On 18th September, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused India of killing Khalistani terrorist Harjeet Singh Nijjar on Canadian soil. Trudeau made the allegations in the Canadian parliament without presenting any proof. In the aftermath, Canada expelled an Indian diplomat as well. Trudeau’s language was in sync with the Khalistanis living in Canada, where they blamed India for killing Najjar.
Not to forget, Khalistani terrorist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun of Sikhs For Justice also blames India for the murder. Pannun was recently seen in Canada while Trudeau was in India for the G20 Summit.
Trudeau’s family has a history of siding with Khalistani terrorists. His father, Pierre Trudeau, had refused the extradition request of Khalistani terrorist Talwinder Singh Parmar in 1982. As per reports, in that year, the Indian government under then-PM Indira Gandhi had sought the extradition of Parmar, who was accused of killing police officers. However, the Pierre Trudeau-led government declined the request.
Canada refused to extradite terrorist Talwinder Parmar, citing that ‘India does not recognise the British queen as head of state’
In his book ‘Blood For Blood’, Canadian journalist Terry Milewski wrote about his incident. He said, “Canada can’t be compared to Pakistan as a springboard for Khalistani militants in the past forty years, but it has offered them the great advantage of a congenial legal and political environment. The meek Canadian response to the Khalistani challenge was a frequent target of Indian politicians as far back as 1982 when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi complained about it to Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau.”
“Not much came of it. Quite the reverse, in fact. Pierre Trudeau’s government refused the 1982 Indian request to extradite Talwinder Parmar to India for murder on the quaint grounds that India was insufficiently deferential to the Queen. That is not a joke. Canadian diplomats had to tell their Indian counterparts that the extradition protocols between Commonwealth countries would not apply because India only recognized Her Majesty as Head of the Commonwealth and not as Head of State. Case closed!” he added.
Parmar was the head of the Khalistani terrorist organization Babbar Khalsa. Later, in 1985, the organization bombed an Air India plane called Kanishka in midair off the coast of Ireland. A total of 329 people were killed in the attack, out of which 268 were Canadian citizens. Notably, Khalistani terrorists had vowed to kill at least 50,000 Hindus. Furthermore, Parmar had threatened that Indian planes would fall from the sky.
Pierre Trudeau is vastly blamed for the Kanishka bombing, as it was only after the Trudeau-led government saved Parmar he started preparing for the bombing. In 1984, Parmar told his fellow Khalistanis that “Indian planes will fall from the sky”. In the same year, Ajaib Singh Bagri, a close associate of Parmar, pledged to kill 50,000 Hindus. He said at the founding convention of the World Sikh Organization, “Until we kill 50,000 Hindus, we will not rest!” It was reported by Milewski, who extensively covered the Khalistani movement in Canada and abroad.
‘Canadian authorities were aware that Parmar is planning an attack’
Reports suggest that Canadian authorities were aware of what Parmar was planning. One of the Canadian police informers had told police that Parmar promised him to pay a suitcase full of money if he agreed to plant a bomb on the plane.
“As a paid Canadian police informer, I recorded a conversation with a few Khalistani terrorists on Vancouver Island discussing an attack on Air India. In 1987, he told CBC that he used an RCMP body pack to tape their conversation on suspicion of them being drug dealers in Port Alberni and Duncan.”
He said, “I was wearing a body pack, and my van was wired, so the RCMP actually have a transcript of a tape telling them of a plot against Air India days to a week before it happened.”
Reportedly, Parmar and his aide Inderjit Reyat were in the radar of the secret agency officials of Canada. They witnessed them testing a bomb on Vancouver Island. However, the police and spy agencies did not take the information about the bombing seriously and deemed the informers unreliable. The Canadian authorities even lost or destroyed some of the key evidence.
As a result, a trial in the case of the Kanishka bombing ended in acquittal of the accused for lack of evidence. In 1992, Parmar was killed by the Indian police when he sneaked into Punjab from Pakistan.
In 2010, Justice John Major-led commission of inquiry gave a report in which Canadian police and spy agencies were blamed for grave negligence and hampering the investigation. In the report, Justice Major said that the authorities should have known that the Indian aircraft was a terrorist’s target. He called the failure of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and Canada’s spy agency, Canadian Security and Intelligence Services (CSIS) to prevent the bombing “inexcusable”.
Recently, posters glorifying Parmar were seen in Canada.
Canada’s support of Khalistani elements continues brazenly
Canada’s long-lasting support to Khalistani elements has been highlighted multiple times by the Indian government in bilateral talks, through diplomatic channels and other platforms. Now, as the Prime Minister of Canada himself has come openly in support of a Khalistani terrorist who had an Interpol red notice issued against him, India has the opportunity to call out Canada on the international platform and push for strict action against the anti-India forces using Canadian soil. As of now, the Indian External Ministry has strongly opposed the allegations.
Furthermore, the Indian government expelled a Canadian diplomat and asked him to leave the country in five days.
Under Justin Trudeau’s government, India-Canada relations seem to have hit absolute rock bottom.