Canada’s Sikhs voice outrage over Modi G7 invitation

TORONTO: Members of Canada’s Sikh community who were warned by police that their lives were at risk and allege the Indian government is responsible for the threat are incensed by Ottawa’s invitation to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the G7 summit in Alberta.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney invited Modi, although India is not a G7 member, to attend the summit that starts on Sunday as a guest. It will be Modi’s first visit to Canada in a decade and a diplomatic test for Carney, a political neophyte.

Canada’s relationship with India has been tense since former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in 2023 accused India’s government of involvement in the June 18, 2023, murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Sikh separatist leader in Canada.

Modi’s government has denied involvement in Nijjar’s killing and has accused Canada of providing a safe haven for Sikh separatists. “‘Outrage’ is the kind of term that I’ve heard from people,” Sikh activist Moninder Singh, a friend of Nijjar, said of the invitation.

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He and other Sikh leaders plan to hold a protest in Ottawa on Saturday. Carney, locked in a trade war with the United States, is trying to shore up alliances elsewhere and diversify Canada’s exports.

Carney told reporters he invited India due to its importance in global supply chains.

India’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in a Thursday press briefing that a meeting between Modi and Carney “will offer an important opportunity for them to exchange views on bilateral and global issues and explore pathways to set or reset the relationship.”

Sikhs face threats

That rationale rings hollow for Singh, who lives in British Columbia. He has received multiple warnings from police that his life was at risk. One such warning forced him from his home for months in 2023 for his children’s safety.

“On a personal level, and on a community level, as well, it was deeply insulting … Sikh lives aren’t as important as the fifth-largest economy in the world that needs to be at the table,” he said.

A spokesperson for Carney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said in October they had communicated more than a dozen threats to people like Singh who are advocating for the creation of a Sikh homeland carved out of India.

In October, under Trudeau, Canada expelled six Indian diplomats, linking them to Nijjar’s murder and alleging a broader government effort to target Indian dissidents in Canada through killings, extortion, use of organized crime and clandestine information-gathering.

India retaliated by ordering the expulsion of six Canadian diplomats and called the allegations preposterous and politically motivated. Canada has said it does not have evidence linking Modi to the threats.

The tension has thrust Canada’s Sikh community - the largest outside India’s Sikh-majority Punjab state - into the spotlight. Singh said there should have been conditions on Modi’s invitation.

“Any meetings with them should have been under the conditions that Mr. Modi and his government would take responsibility for what has been uncovered and cooperate, but none of that happened.”

Carney told reporters Modi had agreed to “law enforcement dialogue.” Jaiswal said Indian and Canadian law enforcement agencies will continue to cooperate in some ways.

Some activists and politicians in Canada have accused Carney of putting economic issues ahead of human rights concerns.

But Sanjay Ruparelia, a Toronto Metropolitan University politics professor, said the prime minister is simply being practical.

“(Carney’s) watchword since he’s come to office is pragmatism. And this is very much a pragmatic, realpolitik decision.”