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.