Good morning.
Wendy Cox in Vancouver today.
Three young Indian nationals sat in a Surrey courtroom Tuesday, one appearing dishevelled, another hunched over with his arms crossed.
They were there to face murder charges in a case that has infuriated Canada’s sizeable Sikh community and helped torpedo Canada’s relationship with India, the world’s largest democracy and a country regarded in the West as a critical counterbalance to China.
Last Friday, Karan Brar, 23, Kamalpreet Singh, 22, and 28-year-old Karanpreet Singh were arrested in Edmonton and charged with murder. They are also accused of spending at least a month plotting the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
Karanpreet Singh (centre), Kamalpreet Singh (left) and Karan Brar (right) are shown in police handout photos. They have been charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to murder in the killing of British Columbia Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in June 2023.HO/The Canadian Press
Nijjar was gunned down last June in the parking lot of the gurdwara where he was a spiritual leader. Nijjar was also a key organizer with Sikhs for Justice, an international group that has spent years organizing a non-binding vote calling for the creation of an independent Sikh homeland carved out of the Punjab. Hundreds of thousands of Sikhs in Canada, the United States, Britain and Australia have voted in the campaign.
Last September, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told the House of Commons agents of India may have been involved in the death. Last Friday, RCMP Assistant Commissioner David Teboul said the force’s probe included “investigating connections to the government of India.”
Lawyer Jay Michi said he was notified by Legal Aid BC on Friday that Karanpreet Singh needed a lawyer. Given the nature of the case, Mr. Michi seized the opportunity.
“The last six homicides I did nobody came, other than one or two victim’s family members. This one, a billion and a half people are going to be tuning in,” he said.
India’s top diplomat in Canada did not directly reference the allegations against his country when he spoke to a foreign relations forum in Montreal on Friday.
High Commissioner Sanjay Kumar Verma told the gathered business leaders that Canada’s failure to address India’s concerns about threats to India’s national security from people in Canada it considers terrorists has led to consequences.
Kumar Verma said Tuesday that in bilateral relations, “we expect both countries to understand each other’s perspectives, each other’s concerns, respect the cultural diversity.”
“Unfortunately, we’re having issues – and this is nothing new – decades old issues which have resurfaced, reemerged, and we’re having unfortunate crimes,” Kumar Verma said.
These issues relate to India’s territorial integrity, which “is a big red line for us,” he said.
Globe reporters Nancy Macdonald and Robert Fife reported exclusively on Tuesday that India’s frustration with Canada goes back to before 2018.
During the Prime Minister’s trip to India that year, Indian officials threatened to refuse landing to Mr. Trudeau’s plane in Punjab unless Trudeau and his defence minister agreed to meet with an Indian government official to air grievances about Sikh separatists in Canada, including Nijjar, according to a source with direct knowledge.
During the meeting, India’s minister for the Punjab, Captain Amarinder Singh, handed Trudeau and then-defence minister Harjit Sajjan a dossier containing the names of about 10 Sikh activists whose activities the Indian government wanted curtailed, the source said.
Trudeau and Sajjan wanted to avoid Capt. Singh because he had earlier described Mr. Sajjan’s father as a terrorist owing to the elder Sajjan’s previous position leading the World Sikh Organization, the source said. The Globe and Mail is not identifying the source, who was not authorized to discuss the matter.
The meeting went ahead and Capt. Singh presented the dossier. All on the list, like Nijjar, were known for promoting the creation of Khalistan.
Canadian officials told their Indian counterparts that while they understood the concerns about possible terrorist activities, they also stressed Canadian police can’t arrest someone simply because they express views that New Delhi doesn’t like, the source said.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has become increasingly aggressive on the issue of those India feels are a threat to its national security.
Last month, Modi said at a campaign rally in India that his government is done with asking foreign governments nicely to deal with people – mostly Sikhs – it considers terrorists living abroad, though he did not specifically mention Canada.
“Today, India no longer sends dossiers, ghar mein ghus kar maarta hai (kills enemies inside their houses),” Modi said during a speech last week. He was quoted in NDTV.
This is the weekly Western Canada newsletter written by B.C. Editor Wendy Cox and Alberta Bureau Chief Mark Iype. If you’re reading this on the web, or it was forwarded to you from someone else, you can sign up for it and all Globe newsletters here.
Wendy Cox