On Monday, Canada announced the expulsion of six Indian diplomats over allegations of foreign interference. In a full court press conference, RCMP commissioner Michael Duheme warned of widespread violence, homicides, and a public security threat linked to agents of the Indian government. New Delhi has rejected the allegations, and sent six Canadian diplomats packing in return.
The accusations are appalling, and no country should be targeting the citizens of another on foreign soil. But why are these revelations coming out now?
On the surface, they provide a great distraction from the weekend’s attempted internal coup on the prime minister. The story of a revolt among Liberal MPs, thirty of which apparently signed a letter asking the PM to quit, hit the news cycle on Saturday. Then, presto: on Monday, the RCMP dropped its bombshell, allowing the PM to take to the airwaves and sound all grave and solemn and prime-minister like, defending Canadian sovereignty.
Hmm. But that would be too obvious. So let’s look at what else is going on in Ottawa, namely the Hogue Commission on Foreign interference. On Friday, the Commission heard from Public Safety Minister Bill Blair that his office sat for 54 days on a warrant to investigate Ontario Liberal MPP Michael Chan, accused of doing China’s bidding in Canada. Blair offered “no explanation” for the delay, and neither did his chief of staff.
Three days later, boom: India stands accused of being the major agent of transnational repression in Canada. China, who? And the focus switches from the Liberal government’s failings to the murderous machinations of New Delhi. And here’s the kicker: who is responsible for ensuring that the RCMP is “effective, accountable and addresses the government’s priorities?” You guessed it: Bill Blair, the minister of public safety.
According to Chapter 5 of the 2023 NSICOP report on the federal policing mandate of the RCMP, while there exists a core concept of police independence, the minister of public safety provides ministerial direction on “national security investigations in sensitive sectors,” including issuing directives to the RCMP “to implement special measures when investigating terrorist offences or activities which have an impact on fundamental institutions in Canadian society, including academia, politics, religion, the media and trade unions.”
I’m not saying India isn’t engaged in transnational repression, but the timing of this exposure is highly convenient for both the minister and the government. It’s also highly convenient for China, which relishes any chance to bash India, its chief rival for dominance of the Indo Pacific.
For whom is it inconvenient? Not just India. It’s also inconvenient for Pierre Poilievre and the Conservatives. Left-wing media outlets made noise last month about alleged Indian efforts to build a “war chest” of funds to disparage Trudeau and help elect Poilievre. The same month, the Hindustan times reported that Poilievre told Canadian Hindu media that “Anti-Hindu and Hinduphobia agendas have no place (in Canada). I detest how the prime minister has divided our people. We were getting along in this country. Now look, everybody is fighting.”
And then there’s NDP leader Jagmeet Singh, who, until August, was Trudeau’s loyal coalition supporter. When he was deputy leader of the Ontario NDP in 2015, Singh spoke at a Sikh “sovereignty rally” in San Francisco that venerated violent Khalistani leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, and accused India of “trying to wipe us out.” In an interview on a Punjabi station in Canada in 2018, when asked to comment on Khalistani separatist referenda, Singh said “in any place if people seek freedom, it is their right to seek freedom.”
Why is India apparently willing to kill to crush the Khalistani movement? Sikhs have been demanding a separate state in the Punjab since India was partitioned in 1947. In the 1980’s, the Khalistanis engaged in major acts of terrorism, including the bombing of Air India Flight 182 in 1985 which killed 329 people and was attributed to Sikh extremists in Canada. Today, Khalistanis regularly hold referenda in the US and Canada on creating a separate state, with the goal holding an independence vote in the Punjab in 2025.
None of this is an excuse for murdering Canadian citizens. But nor should it be an excuse for this government to play diaspora politics and shield its own misdeeds.
National Post