‘Validation’ for Sikh activists after Canada slams Indian tactics

TORONTO: Ottawa’s accusations this week detailing a deadly Indian campaign against its Canada-based critics may have further derailed bilateral relations -- but to Sikh activists, the striking disclosures brought validation.

Canada has accused India of orchestrating the 2023 killing in Vancouver of 45-year-old naturalised Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a prominent campaigner for “Khalistan,” the fringe separatist movement for an independent Sikh homeland in India’s Punjab state.

In public comments this week, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the national police said India’s targeting a prison cell around an effigy of the Indian leader.

Sohi said it was meaningful that Canada has now publicly affirmed the “danger” India poses to people living across Canada.

“It is shocking that we as Canadian citizens have to live in fear of a foreign government,” he said.

Testifying Wednesday at an inquiry on foreign interference, Trudeau made clear his government was not looking to blow up relations with a major trading partner with whom Canada has deep ties.

But he said when faced with clear evidence the Indian government had directed acts of violence inside Canada and breached Canadian “sovereignty,” he and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police resolved to go public in the interest of public safety.

The Khalistan campaign dates back to India’s 1947 independence and within India today any support for the movement faces a swift crackdown.

Jatinder Singh Grewal, a director with the Sikhs for Justice advocacy group and a Khalistan supporter, argued that Modi’s government is intent on silencing support for the movement abroad because it fears discussion among the Sikh diaspora could fuel a movement at home.

“If you allow the Canadian Sikhs, or the American Sikhs or the British Sikhs to openly talk about this, you will eventually make the Punjabi Sikh say, ‘Why can’t I talk about this openly?’”

Grewal praised Trudeau’s public disclosures and Canada’s decision to expel Indian diplomats but said more was needed, endorsing the closure of Indian consulates in Toronto and Vancouver, arguing they have been used to coordinate violence against Sikhs. There are roughly 770,000 Sikhs in Canada, about two percent of the population, the largest Sikh community outside of India. Sikhs are heavily concentrated in suburban areas, notably around Toronto and Vancouver, and the community’s vote has been pivotal in past national elections. Last year, days after Trudeau first accused Indian agents of killing Nijjar, one former government foreign policy advisor charged that domestic politics had influenced Trudeau’s decisions on Sikh affairs. Writing in The Globe and Mail, the former advisor Omer Aziz said Trudeau’s Liberal party was worried about losing votes to the left-wing New Democrats, led by Jagmeet Singh, who is Sikh.