Canada-India Relations

"Is Canada home to Sikh extremists trying to pump fresh air into the dying embers of the so-called Khalistan movement that seeks the breaking up of India to create a separate Sikh country in Punjab?"
"Are there such anti-India Sikhs in the federal cabinet and the Liberal Party and its Ontario wing?"
"Mainstream Canadians outside the circus of identity politics could care less about the wholesale buying and selling at ethnic vote banks, but it’s time they should. India is no longer that far-away country of 1985 when Air India 182 was blown out of the sky by Sikh extremists, killing 268 Canadian citizens among the 325 murdered over Ireland."
"Today’s India is not just a beacon of democracy in a sea of tyrants that govern much of Asia and Africa, but its economy is booming, as is the trade between our two countries. Fears expressed by New Delhi can no longer be ignored. If they are, it will be our loss in Canada."
"It is also intriguing that the banner men of Khalistan in Canada and the Ontario legislature keep feeding young Sikhs about the immense injustice committed on the Sikhs of Delhi in 1984 when tens of thousands are said to have been killed by roaming mobs. This is done to stir hatred against Hindus in Canada and India."
Tariq Fatah, journalist, Toronto Sun

 

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau visits the Ottawa main Sikh Temple to mark Diwali or the Festival of Lights Wednesday November 11, 2015.

Canada's globe-trotting, ingratiating, smiley-face, sunny-ways Prime Minister is off to India on a trade mission. It is also, some hint, an opportunity to demonstrate to the large numbers of voting Sikh-Canadians how dear to his heart their votes are. Canada now has the distinction of having four Sikh-Canadians in the federal cabinet and a Sikh Canadian as leader of the federal New Democratic Party. Canada's Minister of Defence, Harjit Sajjan is a Sikh, as is Industry Minister Navdeep Bains, Tourism Minister Bardish Chagger and Infrastructure Minister Amarjeet Sohi.

The Government of India appears to feel that among that four and Jangmeet Singh, the leader of the NDP, there are sympathizers and enablers of the militant Sikh Khalistan movement. Canada realized its worst act of terrorism with the plot emanating out of a group of Vancouver-area Sikh separatists when they conspired to place bombs aboard an Air India passenger jet heading for India with Canadians of Indian origin. A former Sikh premier of British Columbia, Ujjal Dosanjh, vehemently spoke out against Sikh extremist violence and became the victim of a viciously violent beating.

In 2001, Indo-Canadians represented 2.4 percent of the Canadian population at 700,000 in total -- comprised of both Hindus and Sikhs. The separatist Sikh Khalistan movement in India itself appears to be quiescent, the movement waning with little desire now to effect a separate Khalistan state for Sikhs. Abroad, however, particularly in Canada, it appears the embers are being kept alive and burning by impassioned Sikhs who remain committed to the elusive Khalistan, still prepared to achieve their goal through any means.

When last Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met with Justin Trudeau at one of the international meeting venues, he asked very particularly that Canada commit to ensuring that no further flare-ups among militant Sikhs occur. Now they are set to meet again on February 23 along with India's president, in Delhi. When Prime Minister Modi asked for Trudeau's cooperation in Davos last month it was with the knowledge that several gurdwaras in Canada had barred Indian officials from entering their premises.

And the reason appears to be that many of the gurdwaras across Canada are in the process of stirring their followers up with reminders of the injustices Sikhs faced in the past by the majority Hindu population of India, restively agitating for conspiratorial action promoting Sikh separation anew. Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh has accused Canada's Sikh population of planning new violence against India. That a Sikh assassinated Indira Gandhi, the third prime minister of India, is not easily forgotten in official Indian circles.

"There seems to be evidence that there are Khalistani sympathizers in Trudeau's cabinet", the Chief Minister Singh is reported to have informed Outlook India magazine.

Mr. Singh, according to the Hindustan Times, the largest English-language newspaper in India, was slated to guide the Trudeau entourage at the Golden Temple in Amritsar. Punjab Chief Minister Singh pointblank refused a meeting with Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan last year, not only suspecting, but accusing him of supporting the pro-Khalistani movement advocating for an independent Sikh state. Despite Sajjan's and Amarjeet Sohi's denials, Singh meant to discuss the matter with Trudeau.

It appears that Canadian diplomacy is being put on a back burner, however, since Trudeau's office has stated that Trudeau has decided not to meet with Amarinder Singh, a decision that Prime Minister Modi may consider a slight too far, looking askance at the entire purpose of the state visit, purportedly on trade considerations, with no time left over for both countries to discuss matters of security where the host nation considers the visiting nation a hotbed of violent insurrection.

Seriously Delusional Storyteller Extraordinaire : Good Match for an Extraordinarily Egocentric Prime Minister

"At this early stage we have not received any of the evidence in this case, but we are eager to receive any evidence there is and look forward to defending Mr. Boyle against these charges in court."
"He [Joshua Boyle] is eager for the full story to be presented at the appropriate time in court."
Eric Granger, lawyer for Joshua Boyle

"It was a private meeting and we will not say more due to privacy considerations and out of respect for the family [of Joshua Boyle]."
Prime Minister's Office

"Millions of Canadians would love a private audience with Justin Trudeau -- after all, as his Disabilities Minister Kent Hehr put it, 'Everyone has a sob story'."
Mark Bonokoski, columnist, Toronto Sun 

"We [Boyle and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau] were able to discuss #Martyr-Boyle [unborn fourth child lost to spontaneous abortion] and the #Haqqani Network [Afghanistan-based terrorist group linked to the Taliban and al-Qaeda] in further detail."
Joshua Boyle's BoylesWorld Facebook account

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met with Joshua Boyle and his family. (Twitter/The Boyle Family)

There is something creepy about Joshua Boyle. It began with his brief marriage to the older sister of Canada's infamous Omar Khadr of Guantanamo Bay prison fame/infamy, the 'child' guerrilla trained in the terror camps of Afghanistan along with his older brothers at the instruction of their father, Ahmed Khadr, an al-Qaeda financier and personal friend of Osama bin Laden. Joshua Boyle married Zaynab Khadr, at whose previous arranged marriage bin Laden was an especial guest.

Married to another woman, Boyle, who learned to speak Arabic and who uttered the phrase "There is no god but Allah and Mohammad is his messenger", thus converting to Islam, through uttering the Shahada to submit and commit to Islam, had a profound fascination with Afghanistan. There he travelled with his pregnant wife, small-town-America do-gooder, to immerse themselves among those in Afghanistan who profess the true way of life through the purity of fundamental Islam.

His claims of having been abducted by the Taliban and held in captivity for years while his wife gave birth to a succession of three children, the fourth one spontaneously aborting, gave him the kernel of a story of personal sacrifice and the opportunity among the primitive Islamists to treat his wife the Sharia way, as a breeding cow, satisfying his urges and bringing children into a society whose culture and religion he so admired. As hostages, strangely no ransom was ever demanded for their release.

"Rescued" from the clutches of the Haqqani network/Taliban, a story of voluntarily joining them would obviously create revulsion, not admiration in the West, so Boyle chose admiration and a story to elicit compassion. Overnight, the family became a media sensation, the kind of notice that Boyle appeared to crave. What could be more fitting than that he request an audience with another man who also flourishes in the spotlight, forever seeking opportunities to demonstrate his iconic compassion?

Boyle and Trudeau would naturally have much to speak of, together. Both thespian in nature, both egocentric with some differentiation; one culturally 'progressive', the other culturally regressive; one a professed feminist, the other a male chauvinist; one in a position of power and prestige, the other endowed with neither, but seeking those social attributes as his own. Both appear to admire the brute force of anti-democratic power and authority each from their own perspective; Trudeau from the left, Boyle from the crude right.

The meeting at the Prime Minister's office took part, it would seem, at Boyle's request, and never one to shun the opportunity to demonstrate his empathy for an underdog, Trudeau assented, seemingly oblivious to the fact that Boyle has been under police investigation since mid-October. That meeting took place on December 18, Boyle was arrested and charged with fifteen offences on December 30; two counts of sexual assault, several of assault, another of 'misleading police to believe (someone) was missing and suicidal' and administering 'a noxious drug', and finally a charge of unlawful confinement.

Oddly, while Justin Trudeau is fond of preening and presenting as a friend of the common man devoted to shared selfies, no word came out of the PMO of this particular meeting. It was revealed only when photographs documenting that meeting took centre-stage on the Boyles' Facebook account, revelling in the wonders of a get-together with the Prime Minister of Canada. A situation unlike any that ever took place with any of Trudeau's prime ministerial predecessors.

As much of an oddball, fanciful-minded, barbarism-attracted, religious screwball Joshua Boyle appears to be with his anti-culture, anti-social, pro-Islamist agenda and defiance of Western values and normatives, Trudeau, as a peculiar like-spirit, exhibits a remarkable tolerance for a leader of a Western democracy when it comes to leftist dictators, considering Fidel Castro a distant 'family' member, the Chinese dictatorship remarkably, admirably efficient.

A complex man indeed, admiring as he is also of wealthy aristocrats as well, valuing his 'family friendship' with the Agha Khan, burnishing the friendship as 'equals' by flouting Parliamentary rules on conduct befitting a prime minister by accepting 'gifts' from those whose lobbying and initiatives receive funding from taxpayer-funded government financial awards for especial projects. Just one of many of this prime minister's escapades in proof of a man who believes he can do no wrong.

The Boyle Family‏ @BoylesVsWorld

Today was a wonderful experience for my family, and Ma'idah Grace Makepeace seemed truly enamoured. Incidentally, not our first meeting with @JustinTrudeau, that was '06 in Toronto over other common interests, haha.

8:35 AM - 19 Dec 2017

Margaret Trudeau's 'Golden Boy'

"So this is something that no one who's worked in Parliament has seen before. There are traditions, there's a way of working that has to exist. There are things that require consent."
"A lot of the stuff, you know, it's the tip of the iceberg that you use here. There's a lot of the other parts of the work that have to be done working together collaboratively."
New Democratic Leader Tom Mulcair
 

"It's one thing for the government to use the tools that are available to it to implement its agenda. It's another thing to take away tools from the opposition, and that's what we're seeing."
"This [Liberal government] is now taking away the tools that are available to the opposition ... changing it from having a government and opposition in the House of Commons to a government and audience in the House of Commons."
"And that is something that is extremely undemocratic."
Conservative  House leader Andrew Scheer

In a still image from House of Commons video, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, centre-right, is seen reaching in for Conservative whip Gord Brown, centre, as NDP Leader Tom Mulcair, centre-left, stands by. The video shows the prime minister bumping NDP MP Ruth Ellen Brosseau, right. (CBC)

On Wednesday morning, the Trudeau princeling who was given the assent of 38.6 percent of the Canadian vote to become Prime Minister gave Canada a demonstration of his genetic inheritance, the traits he inherited from his proud mama, in a drama-charged, impulsive, narcissistic, entitled display of a petty dictator hard at work. Impatient with the pace of Parliamentary procedures, he left his seat to make his way across the floor with the intention of escorting Conservative MP Gordon Brown to his seat.

While so doing, and while Mr. Brown kept telling Mr. Trudeau to take his hands off his person, Mr. Trudeau violently elbowed another Member of Parliament, NDP MP Ruth Ellen Brosseau painfully in the chest, to expedite her move out of his way. Another MP, Tracy Ramsay, heard the Prime Minister to exclaim: "Get the f---k out of my way" in approaching Mr. Brown.

A few moments later a confrontation takes place on the floor between Mr. Trudeau and Mr. Mulcair with both shouting at one another. A visibly upset Thomas Mulcair shouts at the Prime Minister: "What kind of a man elbows a woman? It's pathetic! You're pathetic!" This is an opinion quite obviously not shared by the man he is chastising with such passion, who feels that he is in control and all others should have the good sense to cater to him.

The Liberal government under this Prime Minister is not fond of being contested or challenged in any form. The thrust and parry of parliamentary debate when political opponents disagree on an issue is not meant by the government in power to pass a bill that would stifle debate, but this is precisely what Mr. Trudeau's Liberal government set out to do, to the outrage of the opposition parties. This situation cut a new low for any government in power.

And it is telling that it came from a Liberal government which promised during the election that it was prepared to do everything far differently than its predecessor. And so far, it  has; it has renamed government departments, gone out of its way to change legislation brought in by the previous Conservative-led government, and extolled its own virtues ad nauseum, even as it went about breaking one election promise after another.

"I am ashamed to be a witness to the person who holds the highest position in our country do such an act. I want to say that for all of us who witnessed this, this was deeply traumatic. What I will say, if we apply a gendered lens, it is very important that young women in this space feel safe to come here and work here."
"He made us feel unsafe and we're deeply troubled by the conduct of the prime minister of this country."
NDP MP Niki Ashton

Giving Advice, Spurning Advice

"As it seeks to modernize the accountability regime, we believe the government [of Canada] is presented with a timely opportunity to consider a thorough assessment of our national security structure -- from the perspective of both review and capability."
"Canada stands alone among its allies in not having the ability to monitor outbound movements [of foreign fighters and the problems] associated with using intelligence for evidentiary purposes."
"Meaningful change, therefore, should not simply involve tweaking Bill C-51 [controversial bill introduced by the previous Conservative government on public security] or introducing parliamentary review. At this critical juncture, and in the face of complex international security challenges, it must consider the modernization of all critical institutions -- but particularly those engaged in national security."
Letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau from Luc Portelance and Ray Boisvert

Peter Power for Postmedia News     Ray Boisvert is the head of I-Sec Integrated Strategies (ISECIS), after almost 30 years with CSIS in both operational and executive roles

The new Canadian Liberal government's foremost agenda is to reverse just about anything and everything that could be attributed to the former Conservative-led government. This new government is not short on vision, nor on arrogance. One thing the Liberal government is adamant about that it will not reverse is the equally controversial sale of armoured vehicles to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, a human-rights-abusing regime able to pay the Canadian manufacturing costs of military products with ease.

Brent Lewin for National Post    Luc Portelance, then president of the Canada Border Services Agency, speaks during a press conference Aug. 18, 2011

Until recently Mr. Portelance had been president of the Canada Border Services Agency. Ray Boisvert had been deputy director of operations at the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. Both of these men who were previously tasked at the highest level of Canadian intelligence and security have grave objections to the Liberal government's plan to neutralize much of the strength of purpose of the bill they criticized while in government opposition.

Parts of Bill C-51, which civil libertarians screech outrage at, such as revoking citizenship of anyone with dual nationality engaged in terrorist action, are to be scrapped. The rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and murderous attacks against two Canadian military personnel by people inspired by the jihadi ideology of ISIL, propelled the Conservative government to  put together the counter-terrorism law that the Liberals are set on dismantling.

The two men's letter of cautionary advice to the new government argued that, "although discomforting to some", a discussion is required relating to the requirement of lawful access to intercepted communications, at a time when federal investigators struggle with difficulties caused by encryption technology. This is apt advice coming directly from senior officials whose familiarity with counter-terrorism needn't be questioned.

This, however, is a government that lauds itself as a direct reversal of the previous government, and is unlikely to take advice from any source that might find the previous government had done anything to the benefit of the country's security, particularly since, during the election, the-then Liberal party leader, now Prime Minister of Canada, repeatedly asserted that the Conservatives were over-zealous in the field of national security.

Wayne Cuddington / Postmedia News   RCMP tactical officers cross the road heading towards the Langevin Block as police respond to a terrorist attack in Ottawa Oct. 22, 2014.