A little over a month ago, Canada and India were still negotiating a bi-lateral deal that would increase trade and expand investment between the two countries.
Now those talks have halted, Canada has implicated the Indian government in a murder on Canadian soil and, as of yesterday, India has ordered Canada to remove most of its diplomats(opens in a new tab) from the country.
The origin of this growing tension goes as far back as the 1940s, and while relations between Canada and India are generally friendly and productive, a handful of events in the last 75 years or so have caused tensions to flare up periodically.
Here’s how Canada and India got to this point and what’s at stake.
HARDEEP SINGH NIJJAR KILLING
Last month, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said there were “credible allegations” of Indian involvement in the murder of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who was gunned down outside a Sikh temple in Surrey, B.C..
For years, India alleged Nijjar, a Canadian citizen born in India, had links to terrorism. Nijjar was a prominent member of a political movement to create an independent Sikh homeland known as Khalistan, but denied having any links to terrorists. At the time of his murder, he was working with the group Sikhs for Justice to organize an unofficial referendum among the Sikh diaspora.
The Indian government quickly denied any involvement in Nijjar’s murder and the two countries have traded diplomatic barbs since then, most recently culminating in India demanding Canada reduce its diplomatic presence there.
Speaking to reporters after a Liberal caucus meeting on Oct. 3, Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly said the two governments are in constant, private talks regarding an investigation into Nijjar’s death and the diplomatic fallout.
“In moments of tensions, because indeed there are tensions between both our governments, more than ever, it’s important that diplomats be on the ground and that’s why we believe in the importance of having a strong diplomatic footprint in India,” she said.
THE KHALISTAN MOVEMENT
According to Maika Sondarjee, assistant professor of international development at the University of Ottawa, Canada’s friendliness – or lack of hostility – toward Sikh separatist activists has been a sore point for India for decades.
Sikh separatists associated with the Khalistan movement first began moving to Canada in large numbers after the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947. When the two countries were separated, the Punjab region, which is home to most of the world’s Sikhs, was split into the Indian state of Punjab and the Pakistani province of Punjab.
While Sikhs form the majority of people living in Punjab, they form only two per cent of India’s population of 1.4 billion. The modern movement to create a sovereign Sikh homeland called “Khalistan”(opens in a new tab) out of the state of Punjab emerged from negotiations preceding the partition, though Khalistan has never been recognized by the Indian government, which considers the movement a national threat.
“With the separatist movement came a lot of violence, and then with the violence, a lot of people left India,” Sondarjee told CTVNews.ca in a phone interview on Monday. “And so since then, Canada has been a land of welcome for Sikh separatists historically.”
In one especially violent chapter(opens in a new tab) of the Khalistan movement, the Indian Armed Forces in 1984 launched an assault on a number of Sikh holy sites in Punjab, including the Golden Temple, the holiest site of Sikhism. The raid, known as the Blue Star Operation, was intended to remove Sikh separatist militants from the sites. However, it resulted in the deaths of at least 493 civilians.
Sondarjee said Canada has never “strongly condemned” the Khalistan movement, and since much of the movement’s strength comes from the efforts of the Sikh diaspora in countries around the world, the Indian government views Canada as accepting, if not outright supporting, the movement.
“I’m pretty sure Justin Trudeau would never say we are supporting the separatist movement for Khalistan,” Sondarjee said. “But the fact that we accept a lot of refugees coming from that movement, a movement that is considered terrorist by the Indian government, that’s—for them—a symbol of our acceptance.”
The Khalistan movement is still active today. Organizers of an unofficial worldwide referendum on Punjabi independence conducted the first stage of a series of non-binding votes in British Columbia last month, attracting more than 135,000 voters.(opens in a new tab) Nijjar had been one of those organizers before his death
TERRORISM ALLEGATIONS
While the Indian government considers the Khalistan movement itself to be a threat to national security, it has also condemned a series of retaliatory attacks by Sikh separatists over the years, at least one of which was linked to Sikhs in Canada.
The next year brought the bombing of Air India Flight 182(opens in a new tab) and the deaths of all 329 people on board. A bomb exploded on the passenger jet on June 23, 1985 while it was en route from Toronto to London, England. Most of the passengers killed were Canadian, and to this day, the bombing remains one of the worst terrorist attacks in Canadian history.
Although several people were arrested and tried for the bombing, only Inderjit Singh Reyat, a dual British-Canadian national, was convicted.(opens in a new tab)
“The suspicion was that those [tried] were Sikhs seeking revenge for Indian repression,” McGill University international law professor Frederic Megret told CTVNews.ca in a phone interview on Tuesday.
“And I think that really put on everyone’s radar that there was a kind of transnational dimension to this, and that it was particularly worrying to the Indian government that some of these individuals were operating from Canadian territory.”
The Indian government has since labelled many Sikh separatist organizers in Canada, including Nijjar, terrorists. On Sept. 21, Indian External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi criticized Canada’s “growing reputation as a safe haven for terrorists, for extremists, and for organized crime.”
Last June, India’s External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar condemned images of a parade(opens in a new tab) alleged to have occurred in Brampton, Ont. which appeared to portray Gandhi’s assassination.
People protest outside the Indian Consulate, in Vancouver, on Monday, September 25, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
India has long argued that Canada’s approach to Sikh separatists goes too far, but Megret said the freedom of expression laws that allow Sikh activists to demonstrate here are the same laws that apply to all activists in Canada.
“Sometimes manifestations of freedom of expression can be sort of rowdy or hostile here,” he said.
“But the truth is we don’t have laws to repress (free speech)…so we’re basically stuck with our liberties and our commitment to a free and open society, whether foreign states like it or not.”
WHAT’S NEXT AND WHAT’S AT STAKE
Despite episodes of tension over the years, Canada and India have managed to maintain a healthy relationship with strong diplomacy and shared commercial interests, Megret said.
“India is Canada’s ninth largest trading partner,” he said. “There’s a lot of Canadian companies in India and new talks to make the relationship closer, so I don’t see any sort of major incidents apart from the question of Sikh separatists as a recurring source of tension.”
Because of this, Sondarjee said Canada needs India more than India needs Canada, and the Indian government’s decision to expel 41 Canadian diplomats shows it knows that.
According to Megret, in order for Canada to regain the upper hand in this conflict, Canadian intelligence will need to provide credible, compelling evidence that Nijjar’s killing originated with the Indian government or India’s foreign intelligence agency.
If it fails to do so, he said, Canada’s credibility could take a major hit and diplomatic relations between the two countries could risk being severed entirely.
“Either Canada will be found to have made this up or to have seriously erred in suggesting that India was responsible, or India will be found to have done it,” Megret said. “If the evidence is indeed credible, I think it probably won’t do wonders for Indian-Canadian relations, but it would indeed shrink the space of deniability for India.”
– With files from Reuters, The Canadian Press and The Associated Press
GUADALAJARA, Mexico – Canada’s Marina Stakusic fell 6-4, 6-3 to Poland’s Magdalena Frech in the quarterfinals of the Guadalajara Open tennis tournament on Friday.
The 19-year-old from Mississauga, Ont., won 61 per cent of her first-serve points and broke on just one of her six opportunities.
Stakusic had upset top-seeded Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (0) on Thursday night to advance.
In the opening round, Stakusic defeated Slovakia’s Anna Karolína Schmiedlová 6-2, 6-4 on Tuesday.
The fifth-seeded Frech won 62 per cent of her first-serve points and converted on three of her nine break point opportunities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
TORONTO – Alejandro Kirk’s long single with the bases loaded provided the Toronto Blue Jays with a walk-off 4-3 win in the 11th inning of their series opener against the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday.
With the Cardinals outfield in, Kirk drove a shot off the base of the left-field wall to give the Blue Jays (70-78) their fourth win in 11 outings and halt the Cardinals’ (74-73) two-game win streak before 30,380 at Rogers Centre.
Kirk enjoyed a two-hit, two-RBI outing.
Erik Swanson (2-2) pitched a perfect 11th inning for the win, while Cardinals reliever Ryan Fernandez (1-5) took the loss.
Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman enjoyed a seven-inning, 104-pitch outing. He surrendered his two runs on nine hits and two walks and fanned only two Cardinals.
He gave way to reliever Genesis Cabrera, who gave up a one-out homer to Thomas Saggese, his first in 2024, that tied the game in the eighth.
The Cardinals started swiftly with four straight singles to open the game. But they exited the first inning with only two runs on an RBI single to centre from Nolan Arendao and a fielder’s choice from Saggese.
Gausman required 28 pitches to escape the first inning but settled down to allow his teammates to snatch the lead in the fourth.
He also deftly pitched out of threats from the visitors in the fifth, sixth and seventh thanks to some solid defence, including Will Wagner’s diving stop, which led to a double play to end the fifth inning.
George Springer led off with a walk and stole second base. He advanced to third on Nathan Lukes’s single and scored when Vladimir Guerrero Jr. knocked in his 95th run with a double off the left-field wall.
Lukes scored on a sacrifice fly to left field from Spencer Horwitz. Guerrero touched home on Kirk’s two-out single to right.
In the ninth, Guerrero made a critical diving catch on an Arenado grounder to throw out the Cardinals’ infielder, with reliever Tommy Nance covering first. The defensive gem ended the inning with a runner on second base.
St. Louis starter Erick Fedde faced the minimum night batters in the first three innings thanks to a pair of double plays. He lasted five innings, giving up three runs on six hits and a walk with three strikeouts.
ON DECK
Toronto ace Jose Berrios (15-9) will start the second of the three-game series on Saturday. He has a six-game win streak.
The Cardinals will counter with righty Kyle Gibson (8-6).
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
CALGARY – Mired in their first four-game losing skid in 20 years, the Calgary Stampeders are going back to Jake Maier at quarterback on Saturday after he was benched for a game.
It won’t be an easy assignment.
Visiting McMahon Stadium are the Eastern Conference-leading Montreal Alouettes (10-2) who own the CFL’s best record. The Stampeders (4-8) have fallen to last in the Western Conference.
“Six games is plenty of time, but also it is just six games,” said Maier. “We’ve got to be able to get on the right track.”
Calgary is in danger of missing the playoffs for the first time since 2004.
“I do still believe in this team,” said Stampeders’ head coach and general manager Dave Dickenson. “I want to see improvement, though. I want to see guys on a weekly basis elevating their game, and we haven’t been doing that.”
Maier is one of the guys under the microscope. Two weeks ago, the second-year starter threw four interceptions in a 35-20 home loss to the Edmonton Elks.
After his replacement, rookie Logan Bonner, threw five picks in last week’s 37-16 loss to the Elks in Edmonton, the football is back in Maier’s hands.
“Any time you fail or something doesn’t go your way in life, does it stink in the moment? Yeah. But then the days go on and you learn things about yourself and you learn how to prepare a little bit better,” said Maier. “It makes you mentally tougher.”
Dickenson wants to see his quarterback making better decisions with the football.
“Things are going to happen, interceptions will happen, but try to take calculated risks, rather than just putting the ball up there and hoping that we catch it,” said Dickenson.
A former quarterback himself, he knows the importance of that vital position.
“You cannot win without good quarterback play,” Dickenson said. “You’ve got to be able to make some plays — off-schedule plays, move-around plays, plays that break down, plays that aren’t designed perfectly, but somehow you found the right guy, and then those big throws where you’re taking that hit.”
But it’s going to take a team effort, and that includes the club’s receiving corp.
“We always have to band together because we need everything to go right for our receivers to get the ball,” said Nik Lewis, the Stampeders’ receivers coach. “The running back has to pick up the blitz, the o-line has to block, the quarterback has to make the right reads, and then give us a catchable ball.”
Lewis brings a unique perspective to this season’s frustrations as he was a 22-year-old rookie in Calgary in 2004 when the Stamps went 4-14 under coach Matt Dunigan. They turned it around the next season and haven’t missed the playoffs since.”
“Thinking back and just looking at it, there’s just got to be an ultimate belief that you can get it done. Look at Montreal, they were 6-7 last year and they’ve gone 18-2 since then,” said Lewis.
Montreal is also looking to rebound from a 37-23 loss to the B.C. Lions last week. But for head coach Jason Maas, he says his team’s mindset doesn’t change, regardless of what happened the previous week.
“Last year when we went through a four-game losing streak, you couldn’t tell if we were on a four-game winning streak or a four-game losing streak by the way the guys were in the building, the way we prepared, the type of work ethic we have,” said Maas. “All our standards are set, so that’s all we focus on.”
While they may have already clinched a playoff spot, Alouettes’ quarterback Cody Fajardo says this closing stretch remains critical because they want to finish the season strong, just like last year when they won their final five regular-season games before ultimately winning the Grey Cup.
“It doesn’t matter about what you do at the beginning of the year,” said Fajardo. “All that matters is how you end the year and how well you’re playing going into the playoffs so that’s what these games are about.”
The Alouettes’ are kicking off a three-game road stretch, one Fajardo looks forward to.
“You understand what kind of team you have when you play on the road because it’s us versus the world mentality and you can feel everybody against you,” said Fajardo. “Plus, I always tend to find more joy in silencing thousands of people than bringing thousands of people to their feet.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
People protest outside the Indian Consulate, in Vancouver, on Monday, September 25, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
