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That included the embarrassing revelation that Jaspar Atwal — a one-time Canadian Sikh separatist extremist convicted of attempting to murder an Indian minister during a visit to Vancouver Island in 1986 — had been invited to two events with the prime minister during his India sojourn. The revelation came just as Trudeau was attempting to convince Indian officials that his government supports a united India and does not countenance violent extremism.

In a media briefing arranged by the Prime Minister’s Office, Jean suggested Atwal’s presence was arranged by factions within the Indian government who want to prevent Prime Minister Narendra Modi from getting too cosy with a foreign government they believe is not committed to a united India.

Trudeau has since defended Jean, saying he’s a professional, non-partisan, veteran public servant who only says what he knows to be true.

But the Conservatives maintain Jean was used by the PMO to deflect attention from a public relations disaster.

“When the prime minister uses a senior and respected civil servant as a human shield to get out of a bad political scandal, that’s terrible,” said O’Toole.

He questioned how one could argue that Indian factions could have been responsible when a Liberal backbencher, Randeep Sarai, has taken responsibility for getting Atwal on the guest lists and Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland has called the incident an “honest mistake.”

“Both of these scenarios can’t be true and the fact they brought up the India conspiracy theory also is a blight on a good relationship with an important country,” O’Toole said.

The Conservative motions are all related to budgetary matters, which are considered matters of confidence. The government must, therefore, ensure enough of its MPs are present at all times to avoid losing any of the votes — which would be deemed a loss of confidence and trigger an election.