The members of the SIJ community in Canada, whom the police warned that their lives were at risk and claim that the Indian government is responsible for the threat, are outraged 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 member of the G7, to attend the summit, which begins 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.
The relationship of Canada with India has been tense since the former Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau in 2023 accused the government of India’s participation in the murder of June 18, 2023 of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Sij separatist leader in Canada.
The Modi government has denied participation in the murder of Nijjar and has accused Canada of providing a safe shelter for SIJS separatists.
“‘Outrage’ is the type of term I’ve heard from people,” said Sikh Moninder Singh, a friend of Nijjar, about the invitation.
He and other Sikh leaders plan to celebrate a protest in Ottawa on Saturday.
Carney, locked in a commercial war with the United States, is trying to prop up alliances in other places and diversify Canada’s exports. Carney told reporters that he invited India due to its importance in global supply chains.
The spokesman of the Indian Foreign Ministry, Randhir Jaiswal, said in an informative session of the Press on Thursday that a meeting between Modi and Carney “will offer an important opportunity to exchange opinions on bilateral and global issues and explore the ways to establish or restore the relationship.”
Sikhs faces threats
That justification sounds hollow for Singh, who lives in British Columbia. He has received multiple police warnings that his life was at risk. One of those warnings forced him to leave his home for months in 2023 for the safety of his children.
“On a personal level, already community level, too, it was deeply insulting … SIJ lives are not as important as the fifth largest economy in the world that must be on the table,” he said.
A Carney spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comments.
Royal Canadian Monted Police said in October that they had communicated more than a dozen threats to people like Singh who advocate the creation of a Sij homeland carved in India.
In October, Bajo Trudeau, Canada expelled six Indian diplomats, linking them with the murder of Nijjar and alleging a broader government effort to attack Indian dissidents in Canada through murders, extortion, the use of organized crimes and the collection of clandestine information.
India retaliates ordering the expulsion of six Canadian diplomats and described the absurd and politically motivated accusations. Canada has said that it has no evidence to link Modi with threats.
The tension has pushed the SIJ community in Canada, most of the Punjab state of the majority of India, in the center of attention. Singh said there should be conditions due to modi invitation.
“Any meeting with them should have been under the conditions that Mr. Modi and his government would take responsibility for what has been discovered and cooperated, but none of that happened.”
Carney told journalists that Modi had agreed “Law application dialog.”
Jaiswal said that the agencies of application of Indian and Canadian law will continue to cooperate in some way.
Some activists and politicians in Canada have accused Carney of putting economic problems ahead of human rights concerns. But Sanjay Ruarelia, professor of politics at the Metropolitan University of Toronto, said the prime minister is simply being practical.
“[Carney’s] The slogan since it has reached the office is pragmatism. And this is a pragmatic and realpolitik decision. “
