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Agence France-Presse

Ottawa’s accusations this week detailing a deadly Indian campaign against its Canada-based critics may have further derailed bilateral relations – but to Sikh activists, the striking disclosures brought validation.
Canada has accused India of orchestrating the 2023 killing in Vancouver of 45-year-old naturalised Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a prominent campaigner for “Khalistan”, the fringe separatist movement for an independent Sikh homeland in India’s Punjab state.
In public comments this week, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the national police said India’s targeting of Canadian Khalistan activists went beyond Nijjar’s killing, and has included a broad campaign of intimidation, violence and other threats.
India has dismissed the allegations.

“It was very validating,” Harinder Sohi said at a thinly attended protest on Friday outside the Indian consulate in Toronto.
“This is something that we believed in for years and people weren’t listening to us,” the 42-year-old Khalistan activist said.
The dozens of protesters at Friday’s rally waved yellow flags with “Khalistan” written in bold blue letters and repeated a chant branding Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi “a terrorist”. They also erected a prison cell around an effigy of the Indian leader.
Sohi said it was meaningful that Canada has now publicly affirmed the “danger” India poses to people living across Canada.
It “is shocking that we as Canadian citizens have to live in fear of a foreign government,” he said.

Testifying on Wednesday at an inquiry on foreign interference, Trudeau made clear his government was not looking to blow up relations with a major trading partner with whom Canada has deep ties.
But he said when faced with clear evidence the Indian government had directed acts of violence inside Canada and breached Canadian “sovereignty”, he and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police resolved to go public in the interest of public safety.
The Khalistan campaign dates back to India’s 1947 independence and within India today any support for the movement faces a swift crackdown.
Jatinder Singh Grewal, a director with the Sikhs for Justice advocacy group and a Khalistan supporter, argued that Modi’s government is intent on silencing support for the movement abroad because it fears discussion among the Sikh diaspora could fuel a movement at home.
“If you allow the Canadian Sikhs, or the American Sikhs or the British Sikhs to openly talk about this, you will eventually make the Punjabi Sikh say, ‘Why can’t I talk about this openly?’”
If you allow the Canadian Sikhs, or the American Sikhs or the British Sikhs to openly talk about this, you will eventually make the Punjabi Sikh say, ‘Why can’t I talk about this openly?’
Jatinder Singh Grewal, Sikhs for Justice advocacy group
Grewal praised Trudeau’s public disclosures and Canada’s decision to expel Indian diplomats but said more was needed, endorsing the closure of Indian consulates in Toronto and Vancouver, arguing they have been used to coordinate violence against Sikhs.
There are roughly 770,000 Sikhs in Canada, about 2 per cent of the population, the largest Sikh community outside India.
Sikhs are heavily concentrated in suburban areas, notably around Toronto and Vancouver, and the community’s vote has been pivotal in past national elections.
Last year, days after Trudeau first accused Indian agents of killing Nijjar, one former government foreign policy adviser charged that domestic politics had influenced Trudeau’s decisions on Sikh affairs.


Writing in The Globe and Mail, the former adviser Omer Aziz said Trudeau’s Liberal party was worried about losing votes to the left-wing New Democrats, led by Jagmeet Singh, who is Sikh.
Trudeau’s poll numbers are plummeting and with an election due in the coming months, questions have again surfaced about Trudeau’s efforts to shore up Sikh votes.
Holding a Khalistan flag at Friday’s protest, Inderjeet Singh Gosal dismissed any such political motive.
“I don’t think it’s about that,” he said. “I just think that Justin Trudeau is just following his principles. He believes in rights and he believes in keeping his Canadian citizens safe.”


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Canada

Sikh separatist activists with the Khalistan movement deface a placard and mannequin of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi as they protest outside the Consulate General of India in Toronto on Friday. Photo: AFP

Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau shakes hands with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a G7 summit in 2019. Photo: Reuters

Sikh separatist activists protest outside the Consulate General of India in Toronto on Friday. Photo: AFP

‘A Trudeau problem’? How India’s ties with Canada fell apart over murder of separatist leader

Police personnel walk past the entrance of the Canadian High Commission, in New Delhi, India, on Wednesday. Photo: AFP

A photograph of late temple president Hardeep Singh Nijjar (back right) is displayed outside the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara Sahib, in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada. Photo: The Canadian Press via AP

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Photo: TNS

Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (left) walks past his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi during the G20 summit in New Delhi in September 2023. Photo: The Canadian Press via AP

Canada and India expel each other’s diplomats in growing feud over 2023 assassination

Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara temple in Surrey, Canada, where Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar was killed in 2023. File photo: Reuters

Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday. Photo: Reuters

Hardeep Singh Nijjar was shot dead in June, 2023. File photo: Instagram / BCSikh

The Indian High Commission building in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Photo: Reuters

Sikh leader’s killing: Canada’s Trudeau says India made ‘horrific mistake’

Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau testifies at the Foreign Interference Commission in Ottawa on Wednesday. Photo: Canadian Press via AP

A motorist rides past the entrance of the Canadian High Commission in New Delhi, India, on Wednesday. Photo: AFP

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A Canadian flag in Montreal, Quebec. Photo: Bloomberg

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There are roughly 770,000 Sikhs in Canada, about 2 per cent of the population – the largest Sikh community outside India


There are roughly 770,000 Sikhs in Canada, about 2 per cent of the population – the largest Sikh community outside India.
