Canada Has Double Standards Against Terror Outfits. India And West Don’t Have To Follow It By Dr Seshadri Chari Author is a Secretary General of the Forum for Integrated National Security (FINS).

. A politically weak Justin Trudeau is free to sacrifice Canada's economic benefits. He has erred in haste and will repent at leisure after imminent political defeat soon. India-Canada relations have sunk to a new low following the allegation of the Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that New Delhi was involved in the killing of pro-Khalistan leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar on Canadian soil, Trudeau is heading a minority government supported by 24 members of the New Democratic Party (NDP), led by Jagmeet Singh, 

whose political agenda include decriminalising drug use and repeal of Canada’s Anti-terrorism Act. Meanwhile, another wanted fugitive turned 8 outside the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara Sahib in Surrey, British Columbia. India has denied the allegations. Trudeau is heading a minority government supported by 24 members of the New Democratic Party (NDP), led by Jagmeet Singh, whose political agenda include decriminalising drug use and repeal of Canada’s Anti-terrorism Act.

 Meanwhile, another wanted fugitive turned gangster, Sukhdool Singh Duneka, was reportedly killed in an inter-gang rivalry in Canada. Trudeau doesn’t seem to be new to diplomatic faux pas. In 2018, Canadian foreign minister Chrystia Freeland posted a tweet (translated into Arabic and resent by the Canadian embassy in Riyadh) criticising the Saudi government for arresting a Saudi human rights activist. Saudi Arabia ordered the Canadian ambassador to leave within 24 hours, recalled its diplomat, froze all flights to Canada, put all bilateral trade on hold, asked Saudi students in Canadian universities to relocate at government’s expense, and called for immediate unconditional apology. Canada sought help from the UAE, UK, and US to diffuse the issue but none of them obliged. 

Later, the US is said to have mediated and brought the two estranged countries to the negotiating table. In yet another diplomatic row between China and Canada, Trudeau had to eat humble pie when Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou, the daughter of billionaire and Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei, was arrested on a US warrant in 2018 and kept under house arrest in Canada. Beijing promptly jailed Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, as bargaining chips, accusing them of espionage by China and released them only after securing Meng’s release. 

Canada cannot follow double standards in dealing with terror outfits and how they are tackled by the West and India. Double standards exposed Canada had celebrated official US security forces (watched by then-POTUS) eliminating Osama Bin Laden on Pakistani soil. Then-Canadian PM Stephen Harper said that the death of bin Laden “secures a sense of justice for the families of the 24 Canadians murdered (on September 11, 2001)”and added that “Canada receives the news of the death of Osama bin Laden with sober satisfaction”. 

However, in the case of a Khalistani leader killed by unknown persons, Trudeau has issued a foot in the mouth statement. One country’s terrorist cannot be another country’s political ally. On 1 August 2022, US President Joe Biden announced the killing of al-Qaeda terrorist Ayman al-Zawahiri in a CIA drone strike in Kabul, Afghanistan. Trudeau tweeted: “The death of Ayman alZawahiri is a step toward a safer world. Canada will keep working with our global partners to counter terrorist threats, promote peace and security, and keep people here at home and around the world safe.”

 The spirit to “keep working with our global partners to counter terrorist threats” seems to have evaporated within a year. Following the diplomatic acrimony between the two democracies, New Delhi, reacting to the expulsion of an Indian diplomat from Canada, retaliated by expelling a Canadian diplomat. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has also issued an advisory for Indian nationals and Indian students in Canada. There are reports of a video of Gurpatwant Pannun, designated as a terrorist in India, a self-styled legal counsel of a banned outfit Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) warning “Indo-Hindu leave Canada; go to India”. The link between the Canadian PM’s irresponsible, immature, highly undiplomatic and politically motivated statement and the SFJ’s warning cannot be overlooked. Incidentally, in July 2020, this SFJ leader had staged a protest and burnt the Indian tricolour in Canada. The group had mailed the remains of the Indian flag to the Indian High Commissioner in Ottawa. It had claimed that “remains of Indian tricolour were mailed to Ajay Bisaria, Indian High Commissioner in Ottawa as a symbolic gesture to remind India that Canada considers Khalistan as a political opinion.