"[A moment of silence was agreed upon by] all parties in the House [before inviting MPs to rise] in memory of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, assassinated in Surrey, British Columbia, one year ago today."
Speaker of the House, Greg Fergus
"[The gesture's purpose was to recognize] the murder of a Canadian in Canada ... and that that is entirely unacceptable."
"I think all of us should feel safer and more secure knowing that [Trudeau] will stand for Canadians and against the killers of Canadians."
Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland
"Canadian security agencies have been actively pursuing credible allegations of a potential link between agents of the government of India and the killing of a Canadian citizen, Hardeep Singh Nijjar."
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
There was a moment of silence for Hardeep Singh Nijjar in the House of Commons on June 18.Photo by ParlVu
The separatist Khalistan movement in India itself is quiescent. Sikhs living in India appear to have adjusted their expectations from loudly and often violently advocating for a separate Sikh homeland in the Punjab, to the present time when the Indian Sikh community seems to have no interest in re-awakening a conflict that saw their Golden Temple at Amritsar used by militant Sikhs to launch a violent insurrection against India, leading to Indian troops invading the temple to rout the militants.
Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi trusted Sikhs to the extent that they formed her personal bodyguard. Yet it was from among that personal bodyguard that her assassination following the raid on the Golden Temple was carried out. The hostilities between Hindu India and Sikhs in India cost many lives during a period of distrust, rage and violence. That was then, this is now, when all live peacefully, the issue of a Khalistan sovereign state shelved.
It has been kept alive, however, not by Sikhs in India, but by the great numbers of diaspora Sikhs living in Great Britain and in Canada. A minority of Canadian Sikhs subscribe to violence in the name of a Khalistani state. They have perpetrated vicious crimes against other Canadian Sikhs who condemn their violence in the name of their Khalistan dream. And a cabal of Sikh terrorists were responsible for the single most deadly act of terrorism perpetrated from Canada.
A plan to strike a blow for Khalistani independence was hatched in British Columbia within its large Sikh community by a handful of violence-addicted Sikhs. Air India Flight 182 became a target in 1985 when a bomb was placed aboard the passenger jet causing it to disintegrate over the Atlantic causing the immediate deaths of all 329 people aboard, 268 of whom were Canadian citizens. Those responsible were known, charged and tried for the crime. However, only one man pleaded guilty, the bombmaker. The other two who masterminded the plot went on trial decades after the event, and found not guilty.
To this day, celebrations of Sikh terrorist leaders are paraded in Canada, and the campaign for a Khalistani homeland continues One of those who was involved in a leadership role was assassinated in Surrey, British Columbia, a suburb of Vancouver, shot to death as a separatist figure. Hardeep Singh Nijjar was listed in India as a terrorist suspect involved in a 2007 bombing in a Punjab cinema. Indian intelligence identified him as the operator of a terrorist training camp in Mission, B.C.
A list of nine Indian terror operatives that included Nijjar was given to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on his 2018 visit to India. At the time of his death Nijjar's name appeared on a no-fly list, his bank accounts had been frozen by Canadian authorities. A breakdown in India-Canada relations occurred when Justin Trudeau accused the government of India of having staged Nijjar's assassination. The friendship and mutual support between India and Canada evaporated with that charge, to which no evidence was attached.
A person walks past signs showing Hardeep Singh Nijjar at the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara in Surrey, B.C., on Friday, May 3, 2024.Photo by ETHAN CAIRNS /THE CANADIAN PRESS
A week ago on the one-year anniversary of Nijjar's death, supporters of Khalistan massed outside the Indian consulate in Vancouver, with Khalistani flags, where they staged a mock trial and execution of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. A distinct resemblance to the pro-Hamas crowds in Canada post-October 7's massacre of Israelis, where an effigy of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was hanged several weeks ago.
A mere five days before the anniversary of the 1985 Air India bombing, the Parliamentary moment of silence was staged. The Air India anniversary, on the other hand, was not an occasion for a moment of silence in the House of commons. And then Parliament adjourned for its summer break. Before it did, Member of Parliament Chandra Arya warned that Canada failed to contain "the dark forces" that caused that terrorist attack. "Unfortunately, many Canadians are not aware that even today the ideology responsible for this terrorist attack is still alive among a few people in Canada."
. Assured him that India would do its best to facilitate supplies of COVID vaccines sought by Canada. We also agreed to continue collaborating on other important issues like Climate Change and the global economic recovery.
The Serum Institute in India is the world's largest producer of vaccines, located in Pune, Western India. It has a contract with AstraZeneca to supply its COVID-19 vaccines for global distribution, along with supplying its own massive population with the vaccines. AstraZeneca's vaccine has not yet been approved by Health Canada, but the situation in Canada of decreasing numbers of vaccine doses being received has halted its initiative to inoculate its most vulnerable populations before embarking on a general vaccination of the entire population.
"I can highlight that India has been a great partner in
fighting COVID, whether it's helping us with delivery of other
pharmaceuticals or whether it's working together on potential vaccines."
"We're going to
continue to build on the strong relationship between Canada and India
and ensure that we're looking out for our citizens, while at the same
time we're looking to recover the global economy and create
opportunities for everyone."
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
Left: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Right: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. (Amir Cohen, Blair Gable/Reuters)
At the rate of vaccination that Canada currently occupies, it is in about 38th place worldwide, behind Singapore, Turkey, Croatia, Austria, Czech Republic, France, Cyprus, Sweden, Belgium, Portugal, Hungary, Germany, Finland, Greece, Norway, Estonia, Slovakia, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Ireland, Iceland, Romania, Maldives, Denmark, Chile, Serbia, Malta, U.S., Bahrain, U.K., UAE, Seychelles, and of course, number one, Israel.
Those over 80 in Canada will likely not be vaccinated until April. Seniors and the health-impaired and their caregivers in long-term care facilities were scheduled to be the first, along with frontline health-care workers, to receive the vaccine doses received from Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech, and while the undertaking had begun, Canada was advised by both pharmaceutical companies that there would be delays in providing the entire anticipated tranches as scheduled. A setback which has idled the vaccination enterprise.
Canada turned to the UN-inspired COVAX program, meant to provide under-developed and poor nations with vaccines. Not a good look. A wealthy country like Canada which has, albeit tardily, pre-ordered tens of millions of doses of COVID vaccine from a variety of producers, even while it has back-of-the-line status because it took so long to begin its ordering. A wait that occurred as a result of making an ill-fated agreement with CanSino to co-develop a vaccine which Beijing ultimately refused export to Canada.
Leaving a desperate government of Canada, to look elsewhere, anywhere, for vaccines in a world becoming increasingly nation-specific-vaccine-aggressive. Where producing countries are looking, for obvious reasons, to ensure that their own populations are inoculated before allowing vaccines to be shipped elsewhere. In the precarious situation Canada finds itself in, the current government sees its vote-potential for a near election plummeting.
Motivating the government to frantically call upon vaccine manufacturers to come to its aid. India is investing its energy in supplying have-not nations, and along comes Canada to ask for special dispensation. India, a country with which Canada had good relations, but between them now diplomacy has taken a hit. Prime Minister Modi strikes a delicate balance between suspicion of a Canadian prime minister who has quite a few Sikhs in his party and in his Cabinet suspected of sympathy for an independent Sikh homeland, Khalistan, and maintaining friendly relations with Canada.
Moreover, this is a Canadian prime minister who has not hesitated to embarrass his Indian counterpart by commenting critically on interior government matters in India, aside from the fact of an embarrassing state visit a few years back when Justin Trudeau made an absolute ass of himself, as an embarrassment both to Canada and to India; with a lack of diplomatic prudence in bringing along an avowed Khalistani sympathizer and supporter of Mr. Trudeau's Liberal party.
So far, 3.06 Canadians per 100 people have been vaccinated. The Trudeau government insists that by September all Canadians wishing to be inoculated, will be. A promise that looks highly unlikely to be fulfilled. Most Canadians, keeping abreast of conditions and the lack of vaccine shipments now anticipate that full inoculation will only take place by halfway through 2022, leaving Canada far, far behind its wealthy-nation counterparts. A hugely disappointing performance.
This represents a general opinion site for its author. It also offers a space for the author to record her experiences and perceptions,both personal and public. This is rendered obvious by the content contained in the blog, but the space is here inviting me to write. And so I do.