A year after PM Trudeau’s allegations, mistrust blights India, Canada ties
Hindustan TimesOn September 18 last year, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau rose in the House of Commons and made a statement that there were “credible allegations” of a potential link between Indian agents and the killing of pro-Khalistan figure Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey, British Columbia, three months earlier. Canada’s foreign minister Mélanie Joly described their departure from India as “expulsion”. Sanjay Kumar Verma, India’s High Commissioner to Ottawa, said, “Till the time we do not see anything informed to us regarding the allegations that he has made, we will still consider it as unsubstantiated and unfounded.” There are plenty of pitfalls in the year ahead. Importantly, it recognised “Canada-based Khalistani violent extremism” though that was described as “relatively small” and added India does not differentiate between that and “lawful, pro-Khalistani political advocacy.” On June 4, a report from the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians or NSCIOP stated bluntly that India has “emerged as the second-most significant foreign interference threat to Canada’s democratic institutions and processes” displacing Russia.