John Ivison: Canada and India need to call a swift end to their diplomatic war

Canada is at war — diplomatically at least — with, of all countries, India.

This is the India that fought alongside Canada against the Japanese and Germans in the Second World War; a fellow democracy and member of the Commonwealth that is an ostensible ally against authoritarian states like China.

Yet, relations between the two countries have just turned from bad to worse, with neither government apparently in any hurry to make nice.

The latest chapter in a saga that is becoming increasingly personal was written on Sunday, when the Indian government released a scathing statement that said New Delhi had received a note from Canada suggesting that its High Commissioner in Ottawa, Sanjay Kumar Verma, and other diplomats are “persons of interest” in the investigation into the killing in Canada last year of a Sikh separatist.

The statement rejected “these preposterous imputations” and blamed the political agenda of Justin Trudeau’s government, which it said “is centred around vote bank politics” in the Sikh community.

The Indians said the Canadian government has still not shared any evidence, leaving no doubt in the mind of the recently re-elected government of Narendra Modi that “there is a deliberate strategy of smearing India for political gains.”

In remarkably undiplomatic language, the statement said that “Trudeau’s hostility to India has long been in evidence,” following his ill-starred visit to the subcontinent in 2018.

“His cabinet has included individuals who have openly associated with an extremist and separatist agenda, regarding India… (and) his government was dependent on a political party whose leader (the NDP’s Jagmeet Singh) openly espouses a separatist ideology vis-a-vis India,” it read.

New Delhi once again accused Trudeau’s government of “providing space” for violent extremists and terrorists to threaten Indians in Canada. “All of these activities have been justified in the name of freedom of speech,” it said. “Multiple extradition requests from the government of India in respect of terrorists and organized crime leaders living in Canada have been disregarded.”

The statement said the aspersions cast on the Indian High Commissioner in Ottawa are “ludicrous” and that India reserves the right to “take further steps.”

Many of the allegations against Trudeau are familiar and some are valid.

But so, it appears, are the counter-arguments made by the RCMP in a highly unusual public statement.

It said “an extraordinary situation” compelled it to speak about what has been discovered in its multiple ongoing investigations into the murder of Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar and other incidents, that involved agents of the government of India engaging in “serious criminal activity in Canada.”

“It is not our normal process to publicly disclose information about ongoing investigations, in an effort to preserve their integrity. However, we feel it is necessary to do so at this time, due to the significant threat to public safety.”

The Mounties said that law enforcement in Canada has on more than a dozen occasions had to warn members of the South Asian community, and specifically members of the pro-Khalistan movement, about credible and imminent threats to their lives.

The suggestion is that Singh Nijjar’s murder was not an isolated case.

The RCMP said that a senior Canadian law officer, the prime minister’s national security adviser and the deputy minister of foreign affairs met with Indian officials on the weekend to present evidence about the involvement of Indian agents in homicides and “violent acts,” as well as interference in the democratic process and the use of organized crime to target South Asian communities.

Those are remarkable allegations to make without providing any evidence.

What can be said about it?

It should be remembered that Trudeau raised the temperature last year when he told the House of Commons that Canada had “credible evidence” of Indian involvement in a murder, effectively labelling Modi an accessory in homicide.

The Indian government responded with allegations about vote bank politics that are not entirely baseless.

Trudeau has allowed diaspora politics to unduly influence foreign policy, pledging that “Sikh values are Canadian values” at events and failing to crack down on suspected Khalistani extremists living in Canada.

India’s National Investigation Agency has identified individuals in Canada it accuses of extortion, terrorism, smuggling and money laundering. It has sought their extradition but to no avail, on the grounds that suspects could be tortured if returned to India.

Canada has allowed Sikh extremism to flourish, such as the Khalistani parade float that celebrated the assassination of former Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi that toured the streets of Toronto in 2023. The government claims that it is powerless because of Charter rights that protect free speech. But the Charter does not explain why law enforcement has apparently turned a blind eye to worse excesses.

The Indian government alleges that Nijjar ran a terror training camp for the militant Khalistan Tiger Force in Mission, B.C., yet he was not arrested or charged.

One former Liberal foreign policy adviser, Omar Aziz, wrote in the Globe and Mail that the reason the Trudeau government did not clamp down on Khalistani financing or activities was that the prime minister “didn’t want to lose the Sikh vote to Jagmeet Singh, so we dug in our heels.”

While Canada has arguably “provided space” for extremists, it is equally apparent that the Modi government has been engaging in illicit acts to stamp out opposition.

Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party was re-elected in June, in part because of his Hindu nationalist agenda that includes standing up to Western neo-colonialism. Modi played on the image of being a strongman willing to defend national security, even if it meant going outside India’s borders. Revelations in the Washington Post earlier this year that officers in India’s foreign intelligence agency were linked to the Nijjar murder and a plot to kill his New York-based associate, Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, were dismissed without apology in New Delhi. The Post story said the Biden Administration, conscious of its need for India to act as a counterweight to China, said the U.S. would refrain from a punitive response if India held those responsible to account.

The approach was viewed as too accommodating by some U.S. officials, but it contained the fall-out.

India’s importance in a world that is cleaving into two camps is undeniable and politicians in both Canada and India need to focus on their common agenda and turn down the heat.

Independent Toronto MP Kevin Vuong posted on X that the latest spat with India comes two days before Trudeau is back on the stand at the foreign interference inquiry. He said Canada’s strategic interests are being mortgaged for “selfish, short-term political deflection.”

It was a charge the Indian government also made, saying that the allegations being made “serve the anti-India separatist agenda that the Trudeau government has constantly pandered to for narrow political gains.”

It is very much to be hoped that the RCMP has not allowed itself to be used for such blatantly partisan purposes.

Regardless, the prime minister would be well-advised to bite his tongue, make conciliatory noises on the stand and leave the murder investigation to law enforcement.

India is a flawed democracy, which has seen the erosion of individual rights and freedom of speech under Modi. But we are a like-minded democracy that, by and large, shares an agenda when it comes to promoting the rules-based order that has ensured stability and prosperity for seven decades.

It is simply not in Canada’s interests to be at odds with New Delhi and the first step to restoring a constructive bilateral relationship is for our politicians to stop trying to manipulate it for political advantage.

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