BHARATA BHARATI

Trudeau is singularly responsible for blowing up ties with India—not just through the fantastic allegations but by also turning Canada into a global hub for the Khalistani extremism that fans Sikh separatism and foments terrorism within India. It now turns out that Canadian diplomats, many of whom were forced to leave, were facilitating the movement of Khalistani suspects and terrorists out of India.

Unfortunately, sections of Canadian media have so far spared Trudeau the hard questions that he needs to answer and hasn’t sought accountability from a leader who has chosen political expediency over burning all bridges with a country that accounts for 40 per cent of study permit holders and contributes an annual amount of over $20 billion to the Canadian economy.

I’ll ask a set of 12 questions that Canadian media, ideally, should be asking of Trudeau.

1. Trudeau has accused India of violating the Vienna Convention by threatening to revoke the diplomatic immunity of 40 Canadian diplomats in India, unless there is parity in staff strength. Notably, India did not issue the threat, and didn’t mean to, until Canada allowed the deadline to lapse, so the essential question is whether India violated the relevant international law, in this case, Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, 1961, in calling for parity in staff strength.

Article 11.1 of the Convention states: “1. In the absence of specific agreement as to the size of the mission, the receiving State may require that the size of a mission be kept within limits considered by it to be reasonable and normal, having regard to circumstances and conditions in the receiving State and to the needs of the particular mission. 2. The receiving State may equally, within similar bounds and on a non-discriminatory basis, refuse to accept officials of a particular category.” So, the question is, if relevant rules allow for equivalence in diplomatic staff strength, why is Trudeau government gaslighting the world?

2. Relatedly, since Canadian foreign minister Mélanie Joly has blamed India for violating “Geneva Convention” in threatening to revoke the diplomatic immunity of Canadian diplomats and her boss, Trudeau, has accused India of trampling on Vienna Convention, would Canada care to explain which is the relevant law, and which precise section of it is India guilty of violation?

3. Joly repeated Canada’s charge on Thursday that Indian officials in “numerous conversations” were made aware of the “credible allegations” while refusing to specify whether any document was shared. Canada must know that leave alone “allegations”, even “intelligence”, that Ottawa claims to be in possession of, is not evidence. This has been Canada’s position, too, in the past. Why does Canada hope to achieve by repeating this ruse ad nauseam?

4. During the past few weeks, amid the explosion of violence in West Asia, Trudeau has been dialing the heads of states of the UAE, Jordan and complaining about India at a time when even its closest allies are non-committal. India has denied the allegations and asked Canada to furnish evidence or specific, actionable information. So far, Trudeau has failed to provide any proof of India’s involvement to India, Canadian public or even the Opposition. Some Canadian lawmakers are unconvinced about the nature of the evidence. When Trudeau could have simply provided proof of India’s involvement and call out New Delhi’s bluff, why is he ducking questions on evidence?

5. Trudeau claims that neither does he want to provoke India, nor does he want a fight. While these are commendable goals. Yet, instead of a diplomatic outreach, from involving third parties into the spat, desperately seeking support of allies and conducting a media trial, Trudeau has done everything possible to undermine mutual trust with a fellow democracy. What is Trudeau’s objective?

6. Canada’s foreign minister Joly was recently quoted as saying that “we take Canadian diplomats’ safety very seriously.” Why was India forced to serve a demarche to the Trudeau government for failing to act against individuals who have attacked and vandalized Indian missions and consulates in Canada, and issued “kill lists” calling for the murder of Indian diplomats including Indian High Commissioner to Canada Sanjay Kumar Verma and the Consulate General of India in Toronto, Apoorva Srivastava? Is the safety of Indian diplomats in Canada inconsequential?

7. While the Trudeau regime accuses India of violating Vienna Convention, is it aware that by letting Khalistani radicals target Indian diplomats, it is Canada that is violating Vienna Convention provisions? As India’s external affairs minister S. Jaishankar pointed out recently, Canada’s inability to provide safety and security to Indian diplomats challenges the “most fundamental aspect” of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, and Indian diplomats are “not safe”.

8. One of Trudeau’s key charges against India is that New Delhi has interfered in Canada’s politics and undermined its sovereignty. The Canadian prime minister is posing as the victim when India is the injured party. On Monday, News18 reported, quoting top officials that Canadian diplomats were misusing visa services to extend backing to the Khalistani separatist movement. According to the report, Canadian diplomats went “very soft” on visas to people despite knowing their antecedents. The gameplan was “to give visa to take certain individuals out of India. Even people those who were involved in cases were given visa and sent to Canada by these diplomats.” This is a serious charge, and was hinted at by Jaishankar on Sunday when he said that Canadian diplomats were continuously interfering in our affairs. Will the Canadian media, in the spirit of free inquiry, ask questions of the Trudeau government?

9. Canadian media has strangely given the Trudeau government a pass on Hardeep Singh Nijjar. How did the so-called “plumber”, who landed in Toronto in 1997 with fabricated identity and had his “refugee status” claim rejected three times by officials owing to falsification of identity and forged documents, mysteriously get Canadian citizenship a few years later? As a Globe and Mail report points out, there is “no public records that detail precisely how Nijjar became a Canadian citizen”.

10. Canadian media has reported, quoting Nijjar’s son, that the Sikh separatist, designated as a terrorist in India, “was meeting regularly with Canadian intelligence officers in the months before he was shot.” Canadian media has been reluctant to ask the obvious follow-up question: why would a so-called “plumber” regularly meet Canadian intelligence officials? Was Nijjar an asset?

11. Did Trudeau level a hasty allegation against India to avoid getting embarrassed by the media, and appearing weak? That may explain why the Canadian prime minister came out with a serious charge without a shred of proof to back it up.

12. While the Trudeau government has been turning a blind eye to extradition requests from India and has repeatedly stonewalled requests from New Delhi to deport fugitives from law—with latest reports indicating that Canadian diplomats were instead actively facilitating the flight of Khalistani activists against whom cases were lodged in India—the question is, why is the Trudeau regime collaborating with China to send “fugitive Chinese nationals” to Beijing? Calvin Chrustie, a former RCMP operations officer in British Columbia, was quoted by Canadian media, as saying that “he received direction ‘from Ottawa at the highest level’ to ‘assist and collaborate with’ Chinese officials regarding a ‘high-profile fugitive that they were after in the Vancouver area’”. Why is Trudeau actively encouraging Chinese interference in Canada’s internal affairs? What leverage does the CCP have over him? – Firstpost, 24 October 2023

› Sreemoy Talukdar is an executive editor at Firstpost in Kolkata.