The People’s Party of Canada leader, Maxime Bernier, stated on Thursday that the Liberal government’s and the RCMP’s claims that Indian diplomats were involved in illegal operations in Canada are extremely serious and, if confirmed, require swift action.
Maxime Bernier, however, emphasised that although the allegations are grave, the Canadian government has yet to provide any credible proof. He further charged that Justin Trudeau is exploiting this situation to deflect attention from other issues.
“If true, allegations made by the RCMP and the Liberal government that Indian diplomats participated in criminal activities on our territory are very serious and should be dealt with. So far however, we haven’t been given any proof. And Trudeau is clearly using this crisis to divert the attention from other controversies,” Maxime Bernier said in a post on X (formerly Twitter)
Additionally, Bernier denied that the Khalistani terrorist killed last year, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, was Canadian.
“One myth should be dispelled though: That the central figure in this controversy, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, the Khalistani militant who was murdered last year, was a Canadian. He was actually a foreign terrorist who used fraudulent documents to claim asylum in Canada several times starting in 1997. His claims were rejected but he was nevertheless allowed to stay in this country and was somehow granted citizenship in 2007,” Maxime Bernier wrote.
Nijjar should have been deported, according to Bernier, who asserted that he wasn’t a Canadian and suggested posthumously renouncing his citizenship to fix this administrative blunder.
“Nijjar wasn’t a Canadian. We should perhaps posthumously take away his citizenship to right this administrative error. He should have been deported after his first fake asylum claim, like the hundreds of thousands of fake asylum claimants who are in Canada right now,” he added.
Bernier urged the need to acknowledge this error and work with the Indian government rather than jeopardising ties with a significant ally, pointing out that this predicament is a result of Canada’s long history of welcoming outsiders and their disputes.
“All this is happening because Canada has for decades deliberately invited these foreigners and their tribal conflicts into our country. We should recognize this major blunder and work with the government of India to find solutions instead of jeopardizing our relations with a rising world power and an important ally over this issue,” the People’s Party of Canada leader added.
A new low was reached this week when New Delhi called Ottawa’s decision to question six Indian diplomats, including High Commissioner Sanjay Verma, in connection with the killing “preposterous.” India-Canada ties have been in a freefall since Prime Minister Justin Trudeau claimed in September of last year that there was a connection between Indian government agents and the murder of Nijjar.
The Indian government claimed that the Trudeau administration’s “baseless allegations” against Indian authorities were the only thing that led to the current crisis. The Canadian government has not yet acted on India’s requests to extradite 26 individuals and detain a number of others who are suspected of terrorism and other major crimes.
Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a designated terrorist in India and the general counsel for the secessionist organisation Sikhs for Justice (SFJ), has acknowledged that he has been in contact with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office in recent years.
According to Pannun, who spoke to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), the SFJ had contacted Trudeau’s office about suspected Indian espionage networks in Canada.
