How Trudeau’s toxic politics undermines India-Canada ties

We have “clear and compelling evidence that agents of the Government of — have engaged in — activities that pose a significant threat to public safety. This includes clandestine information gathering techniques, coercive behaviour targeting —(our nationals)— and involvement in over a dozen threatening and violent acts, including murder”.

A Cold War era statement or that by adversaries engaged in a conflict? Neither! It was by the Prime Minister of ‘friendly’ Canada, a fellow democracy, at a press conference on October 14, 2024, accusing six Indian diplomats including the serving High Commissioner of involvement in a variety of criminal acts.

India promptly withdrew its High Commissioner and targeted diplomats, observing that it had no faith in the Trudeau government’s commitment to ensure their security. Six Canadian diplomats including the acting High Commissioner were expelled.

What is at play here? Are India and Canada not supposed to be friends and partners enjoying robust trade, economic, educational and people-to-people relations? The short answer is yes, but not when it comes to Justin Trudeau’s vote-bank politics, hostility towards India, and political vulnerabilities. He currently heads a minority administration, needs the oxygen of support from NDP (National Democratic Party) led by Jagmeet Singh, a diehard Khalistani, and is willing to do whatever it takes to stay afloat.

Trudeau has been actively wooing the Sikh community, his vote-bank, which comprises around 2 per cent of Canadian population but exercises disproportionate political influence and fetches him a number of seats in the Parliament. In the process he has given a free pass to the Khalistanis, even accommodating some of them in his cabinet.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been expressing his concern to Trudeau since their very first meeting in Ottawa in April 2015, suggesting that these elements be reined in. Miffed, Trudeau has done the opposite by mollycoddling them even further. Rarely have these characters felt so emboldened as they currently do, under his indulgence.

Besides carrying out virulent anti-India propaganda and glorifying terrorists they have been threatening Indian leaders and diplomats, desecrating Indian temples and attempting to sow discord in the diaspora. It is noteworthy that Trudeau tends to project ‘Indo-Canadians’ and ‘Sikhs’ as distinct identities (his press conference on October 14, 2024).

Trudeau has also been bitter about his two failed visits to India. His weeklong tour of India in February 2018 was more about optics and appeasing the Sikh electorate than substance. He donned Indian costumes, did bhangra, travelled to Punjab for a picture at the holy Golden Temple, with his delegation full of pro-Khalistan ministers and sympathisers before meeting the Indian leadership.

Used to be treated as a ‘rockstar’, he felt particularly hurt at being received by India’s agricultural minister instead of Prime Minister Modi himself, who had gone to the airport to welcome Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu the previous month. PM Modi also did not join him at Ahmedabad, as he had met some foreign leaders previously.

A few months later, during a Parliamentary Press Gallery dinner in Ottawa, he presented a supposedly light-hearted slideshow that portrayed the Indian map upside down. He termed his visit as a ‘trip to end all trips’ which ‘despite the blaring, negative wall-to-wall international ridicule, was a pretty good trip’. He quipped that being received by the agriculture minister ‘was a very big deal’. His feigned attempt at self-deprecating humour could barely disguise his resentment.

His visit to India in September 2023 fared no better. He had a testy meeting with PM Modi and on the top of it, was stranded in New Delhi for 36 hours due to a snag in his aircraft. He confined himself to the hotel room, refused to meet anyone and turned down India’s offer to place another aircraft at his disposal.

It was in this frame of mind that he addressed the Parliament claiming that Canadian security agencies were pursuing credible allegations of a potential link between agents of the Government of India and the killing of a Canadian citizen.

Differences and misunderstandings between the friendliest of nations do occur. These are addressed and resolved discreetly. It does not require either leader to rush to the pulpit to make intemperate pronouncements, unless the intention is to exacerbate matters.

In any event, India rejected the allegations as absurd and motivated. It turns out that India was right. Testifying before the national commission on foreign interference inquiry on October 16, 2024, Trudeau admitted that he did not have ‘hard evidence’ in September 2023 but ‘just intelligence’.

Any reasonable person, and more so the leader of a prominent nation, would have waited for conclusive evidence to emerge. But not Trudeau. In a hurry to malign India and do the bidding of Jagmeet Singh, he decided to shoot from the hip.

In so doing, he betrayed a misplaced sense of entitlement of a Western leader, attempting to shift the onus on India to prove that she was not involved. That the attempt ran afoul of the very basic tenet of rule of law — the presumption of innocence until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt — did not seem to concern him.    

There was more to come. Trudeau and Modi next had a brief exchange in Laos on October 10 (on the margins of the East Asia Summit). This time around, as mentioned above, the Trudeau administration decided to pick on the Indian High Commissioner, one of India’s senior-most and distinguished diplomats and other officials.    

It is not a mere coincidence that Trudeau is currently in a precarious political position. His approval rating in opinion polls is at an all-time low. His Conservative opponent Pierre Poilievre enjoys a double-digit lead over him and could win easily if elections were to be held today.

A campaign to oust Trudeau as the leader of the Liberal Party is gaining momentum. He has lost two crucial bye polls. Six of his cabinet colleagues have decided not to seek re-election. NDP has formally withdrawn support but is saving his government from being toppled. He has come under sustained criticism for failing to prevent Chinese interference in Canada’s domestic affairs and resisting demands to set up a Commission of Enquiry.

Finding himself on the ropes he has opted to play the India card once again. He has sought to wrap himself in the national flag by raising a bogey of threat from India to Canadian citizens. He wants everyone to toe his line or run the risk of being dubbed anti-national.

Trudeau is doing what he always does: he is lying. He is lying, to distract from a Liberal caucus revolt against his leadership and revelations he knowingly allowed Beijing to interfere and help him win two elections” stated Pierre Poilievre, albeit in the context of. Trudeau’s recent accusation that some Conservative MPs had collaborated with foreign interference. However, the highlighted portion speaks for itself.  

On October 14, Trudeau accused the High Commissioner and Indian diplomats for illegally collecting “information on Canadian citizens" and feeding it to “criminal organizations” to take violent actions against Canadians.

I speak from personal knowledge that Indian diplomats are forbidden from seeking classified information. They do not have to. All information is available and can be gleaned from open sources. What is needed is domain awareness, a discerning eye and an analytical mind.

A fundamental and indispensable aspect of diplomatic tradecraft is to collect and collate information from open and legal sources in the host country and even pay for it if required. It is akin to subscribing to newspapers, journals and media reports. Specifically speaking of Canada, it is perfectly legitimate for Indian diplomats to keep a tab on the activities of the Khalistani elements, including sourcing audio visual footage of their public functions and rallies.  

If the Canadian government is embarrassed by the growing international awareness about the extremist and criminal gangs flourishing on its soil, it should crack down on them, instead of trying to prevent the Indian diplomats from doing their job.

The accusation that Indian diplomats pass information on to criminal gangs in Canada is beyond comprehension and not even worthy of a response. The more relevant question is how such criminal gangs have struck roots in Canada. Why and how have they been given Canadian visas and even citizenship? Over the years scores of fugitives and criminals from India have been admitted in Canada notwithstanding intelligence alerts from India. At least 26 extradition requests from India have been gathering dust.

“Ulta chor kotwal ko daantey” (the pot calling the kettle black), is how External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar responded to the development. “If anybody has a complaint… we have a complaint about Canada. You know — the space that they are giving to Khalistanis and to violent extremes. So I was very perplexed by what I heard.”

Howsoever unpalatable, this context is crucial to understanding Trudeau’s toxic politics, which have undermined bilateral ties. It is a sad reality that national interests are often sacrificed on the altar of personal bias and political opportunism. That said, the Canadian government should be pleased to earn the distinction of becoming the first country in the world to simultaneously harbour extremists and hound diplomats.

The author is a foreign affairs specialist and an ex-envoy to Canada and South Korea. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views.