Trudeau’s statements on India may have spurred clashes in Canada

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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s decision to go public with foreign interference claims against India lies in stark contrast with the way the United States handled similar allegations and could be at the root of violent clashes seen in recent days between Sikh and Hindu crowds in Brampton, Ont., and Surrey, B.C., say India experts.

Last year, Trudeau told Parliament that Indian government agents were part of the plot to murder Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a pro-Khalistan Sikh shot down on June 18, 2023, in the parking lot of a British Columbia temple. Last month, the prime minister told the federal inquiry into foreign interference that he wasn’t looking to provoke a fight with the government of India, but that its agents are playing a role in widespread violence in Canada, including killings, something India has denied.

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“I can’t see how it’s helped,” said Sanjay Ruparelia, an associate professor of political science at Toronto Metropolitan University.

“It’s a really grave and serious accusation. There has to be an investigation. It has to be completed … But I think the fact that senior political leaders have gotten involved makes it harder to find a resolution, certainly publicly.”

Diplomatic relations between Canada and India “are in the deep freeze,” Ruparelia said. “I imagine there are back-channel discussions going on at the highest level to the extent that that’s possible. But publicly, there’s a standoff and an impasse between the two governments.”

In recent days the diplomatic dispute between Canada and India has escalated, due to clashes between groups in the Indian diaspora. On Sunday, video footage showed clashes at the Hindu Sabha Mandir in Brampton. On Monday night, hundreds of protesters marched near the temple, before being dispersed by police, who said weapons had been observed. Three people have been arrested in connection with Sunday’s violence, Peel Regional Police have said.

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Narendra Modi, the Indian prime minister, said Sunday’s fighting was a “cowardly” attempt to intimidate Indian consular officials, who were visiting the temple.

“I strongly condemn the deliberate attack on a Hindu temple in Canada,” he wrote on X.

Beyond the protests on the streets, including in British Columbia where three were arrested at the Lakshmi Narayan Mandir temple in Surrey, the diplomatic crisis continues to escalate.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police have said they have evidence linking Indian government officials to crimes in Canada, and in the United States, law enforcement has made similar allegations about a foiled assassination attempt on U.S. soil.

“India has consistently refuted these allegations and tensions have escalated,” Ruparelia said.

The difference between the two countries: political involvement.

“You raise the stakes when the highest political leaders are making these statements,” Ruparelia said.

“They’ve compartmentalized the issue in the United States,” Ruparelia said. “The relationship there is sort of wider and of strategic importance to both countries compared to the relationship between Ottawa and New Delhi.”

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When leaders, including Trudeau and Modi, wade into the fray it “ups the ante,” Ruperalia said.

That’s “going to incentivize both governments to really stick to their positions, at least publicly. So, I think that’s part of the dynamic that’s at work, which in some ways intensifies the conflict between the two countries.”

India is a lot more co-operative with the United States, “and I think that’s telling of Canada and maybe something we need to take more seriously,” said Rupinder Liddar, a PhD student of political science at McGill University whose research focuses on Sikh-Canadian political behaviour.

Some believe Trudeau’s public statements about Indian interference was aimed at getting the Sikh community in Canada on his side, Liddar said.

“I’m not sure dealing with the diplomatic tensions that came with this is potentially worth it,” she said. “I think leaving it up to the Mounties and the intelligence agencies, that certainly could have been done. And had that been done, I’m not sure that this issue would have almost blown up in the way it did.”

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She noted that Indian state media is “really antagonistic against Justin Trudeau, specifically. They never say Canada-India tensions. It’s always India versus Justin Trudeau, specifically.”

The front page of the Hindustan Times noted that the Indian government “expressed concern about the safety of Indian nationals in Canada,” and the front page of the Asian Age newspaper paraphrased Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, India’s minister of external affairs, who said freedom is being misused in Canada by extremists.

Trudeau’s address to Parliament last year pointing fingers at India “made him the villain,” Liddar said. “I truly don’t know why he did it. Maybe it’s to stand up to the bully.”

Liddar, a third-generation Canadian, fears violence between Sikhs and Hindus in Ontario and B.C. will stoke anti-immigration sentiment here.

“This kind of fanned the flames for a lot of people who have existing anti-immigrant sentiments or they feel that immigration in Canada has gone too far. That we’ve imported issues from the other world here,” she said. “It’s kind of given them a leg to stand on with those arguments.”

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