Sacrificing Canada-India Diplomacy for Domestic Votes

"We have repeatedly raised our strong concerns regarding the violent imagery being used by extremist elements in Canada against our political leadership."

"Celebration and glorification of violence should not be a part of any civi8lized society. Democratic countries which respect the rule of law should not allow intimidation by radical elements in the name of freedom of expression."

Shri Randhir Jaiswal, spokesman, Indian Foreign Affairs Department

"We would work with them on any evidence or any concerns they have around terrorism or incitement to hate or anything that is patently unacceptable in Canada."

"My position and Canada's position is to defend the territorial integrity of India. One India is official Canadian policy and the fact that there are a number of people in Canada who advocate otherwise does not make it Canadian policy."

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

"Though times are quite different now, India always remembers the era of militant Sikh separatism in the 1980s and associates any separatist claims of positions with violence and militancy, as a threat to Indian safety, security, and sovereign integrity."

Neilesh Bose, associate professor of history, University of Victoria

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau shake hands on the sidelines of the G20 summit in New Delhi on September 10, 2023. Photo by - /PIB/AFP via Getty Images

 

Canada has a long history of effectively shielding war criminals from the justice they deserve. Infamously, Nazi war criminals were given haven in Canada and although their presence in Canada as permanent residents and citizens has been well known to governments over the decades that passed since the Second World War, general disinterest in exiling them and returning them to their country of origin was dismissed but for a few rare instances under pressure from Jewish groups. And nor was it only WWII war criminals involved, but others as well, from Tamil Tigers living in Canada agitating for conflict in Sri Lanka, to Sikh Khalistani extremists violently expressing their hatred for India.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's pious words of 'Canadian policy' and his government's responsible attitude to having no tolerance for those preaching violence in Canada against their countries of origin is nonsense, unreflective of reality. Sikh separatists dedicated to forcing India to agree to splitting off part of their geography to satisfy its Sikh population's demand for a homeland and using violence to achieve that end finds itself right at home in Canada which hosts the largest expatriate Sikh population in the world outside of India itself where the Khalistani movement has calmed.

Charging the Indian government, as Justin Trudeau has done twice, in Parliament, with fomenting schemes of assassination in Canada to target extremist Khalistanis, represents diplomatic failures in communication and action on the part of Canada, alienating a collegial democracy for partisan political purposes. Official Canada appears to have conveniently forgotten the worst terrorist incident that Canada has ever experienced when Khalistanis in Canada plotted the bombing of Air India Flight 182 that killed over 300 people, most of them Indo-Canadians.

Former Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her own trusted Sikh guards during the violent insurrection period when Khalistani militants took haven in the Golden Temple at Amritsar and the Indian military fought a gunbattle with them at the gurdwara, the holiest of Sikh temples which the Khalistanis themselves had defiled by bringing weapons into the temple, and engaging with the military in that conflict in 1984. Since then, the Khalistani movement has been muted in India, but carried on with greater ferocity against India through extremists living in Canada.

Appeals by the Indian government of Narendra Modi for Canada to extradite convicted Sikh criminals to India to stand trial for their crimes have gone unheeded. As have appeals by Indian diplomats for Canada to respond to the public exhibitions of Khalistani protests and marches in Canada depicting the assassination of Mrs. Gandhi as well as the demonization of the Modi government. The Liberal Trudeau government has chosen to favour instead placating the Khalistani movement seeking an exclusive Sikh homeland carved out of India.

Rather than side-stepping the anti-India, anti-Hindu sentiments expressed violently by Sikh separatists, Canada's prime minister plays a game of innocence against India's accusations, instead accusing the Indian government of bringing lethal violence to Canada. By not acting to stem the violence emanating from a minority within the Sikh diaspora in Canada, this government is shirking an elemental responsibility, just as it has with the raging antisemitism being promoted and expressed through radical 'pro-Palestinian', pro-Hamas rallies crucifying Israel and targeting Jewish Canadians.

Float featuring the assassination of late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, in front of the Indian Consulate in Vancouver. (FILE IMAGE)

"Canada would help mend relations a great deal by taking seriously any public act of violence, intimidation, or harassment by Khalistani activists, and condemning such acts publicly."

"Hindu temples in Canada have been defaced and defiled by Khalistani activists and Indian diplomats have been threatened, and such acts have not been condemned by Canada."

Neilesh Bose, Associate professor of history, University of Victoria