Trudeau Mishandles the Nijjar Killing Incident

Trudeau Fumbles Handling of the Nijjar Killing Incident

May 8, 2024 TruthUSA

It is inconceivable that India would be so foolish as to believe it could escape detection by an advanced country when pursuing extremists.

Commentary

Ottawa and New Delhi are currently embroiled in a diplomatic row over allegations of an Indian hit team operating in Canada.

On May 3, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP)—you know, the storied men in scarlet who always get their man—announced the arrest of three Indian nationals for the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey, British Columbia in June.

The three young men have been in Canada for three to five years.

The clash of cultures between the two countries is exacerbated by the clashing personalities of their leaders.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has adopted virtue signalling and progressivism as part of his policy suite.

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For example, ex-pats Nigerian Obianuju Ekeocha and David Mulroney (former Canadian ambassador to China), noted that in the name of a “feminist” foreign policy, a major share of Canada’s foreign aid is directed at “sexual and reproductive health and rights” that challenges widely-held core beliefs of most African people in the sanctity of life, and the primacy of the family.

Canada should “talk less and listen more.”

Meanwhile, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a muscular Hindu nationalist, widely regarded in Canada as anti-Muslim and increasingly authoritarian.

In a 23-country poll by the Pew Research Center last August, only 47 percent of Canadians held favourable views of India. Israel led with 71 percent favourable opinions, the UK was 66, and the United States at 51 percent.

What’s Happened So Far?

The bombshell allegations were first raised by Mr. Trudeau on Sept. 18.

Canada’s security agencies, he told Parliament, were “actively pursuing credible allegations of a potential link” between Mr. Nijjar’s murder and Indian agents. Most media reports failed to grasp the subtle ambiguity of Prime Minister Trudeau’s carefully parsed words.

India forcefully denied any involvement, describing the “unsubstantiated” charge as “absurd.”

Indians, including the Sikh-majority government of the state of Punjab, believe that intra-Sikh quarrels in British Columbia’s volatile gurdwara politics was the more likely source of Mr. Nijjar’s killing.

Troublingly, Mr. Trudeau is yet to provide any evidence of the serious charges. Instead, in effect he told Modi: We think you are guilty. Help us prove it. The court case against the three arrestees will be eagerly watched by Trudeau-doubting Canadians as well as India.

Mr. Nijjar was a wanted man in India with a $16,000 bounty on his head. India has long accused Canada of being too tolerant of anti-Indian activities and statements by the Sikh diaspora because of their electoral importance in domestic politics.

The issue tainted Prime Minister Trudeau’s India trip in 2018 when his Hollywood extravaganza-style dresses earned him a reputation of being deeply unserious.

It resurfaced with his blundering support for agitating Sikh farmers in 2020. Indians recalled and mocked these when Mr. Trudeau suppressed his own Freedom Convoy of truckers with extraordinary heavy-handedness.

Mr. Trudeau’s characteristically ham-handed approach to bilateral relations with an important country contrasts sharply with the maturity shown by the Biden administration south of the border. And that is saying something.

On Nov. 29, an Indian national was formally indicted in a New York court for a thwarted conspiracy to assassinate Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a dual American-Canadian citizen.

Washington warned New Delhi of concerns

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