‘I can believe that India could do it’: Former B.C. premier on local Sikh leader’s murder – BC | 24CA News
A former B.C. premier and federal well being minister calls allegations that India is behind the June killing of a distinguished Sikh chief in Surrey, B.C., “incredible,” however not totally out of the query.
Ujjal Dosanjh, who led the province as a New Democrat between 2000 and 2001, stated India was a special place when he grew up there than it’s beneath Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has been in energy there since 2014.
“If you want to portray yourself as Macho Modi, as he has been doing across the world, then I believe that India could do it,” Dosanjh advised Global News on Tuesday.
“I would never have believed that Mr. Nijjar was such a threat to India that India had to come across international borders to kill him, but if it did, that’s absolutely despicable.”
On Monday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau shocked the Canadian public with news that nationwide safety authorities had “credible” intelligence suggesting “agents of the government of India” have been concerned within the June 18 capturing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, president of the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara and a distinguished supporter of Sikh separatism.
Within hours, India’s Ministry of External Affairs rejected the declare, calling it “absurd and motivated.”
Both Canada and India have now expelled choose diplomats from one another’s nations, with commerce talks minimize off and a deliberate commerce mission to India subsequent month postponed. Trudeau has known as for India’s co-operation within the investigation into Nijjar’s homicide, stating that Canada will “remain calm.”
“We are not looking to provoke or escalate. We are simply laying out the facts as we understand them and we want to work with the government of India,” Trudeau stated Tuesday.
Prior to his demise, 45-year-old Nijjar had voiced considerations about threats made towards him, reportedly linked to his political activism. The Khalistan motion supporting the creation of a separate state for Sikhs is outlawed in India, as are various teams related to it, that are listed as “terrorist organisations” by the Indian state.
Nijjar’s son, Balraj Singh Nijjar, has stated his father was assembly Canadian Security Intelligence Service officers “once or twice a week,” together with one or two days earlier than he was gunned down within the parking zone of his Surrey temple.
The Sikh neighborhood in Surrey, Sikhs For Justice and the World Sikh Organization of Canada are calling for swift justice within the case.
Dosanjh, who has been a really vocal critic of Khalistan for many years, echoed these calls.
“If Mr. Trudeau knows, at least, who prompted some people to kill this man, then they must know who pulled the trigger. Well, then if that’s the case, give us the goods,” he stated.
“Charge the people, right? Then at least we can clearly say that India has done a rogue action.”
Dan Stanton, a former CSIS intelligence officer and director of nationwide safety on the University of Ottawa’s Professional Development Institute, known as Monday’s disclosure from Trudeau “unprecedented,” notably concerning a “country that’s believed to be an ally and a friend.”
“What in Canada, we view as people expressing criticism of a country and some homeland issues, (India) sees it as an actual threat to the integrity of their state,” Stanton stated.
“What may have happened with Mr. Nijjar from India is very much what would happen in India. This is how they deal with their minorities, their minority religious groups — not just Sikh, Muslim, various other groups — they basically arrest them or take them out. We’ve been seeing this. Never before, though, did we think it would manifest in the West.”
A pure subsequent step for Canada could be to get its allies — notably amongst the Five Eyes — to weigh in and condemn India’s alleged actions, he added.
Trudeau has cited intelligence because the supply of claims towards India.
Stanton clarified that intelligence will not be the identical factor as proof and is most frequently inadmissible in courtroom. The supply may be third-party intelligence from an ally or elsewhere, he added.
“But knowing CSIS and having worked there for 32 years, they would be very thorough and rigorous in ensuring that this is reliable, quality intelligence that allows the government to make some decisions,” he advised Global News.
Protests have already been promised at Indian consulate workplaces in Vancouver, Toronto and Ottawa subsequent week.
On Tuesday, the Vancouver Police Department elevated its presence exterior the downtown Vancouver workplace, whereas the City of Vancouver has created a short lived no parking and no stopping zone
“While there’s no specific threat we’re responding to, we want to make sure we doing whatever we can to maintain calm and maintain a sense of safety for everyone in the city, ” Sgt. Steve Addison advised Global News.
Gurkeerat Singh, a volunteer on the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara, stated the neighborhood is welcoming Trudeau’s revelation, which backs their longstanding claims about Indian interference in Canada, however hopes motion follows his “mere words.”
“India has a long history of human rights violations that is well documented, and anyone who ever spoke up against the human rights violations that India has committed — no matter what community they’re from … they all understand that India has always denied anything they’ve ever done,” he stated.
“It was expected, they’re going to deny this, but it’s now the responsibility of the allies of Canada and Canada itself to hold India accountable.”
Calls from the World Sikh Organization of Canada to the federal authorities additionally embrace safety for Canadian Sikhs who could also be in danger, a radical evaluation of Indian diplomats and consular officers within the nation, and enhanced safety measures that block anybody related to India’s intelligence forces or alleged human rights abuses from getting into the nation.
The group can be calling for an instantaneous stop in intelligence-sharing between the 2 international locations, Canada’s withdrawal from its Framework for Cooperation on Countering Terrorism and Violent Extremism with India, and for India to be definitively added to the checklist of nations investigated in Canada’s new public inquiry on international interference.
Dosanjh stated it’s unlikely Canada and India’s relationship will “recover anytime soon.”
“One has to look beyond the current regimes,” he added. “Hopefully, there might be peace.”
— with recordsdata from Aaron McArthur and The Canadian Press
