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Just last month, Narendra Modi urged Trudeau to stop sheltering Indian separatists

In January, Trudeau and Indian prime minister Narendra Modi met on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum. Indian headlines noted that Modi used the meeting to call on Trudeau to tamp down pro-Khalistani voices within his country. This isn’t anything new. When then-prime minister Stephen Harper visited India in 2012, he similarly faced criticism that his government was not doing enough to quash Khalistani separatists. Notably, some of these criticisms were coming from Manmohan Singh, India’s first Sikh prime minister. “We can’t interfere with the right of political freedom of expression,” Harper replied. Trudeau has said much the same. Canada has ascribed terrorist status to violent pro-Khalistan groups such as the International Sikh Youth Federation. However, it is entirely legal for Canadian Sikhs to peacefully advocate for Khalistani separatism. “I think part of Canada’s strengths is that we recognize that diversity is a strength and a wide range of opinions and views are an important part of the success of Canada,” Trudeau said this week.

Photo by The Canadian Press/Paul Chiasson

Canadian politicians keep showing up to events celebrating Indian terrorists

In 2017 Justin Trudeau visited Toronto’s Khalsa Day parade, an event celebrating the Sikh festival of Vaisakhi. Doing this was previously a strict “no-no” for Canadian prime ministers, India’s former ambassador to Canada Vishnu Prakash told The Hindu this week. The reason is because the event often features pro-Khalistan flags and displays celebrating Sikh extremists considered terrorists in India. In 2007, then-B.C. premier Gordon Campbell attended a Vaisakhi event that featured a float celebrating Talwinder Singh Parmar, mastermind of the Air India bombing. In 2012, then-immigration minister Jason Kenney was at a Toronto Vaisakhi event when he suddenly stormed out after sensing that a fellow speaker was delivering extremist remarks in Punjabi. “You are trying to exploit my presence here,” a visibly angry Kenney told organizers as he left, according to L’actualité. Canadian politicians’ obliviousness to Sikh extremism has been a consistent point of concern raised by Ujjal Dosanjh, a former minister of health under prime minister Paul Martin, and the survivor of a serious beating by Sikh fundamentalists in 1985. “The problem is that the politicians at the highest level in this country, of all major political parties, have hobnobbed with Khalistanis,” Dosanjh, who was raised Sikh, said in an interview this week with India’s The Print.

An Indian magazine accused Trudeau’s cabinet of being packed with Khalistani sympathizers

Just before Trudeau’s visit, the magazine Outlook India published a series of articles warning that Canada was nurturing a resurgence of Khalistani terrorism. Included in the issue was an interview with Amarinder Singh, chief minister of Punjab, who said “there seems to be evidence that there are Khalistani sympathizers in Trudeau’s cabinet.” The comments prompted an immediate pushback from defence minister Harjit Sajjan and infrastructure minister Amarjeet Sohi, two of the four Sikhs in Trudeau’s cabinet. “I’ve been a police officer, I’ve served my country and any allegations like that is absolutely ridiculous and I find it extremely offensive as well,” said Sajjan. Sohi, in turn, has personal cause to doubt the Indian government’s accuracy in designating terrorist sympathizers. The future Edmonton MP was studying in India in the late 1980s when he decided to join a protest in support of land reform. The action got him arrested and tortured by Indian police. “When they saw me, a Sikh, there from Punjab and from Canada, they said, ‘We must have a terrorist here,’” Sohi later told Postmedia. Trudeau met with Amarinder Singh this week, and reiterated his opposition to any separatist movement in India. The Punjab chief minister call his remarks a “big relief.”