Backdrop of the Indo-Canadian relationship

India and Canada have had a long relationship. The number of Indians, primarily among them Sikhs who have migrated to Canada is immense. Furthermore, hundreds (if not thousands) of Indian students opt to study in Canadian universities annually. Historically, even the 2 sovereign countries have had decent trade relationships with each other, one example of which is that Canada, being a large grower of pulses, once had India as one of its biggest customers. Not anymore though.

However, in the recent past, things that were in the making for decades have finally come to a head. And while 2021 made things worse, 2023 has completely blown up the Indo-Canadian diplomatic relationship.

Here’s a short story about how Justin Trudeau’s ugly vote bank politics and pandering to extremists has put him alongside Pakistan as a terror supporter.

20th century & Migration

The Indian Canadian community began to form around the late 19th century – early 20th century, pioneered by men, the great majority of whom were Punjabi Sikhs – primarily from farming backgrounds – with some Punjabi Hindus and Punjabi Muslims, and many of whom were veterans of the British Army. Decades of small waves of migrants continued till 1961, when the total number of Indians in Canada was estimated to be approx 6500.

Then over the next 3 decades, that number jumped enormously to reach 423000 by 1991. Many of these were genuine economic migrants, out to seek a new land of opportunities, but many of them were also asylum seekers who had run away from India to escape government crackdowns against Sikh separatism or the excesses of government overreach in the fight against unrest in Punjab (and there were many excesses, not to mention the Sikh genocide of 1984). That said, there were also many who were just criminals who found seeking asylum to be a good fig leaf under which to hide their criminal antecedents and hence migrate to ‘Kannedda’. There are several articles, stories, anecdotes about how both Canada (& Germany) accepted these ‘asylum seekers’ with no review, no evaluation and did not bother to check with the Indian diplomatic missions whether they were in-fact genuine. In my opinion it was on account of the ‘white man’s burden’ syndrome. Where the ‘white west’ believed that they & their society and way of life was superior to the ‘coloured east & south’, so if someone was running away from there to ‘the west’, it was natural & expected and of course the Indian diplomatic missions should not be consulted to check someone’s potential criminality…

Anyway, it is some among these migrants who landed up between 1961 and 1980, who brought the seeds of Khalistan / Sikh separatism with them to Canada. While their numbers were small & economic cloud limited, they kept quiet about it as they had no financial and political muscle, but by the mid 1980s, that had started to change. So much so, that on June 23, 1985 they carried out the worst terrorist attack to date that Canada has ever witnessed – the Air India ‘Kanishka’ bombing which killed 329+ people, most of them being Canadian citizens. The bombing was the handiwork of Babbar Khalsa International (BKI), a Khalistani terrorist outfit and the mastermind was Talwinder Singh Parmar.

The ‘Kanishka bombing’ is the worst act of terror in Canada’s history. Yet only one man – Inderjit Singh Reyat – was convicted and that too decades after the bombing. He too has since been released after he served his sentence and is currently free. The mastermind Talwinder Singh Parmar was never convicted (he was finally killed in 1992 by Punjab Police when he returned to India).

So here Canada had a situation where a handful of radical Sikhs were able to generate Sikh vote banks, on the backs of regular hardworking non-radical sikhs, through their gurudwaras & jathedars. From among them emerged several politicians, the primary troublemaker among them being Jagmeet Singh – who is currently the leader of the New Democratic Party (NDP) in Canada. Set up in 1961 as a combination of organised labour & the political left, the NDP was a proper lefty party for a long time, until it was hijacked by the radical sikhs about 2 decades+ ago.

2015 – Mr Trudeau comes to power

So, in 2015, Justin Trudeau & Canada’s Liberal Party came to power after 12 yrs of Conservative rule, with a decent sized majority winning 184 seats in a house of 338 . I remember the global euphoria about the “good-looking young liberal who had defeated the bad-old conservatives” in Canada. I must admit that even I was hoping for good things from him, even though I didn’t really really hear any gravitas from him. Also, upon close scrutiny, one sees that Mr Trudeau had had no major display of professional excellence before he became the Liberal Party’s leader.

2017 – the Khalistani-closeness starts

Then, just a couple of yrs into his governance, for reasons best known to him, there were signs of some rather strange ties between his Liberal Party and Khalistani separatists & extremists. One may have passed it off as domestic political pandering but this was more than that. It was active encouragement.

Link – https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/pm-trudeau-s-presence-at-event-with-khalistani-flags-upsets-india/story-s8fglhtSPyvKNz9OYyrcQJ.html

When India objected, the Canadian response was that these activities fell within Canada’s ‘freedom of speech’ principles. 🙄
Link – https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/justin-trudeau-canadian-pm-pm-modi-khalistan-jarnail-singh-bhindranwale-g20-summit-hamburg-1023292-2017-07-09

2018 – JT’s DISASTROUS trip to India

This pandering to radical Khalistani separatists has caused a lot of trouble for him over the years, especially during his visit to India in 2018, when he was publicly rebuked by then Punjab Chief Minister Capt. Amarinder Singh who called out the then Canadian Defence Minister Harjit Singh Sajjan (who was part of Trudeau’s delegation) for being a Khalistani sympathiser (which he was).

Trudeau was also delivered a polite diplomatic version of an insult by PM Modi who did not come to receive him at the airport, met him just once during his visit and engaged in none of the usual fanfare & bonhomie which PM Modi has indulged in with various other heads of state.

Even the meeting between PM Modi & PM Trudeau had to be kept in abeyance and was agreed to, only after PM Trudeau met Punjab CM Capt. Amarinder Singh and accepted a dossier from Capt. of a list of the most-wanted Khalistani terrorists living in Canada which he asked to be handed over to India.
Link – https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/amarinders-terror-list-to-trudeau-details-of-5-deadly-handlers/articleshow/63059588.cms

Of course, none of them have been handed over since. 😡

On top of all this, the Canadians made things worse, when they invited Jaspal Atwal, a member of the banned International Sikh Youth Federation, who was convicted for attempted murder for trying to kill Punjab Cabinet minister Malkiat Singh Sidhu in Vancouver in 1986, to an official event hosted by PM Trudeau during the India trip. The pictures of Sophie Trudeau & Atwal together, which appeared in the media, painted a horrible picture and made things worse.
Link: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/jaspal-atwal-invite-dinner-sophie-1.4545881

This trip was probably the worst that Indo-Canadian relationship could get. And I’m not even talking about all the jokes & memes that were made of the outfits Trudeau wore during his visit, which were, at best, comical.

Here are some media links about that disaster of a trip:
– https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/khalistan-becomes-an-issue-between-india-and-canada/article22799232.ece
– https://www.wionews.com/india-news/why-justin-trudeaus-trip-to-india-in-2018-turned-out-to-be-a-diplomatic-fiasco-346771
– https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/global-opinions/wp/2018/02/22/trudeaus-india-trip-is-a-total-disaster-and-he-has-himself-to-blame/
– https://m.economictimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/why-justin-trudeaus-india-tour-turned-out-to-be-a-diplomatic-disaster/articleshow/63059621.cms

2019 – Electoral problems for JT, his love for Khalistanis increases to a point where it becomes official state policy

Then, in the 2019 Canadian elections, The Liberal Party dropped to 157 seats, becoming a minority government, supported by the NDP (yes, the same NDP with Jagmeet Singh as its leader)

Now, calling the NDP the overground political arm of the Khalistani separatists won’t be a stretch. Their leader Jagmeet Singh has, more than once, openly voiced his support for Khalistani separatists in Canada and has even attended their rallies.
Links
– https://www.newindianexpress.com/world/2019/oct/20/why-india-wont-be-rooting-for-jagmeet-singh-becoming-the-next-canada-pm-2050109.html
– https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/jagmeet-singh-sikh-independence-rally-1.4575762
– https://www.dnaindia.com/world/report-see-jagmeet-singh-canada-khalistan-terrorists-instagram-rapper-pro-khalistan-indira-gandhi-1984-2594431

So the question that all Indians have is – since the NDP is an official part of the Canadian government, is support to the Khalistan separatist movement official state policy of the current Canadian government?

It is important to note that at no stage has Jagmeet Singh even disavowed the Khalistanis, forget opposing them. Infact, signs to the contrary began to appear where support for Khalistani separatism within Canada increased. Here are a couple of articles about Jagmeet being a fundraiser for the Khalistanis and how the NDP & ISI were seeding the Khalistani movement:
– https://www.outlookindia.com/newsscroll/canadas-top-dem-leader-jagmeet-a-fundraiser-for-terror-outfits-intel/1648643
– https://zeenews.india.com/world/canada-becomes-a-seedbed-for-khalistanis-watered-by-canadian-government-nurtured-by-isi-2336203.html

2020 and JT’s HORRIBLE opportunism

So its 2020 now, and the Wuhan virus hits us all. The pandemic runs riot globally with all governments releasing millions of dollars in aid & payouts to its citizens to enable them to survive the economic downturn caused by the lockdowns.

So does Canada…

And therein emerges the political opportunism of PM Justin Trudeau. At a time when his country was haemorrhaging millions of dollars just to support its citizens, he was actually thinking about how to use this crisis of humanity to his political benefit. 🤬

So, in an attempt to augment his political power and try to win back a majority, he calls for early snap elections, halfway through his current tenure (which would otherwise end in 2023). This election ended up costing Canada 610mn$ (Canada’s GDP in 2019 was 1.8tn$).

Can you imagine how horrible it is to spend an additional 610mn$ at a time when there is already so much money flowing out of your country’s coffers, just because you want more power than you already have??? Ugh!!!🤬🤬🤬

Anyway, all this was in vain. Nearly every single party won exactly the same number of seats as earlier, with a +/- of 2-4 seats over the 2019 elections.

And the conversation around this election has been rather critical…
Links:
– https://edition.cnn.com/2021/09/20/americas/canada-election-results-trudeau-o-toole-intl/index.html
– https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/federal-election-2021/early-election-gamble-backfires-here-s-a-look-at-some-international-headlines-day-after-canada-election-1.5594167
– https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/21/world/canada/election-results.html
– https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/waste-money-canadians-lament-c612-million-election-that-changed-little-2021-09-21/

Honestly, so much money being spent for so little change, is possibly second only to what the US have spent in Afghanistan. 🤷🏻‍♂️

Not only was it a waste of money, but it emboldened the NDP further, on account of them getting almost the same number of seats as earlier. The Trudeau govt continued in a minority government, supported by the NDP, except Trudeau’s govt was now even more beholden to the NDP, whose leader supports terrorists.

2023 & The Tableau celebrating Indira Gandhi’s assassination in Brampton.

So there was a tableau reenacting & celebrating Indira Gandhi’s assassination which was part of a parade in Brampton a few weeks ago.

How T F does Canada allow this?

Celebrating the killing of former Prime Minister of India is not ‘freedom of expression’. It is celebrating an act of terrorism – a hate-crime by all norms. What kind of a supposedly democratic country, of the 21st century, does this?

I guess one whose government relies on Khalistan terrorist elements for their vote bank and is willing to aid & abet celebration of terrorists & terrorism.

This is obscene, to say the least.

2023 June/July and the despicable call to violence and the killing of Indian diplomats

Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a designated terrorist, the chief of a pro-Khalistani outfit Khalistan Tiger Force (KTF) was shot dead in Surrey, British Columbia. on June 18, 2023. Nijjar was responsible for promoting the secessionist and terror agenda of the Gurpatwant Singh Pannun – run ‘Sikhs for Justice’ (SFJ) and calling for all kinds of ridiculous ‘referendums’ in Canada on Khalistan.

After Nijjar’s assassination, the following posters were released. and put up all over Toronto, calling for a rally on July 8th and also calling for the murder of / violence against Indian Diplomats.

This is clearly INSANE. That Trudeau’s government would sit back on this, do nothing and allow this call to violence by a bunch of terrorists is despicable.

India has served a demarche on Canada against this. The Trudeau govt has been asked by the Indian government to take strong measures to prevent protesters from congregating close to missions and consulates or desecrating the Indian national flag or throwing projectiles into the Indian diplomatic premises in Canada.

When asked abot these posters, Trudeau said “We have an extremely diverse country and freedom of expression is something that we have. But, we will also make sure that we are pushing back against violence and extremism in all its forms.”

IMO this is discourse that is not only soft on terrorism but is borderline encouragement of terror.

Let’s all wait to see what ‘good boy’ Justin Trudeau does about this, now that he has said that they are ‘pushing back’. Let’s see if he displays the same ruthlessness he displayed when he cracked down on the protesting truckers a few weeks ago, or does he pander to his vote bank & abdicate his responsibility of combating terrorism.

If he does the latter, India should move the FATF against Canada, asking Canada to be grey-listed where they can occupy the same august position that Pakistan once occupied – as a supporter of terrorism. Further India should downgrade the diplomatic status of Canada from a High Commissioner to a Charge de Affairs and put out public calls & notices to Indian students to NOT go to study in Canada.

India owes this to all its 1.4bn citizens including millions of Sikhs both within & outside India who are nationalists, patriotic, India-loving people who not only have nothing to do with this Khalistan nonsense but in-fact abhor it!!!

In Conclusion

I don’t know what Canadians think about their PM’s behaviour towards India and his alliance with the NDP and I honestly don’t care but unless a clear stand is taken by the Trudeau government against the NDP, its leader & against Khalistan terrorists, the already-at-rock-bottom Indo-Canadian relations will only get WORSE, if that is at all possible… 🤷🏻‍♂️🤷🏻‍♂️🤷🏻‍♂️

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P.S.
Here are 3 of videos which deconstruct the stark hypocrisy of ‘good-boy’ Justin Trudeau.

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