim nation. 

India has untold numbers of ethnic groups, religions and languages represented within her vast population. As a democracy it is not spared the universal conflict that occurs when tribal, ethnic, sectarian groups conflict with one another. The Khalistan movement representing the yearning for a Sikh homeland is one of those conflicts. A man living in Vancouver, Inderjit Reyat, was convicted of manslaughter in both bombings.

The mastermind behind the plot was thought to be Ripudaman Singh Malik. And his associate in the bombing Ajaib Singh Bagri. At the time in Canada, other Canadian Sikhs were aghast at the militant violence being expressed by the Babar Khalsa group. Those who publicly condemned them, including a Sikh B.C. newspaper editor, became victims of violence. One of those victims later became premier of British Columbia, and later yet a Member of Parliament; Ujjal Dosanjh.

It took until 2005 before the two accused in the bombings were to stand trial. Ultimately after a controversial trial, both men were acquitted by a provincial Supreme Court justice, cleared of murder and consp8ircy charges. After the assassination of Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by two of her Sikh bodyguards in retaliation for the Indian military entering the Golden Temple of Amritsar, Sikhism's most holy gurdwara, to roust out militant Sikhs from using it as a weapons depot and headquarters.

Ripudaman Singh Malik was a free man, able to go about his business and he had many businesses, including schools for Sikh-centric education that he founded as a highly respected member of his community. At his trial, it was decided that the harrowing testimony of guilty involvement given by a former member of the group detailing Malik's role in the bombing could not be trusted, leading to his acquittal. 

Yesterday a rather rough justice took centre stage, with Ripundaman Singh Malik's assassination. Just outside one of his businesses he was attacked, three gunshots rang out, an ambulance arrived to take him to hospital and he was pronounced dead. There will be an investigation. There will be an effort to discover the killers' identities and the reason for his assassination at this late date. The RCMP in its original investigation following Air India's bombing was unable to gather evidence to convict the man due to investigative incompetence. There may be a replay of that incompetence.

Multiculturalism in Canada

"There are going to be repercussions [if the bill passes]."
"At this point, we should talk about building relations with this country, we should talk about the trade."
"Something that happened 35, 36 years ago ... that has no relevance."
Anil Shah, New Delhi Canada India Foundation

"...I fail to sympathize with the priority that some leaders of the [Sikh] community in Canada -- not all -- give to labelling their suffering and victimization as genocide."
Dr.Frank Chalk, history professor, Concordia University

Sikh shops and establishments were targeted and burnt in Delhi during anti sikh riots in 1984. Image Credit: AFP

As past president of the International Association of Genocide Scholars, Dr.Chalk does come from a position of objective perspective. Genocide is a word that is far too loosely bandied about lately. It has a clear enough definition; a deliberate plan to annihilate a distinct group of people of ethnic or national origins. And here we speak of millions of people exterminated as in the Holocaust or the Armenian mass murder by the Ottoman Turks; the swift slaughter of the Tutsi by the Hutu tribe in Rwanda another case in point.

 

Relations between Indian Sikhs who yearn for a homeland of their own that they call 'Khalistan', and India is tense and fraught with incipient violence, occasionally breaking out in incidents of Hindu-versus-Sikh nationalists. Canada suffered its first dreadful terrorism act in a deliberate bombing of Air India Flight 182 in 1985, an act of sabotage by Canadian Sikhs that caused the death of 307 passengers and 22 crew, the majority Indo-Canadians. Hostility between Sikhs and Hindus have simmered for years.

But they came to a head when Sikh bodyguards assassinated then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1984, furious to avenge the storming by Indian troops of the sacred Golden Temple of Amritsar where Sikh separatist militias were taking cover. The assassination resulted in a wave of pogroms where up to 3,000 Sikhs were killed by Hindus on a murderous rampage responding to the killing of Indira Gandhi. Her Congress Party was blamed for inciting the rioters. And while one death by a murderous mob is too many, 3,000 do not constitute a genocide.

 

Sikh property was systematically identified and destroyed. Image Credit: AP

And nor should it be expected by any expatriate ethnic group that has settled in Canada -- and many have, from all over the world, many arriving as refugees escaping from dreadful persecution by their own state -- that a memorial day be set aside to highlight their special grievance, as legitimate as the grievance itself may be. It was left behind and the raging hatred should be left there as well, and not consume the community that re-establishes itself in Canada to be part of the Canadian identity.

But that was not the intention of an Ontario Member of the Provincial Parliament whose purpose it was to persuade the Ontario legislature to assign a special day of commemoration for the thousands of Sikhs that were killed in New Delhi and elsewhere in India. Understandably, New Delhi and the current Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, is anything but pleased at the prospect of this vestige of irreconcilable cultural-heritage/religious difference within his population becoming symbolic within Canada of Indian Hindu nationalistic fanaticism.

 

As large as the Sikh community in Canada is, it is counter-balanced by a larger East Indian Hindu component. Comprising 3.9% of the Canadian population, there are approximately, 1,400,000 Indo-Canadians, of whom a half-million are Sikh. As Canadians it is in everyone's best interest that they live together as Canadians, allowing their enmities to remain back in India if their differences cannot be resolved.

 

Yet Sikh organizations have been working to rally the current Government of Ontario to support legislation to crate a "Sikh genocide week" in memory of the 1984 riots following Indira Gandhi's murder. There is a good chance the bill could pass in the legislature, in the process alienating Hindu-Canadians, along with the government of India which already looks askance at the seeming sympathies of the federal government of a politically-active Sikh-Canadian population in vote-rich Ontario.  

According to history professor Frank Chalk, as loathsomely horrible as the  attacks were they fail to meet internationally accepted definition of the term, genocide. This, despite New Democrat Gurratan Singh's determination to see the legislation pass after he introduced the bill last month, claiming cries for justice among the Sikh community should be heard: "The trauma of this genocide is real and still impacts Sikhs that call Ontario home", he insisted.

And then there is the reasonable voice of Anil Shah who agreed the killings were reprehensible acts of revenge, but they were not government-perpetrated genocide. There is an unfortunate precedent when in 2017 the Ontario legislature passed a motion instigated by a a member describing the events that took place in New Delhi as a genocide which India took to illustrate that Ontario favoured the Khalistani separatist movement, which led to a distancing between the two countries diplomatically.

Relatives grieve at a funeral after the sikh riots in Delhi. Over three days in Nov 1984, 350 Sikhs had lost their lives here. Image Credit: AFP

Does the Honour of Canadian Sikhs Require Defence?

"Support for the extreme ideologies of such groups remains."
"For example, in Canada, two key Sikh organizations, Babbar Khalsa International and the International Sikh Youth Federation, have been identified as being associated with terrorism and remain listed terrorist entities under the Criminal Code."
Public Safety Canada annual report, Public Report on the Terrorist Threat to Canada

"Rather than defending the reputation of Canadian Sikhs and denying these baseless allegations, it appears that the Canadian government is content to capitulate to Indian demands to crack down on the Sikh activists."
Ontario Khalsa Darbar, Mississauga gurdwara

"Our government would never equate any one community with extremism. The annual Public Report on the Terrorist Threat to Canada is prepared by officials to describe the current terrorist threat environment."
"The report noted that the National Terrorism Threat Level remains unchanged."
"But words matter and being precise matters. So I have invited my officials and the others they work with right across Canada to examine the descriptors that are used in relation to terrorism and extremism and violence to make sure those descriptors are appropriate and proper."
Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale

"Since 1985, when I was ten years old, I have seen how Sikhs in Canada have had to wear the stigma of 'Sikh extremist'."
"Finally, after 30 years, these words stopped being headlines on our newspapers, and Sikh Canadians were seen simply as Canadians, regardless of what was on their heads." 
Member of Parliament Randeep Sarai

Following Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's trip to India with an entourage of elected Sikh Members of Parliament, ostensibly to persuade the Indian government that a free trade deal with Canada would be in both countries' best economic interests, the fallout of the trip along with Trudeau's selection of a good many Sikh MPs to sit in his cabinet leading him to boast that Canada had more Sikhs in Parliament than India does, India's media portrayed those members of Trudeau's cabinet as Khalistani "sympathizers".

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stands beside Surrey Centre MP Randeep Sarai, right in white turban, for a group photo at the Golden Temple in Amritsar, India on Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

It was, in fact, Khalistani "sympathizers" of a severely virulent bent who perpetrated a deadly plot on Canadian soil in support of Khalistan separation as a sovereign homeland for Sikhs that ended with the death of 330 passengers and crew of the bombed Air India flight in 1980. This event represented the deadliest terrorist attack that Canada ever experienced and in a search for justice the following RCMP investigation failed to produce sufficient evidence to convict all of the perpetrators of that atrocity.

That Justin Trudeau chose to visit the Golden Temple in Amritsar, India during his February trip surrounded by Sikh members of his parliamentary caucus who accompanied him on his trip cannot have sat particularly well with the government of India. Indeed, the reaction of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the Trudeau ensemble en famille was decidedly cool and it was not until the end-stage of the Trudeau trip that an engagement was arranged for the two leaders to meet. Trade deal? Not likely.

It was the very Randeep Sarai whom Trudeau had appointed as the Pacific caucus chair who had invited terrorist Jaspal Atwal -- former member of an outlawed Sikh separatist group who had been criminally convicted on charges of of attempted murder of an Indian cabinet minister visiting Canada and charged as well with the brutal assault of former British Columbia Sikh Premier Ujjal Dosanjh who vehemently opposed the Khalistan movement -- to join that very same trip to India in February of this year. A colossal snafu that must really have impressed Prime Minister Modi.

And on the other hand, there is Balraj Deol, a journalist in Ontario who is also a critic of the Khalistani movement. He has pointed out that "martyr" portraits of Sikh terrorists; those of the Air India plot suspects included, are hung in Sikh temples and have been given prominently proud display in parades representing Sikh heroism. "It [the Public Safety report] does not offend me, it does not offend a lot of people who I am talking to", he emphasized.

In 2015 a report was issued by the Senate of Canada's national security and defence committee citing the Sikh martyr portraits. That report proposed that a new law be adopted to prohibit such "terrorist glorification". A proposal that was obviously never acted upon. Yet MP Randeep Sarai claims to have been unable to find any evidence in the body of the document he decries to justify the passage linking Sikhs along with Sunni and Shia Islamists with terrorism.

"It is deeply disappointing to see the addition of imagined 'Sikh extremism' to the 2018 Public Report on the Terrorism Threat to Canada.  There is no explanation for this addition other than Public Safety Canada having tacitly accepted the false Indian rhetoric around rising extremism in the Sikh community.  Sikhs in Canada have repeatedly denied these allegations and no evidence has ever been provided to substantiate them.  Advocacy for Sikh human rights or Khalistan is not extremism and to suggest that it poses a danger to Canada is absolutely ludicrous."
"Rather than defending the reputation of Canadian Sikhs and insisting that freedom of speech is a constitutional right, the Government of Canada has taken the route of appeasement- to the detriment of Sikhs in Canada. Accepting Indian allegations of ‘Sikh extremism’ deeply maligns the reputation of the community and has a real impact on the everyday lives of Canadian Sikhs."
World Sikh Organization of Canada President Mukhbir Singh

Answerable To No One

 Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, along with his wife and three children, arrive in New Delhi on February 17

"Let me categorically state that the government of India, including the security agencies, had nothing to do with the presence of Jaspal Atwal at the event hosted by the Canadian high commissioner in Mumbai or the invitation issued to him for the Canadian high commissioner’s reception in New Delhi."
"Any suggestion to the contrary is baseless and unacceptable."
Raveesh Kumar, spokesman, India’s external affairs ministry website 

"[His Liberal government respects and appreciates the work done by professional, non-partisan public servants], particularly those in the national security and information areas."
"When they make recommendations or when they make statements to Canadians or to this government, we on this side of the House choose to believe them,” he told the Commons."
"On that [Conservative] side of the House, who knows?"
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

"There has never been a government, Liberal or Conservative, who has used a national security official to clean up an embarrassing mess that was self-inflicted by this prime minister."
"Is the prime minister actually saying that (Sarai) has taken sole responsibility for a scheme concocted by the Indian government? ... How can they both be true?"
Federal Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer


"Who was responsible for taking the picture with his wife? Who was responsible for taking the picture with [Liberal Infrastructure Minister Amarjeet] Sohi?"
"Who was responsible for sending out that invitation? Are you telling me that the government of India was? No."
Conservative MP Deepak Obhrai,  former parliamentary secretary, minister of foreign affairs

"I helped him [the shot and injured visiting Indian Cabinet minister Sidhu] and his wife into the ambulance. It’s a day I’ll never forget."
"The victims of terrorism, they have names, they have faces and they have families. To the prime minister, why would he ever meet with Jaspal Atwal?"
Alberta MP Jim Eglinski, former RCMP officer

"Atwal is well-known to all the Canadian politicians here in Surrey and for anyone to put him on a list ... it didn't make sense to me."
"It was obviously a colossal mistake. And now Mr. Trudeau and Daniel Jean have compounded those allegations."
Ujjal Dosanjh, former federal Cabinet minister, former Premier, British Columbia

Had the previous Conservative-led government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper engendered so many outraged reactions to any foreign trip by his personal clumsy, ill-informed, arrogant and unctuous performance bringing deep shame and embarrassment to Canada, he would have returned from his trip to find himself completely and irrevocably distrusted and rejected by the electorate. For some unfathomable reason known only to true feeble-brained lefties Justin Trudeau's capers are forgivable.

In his day, Prime Minister Harper was often accused of manipulating Parliament to reflect his ideas of how it should operate, but he never, ever had the unmitigated gall to refuse to respond to a direct question in the House of Commons during that rough-and-tumble daily exercise of the legislative branch querying the executive branch for responsive reasonable debate on any issue pertaining to government.

Justin Trudeau has done the opposite, upturning not only tradition but expectations of responsibility and transparency. Both of which he campaigned on, as issues he would deal with honestly and to the advantage both of Parliament and the country at large.

To a direct question referring to his trade-mission-cum-family-holiday in India of eight days' duration during which he and his family disported themselves in awkward dress-up fashioned on Bollywood excesses and failed to give reasonable attention to trade discussion opportunities that other countries took full advantage of, his administration under his close direction took the awesomely stupid step of inviting a convicted felon charged with attempted murder of an Indian cabinet minister.

This former member of the violent separatist Sikh Khalistani movement was invited by the Canadian High Commission to two official affairs, in Mumbai and New Delhi. One of which he attended, before the second, when Canadian news media got wind of the affair and questioned the rationale behind insulting a host and betraying its trust, was cancelled. But not before photos had been taken of Jaspal Atwal -- who should have been persona non grata, but as an active Liberal supporter was not -- with Sophie Gregoire-Trudeau.

This, after assuring both Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Punjab chief minister that Canada, and he, Justin Trudeau personally, would never lend their support to any terrorist group. A statement that should have rung clear and true as a bell in view of Indo-Canadian Sikh separatists having plotted and carried through to dreadful completion a plot to blow up an Air India flight in transit, killing all 329 people aboard. Then the aftermath of the Canadian justice system failing to find those accused of the plot guilty and convicted of terrorism.

Now that the Conservatives would like to see that Trudeau's national security adviser, a 35-year veteran civil servant who has stated unequivocally that the intelligence services of the Government of India had set out specifically to accomplish an agenda to embarrass the prime minister resulting in the invitation tendered to Jaspal Atwal -- despite his criminal conviction of attempted murder, despite his having attempted to murder Ujjal Dosanjh, a vociferous critic of Khalistanis, later a premier of British Columbia -- the Liberals with their Parliamentary majority are blocking that testimony.

Unabashedly and unashamedly Liberal to the core, answerable to no one, not Parliament, not the press, not the people of Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau believes he is beyond reproach in anything and everything he does. From taking freebie vacations with people of vast wealth while declaring himself the protector of the Canadian middle class, to paying out millions to Canadian Muslims charged with terrorism offences, to keeping suspect company with those charged with criminal offences, he is responsible to no agency, responsive only to his own.

His former vocation as a drama coach in a private school in British Columbia reflected his love of play-acting, and he has never divested himself of his juvenile outlook on having his good looks and family name carry him through his trajectory in life from benefiting handsomely from speaking engagements, charging hefty fees even when speaking before charitable groups as a Member of Parliament, to the charades he plays sympathetic to the plight of Muslim refugees fleeing Muslim-on-Muslim carnage, opening his arms wide in greeting, posing for those ubiquitous photo-ops.

"[The allegations] are more outlandish than a combined episode of 'Veep' and 'House of Cards' could bear."
"That the Prime Minister is exploiting a national security official to deflect attention from serious concerns about his affiliations with Khalistani extremists is incomprehensible."
"It would be understandable for New Delhi to treat Ottawa with suspicion. Significant effort is now required to build confidence at both senior political and national security level."
Shuvaloy Majumdar, Munk Senior Fellow, MacDonald-Laurier Institute, Ottawa 

"It’s obviously done damage to Indo-Canada relations. Now that [Trudeau’s] done it, he’s drawn a denial from the government of India and it has put him in a sticky situation on a personal level with the government of India."
"The business and economic side of the relationship goes on as normal. There isn’t much strategic context to our relationship. Essentially Canada is not such an important country for India right now … and in Canada lots of voters of Indian origin matter particularly to Trudeau."
Shekhar Gupta, senior Indian journalist and commentator