There is no great love lost between India and Canada s Trudeau government. To review, New Delhi has told Ottawa to get control over better dealing with Khalistan separatist extremists in its jurisdiction, some of whom India has labelled as terrorists given their schemes they have committed or wish to. One catastrophe included the downing an Air India flight, after which Ottawa took 15 years before it formally charged anyone with this terrible crime. And then there were messages of more recent by a Khalistan extremist, indicating such new threats to blow up another jet. The litany of complaints about Ottawa’s lack of proper movement on such and mucking up relations with India goes much longer. But now, on top of the responsible warnings by India’s External Affairs Minister, S. Jaishankar about Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to get a grip on these disastrous security matters internally within Canada, Trudeau appears to want to trouble political waters more and directly within India itself!
Indeed, we have the fairly recent headlines from the Hindustan Times, “India Drops A Bombshell Amid Row With Canada; ‘Not New Delhi, But Ottawa Interfering…’ with Indian elections. As well, demonstrative of this the Indian spokesman for the External Affairs Ministry of India, Randhir Jaiswal is reported by India Times to have officially registered, “…it is Canada who has been interfering in our internal affairs.” One could argue by Canada not extraditing Indian citizens accused by New Delhi of funding and supporting extremism in Khalistan that represents some of the grossest interference and support of threats to the sovereign integrity of India. Should India say nothing on such issues for fear of being accused of interfering in Canadian domestic affairs. And for speaking up, Canada produces a “juvenile”, tit-for-tat response calling New Delhi’s rightful concern even with its diplomats’ security status as interference? This is certainly not war between the two countries but tantamount to unacceptable “diplomatic aggression” by Trudeau’s government some might rightfully argue. And it is not befitting the conducts of a G7 country and fellow democratic country in the Commonwealth. Then there is coverage by Al Jazeera news stating, “We have seen some ill-informed comments by Canadian leaders relating to farmers in India. Such comments are unwarranted, especially when pertaining to the internal affairs of a democratic country,’ India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said…” Canada cannot handle its problems with Khalistan extremists so now it wants to improperly and badly deal inside India with striking farmers? Not even the CIA of present day would be so clumsy.
Altogether, there is a growing feeling not only in New Delhi but in other capitals that there is something of a “Mickey Mouse” dimension to the way Trudeau has his foreign policy conducted. Yes indeed, there is a fantasy, dimension to the way the Canadian PM sees the world. And a petulant, not so mature reaction when challenged by India that his course of action is potentially dangerous in the way he deals with serious security matters affecting India. People of character and substance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister Dr Jaishankar will not climb aboard his express train to global La-La Land and swallow his diplomatic “candy” -or is that Kool-Aid?
Unfortunately, it does not seem relations with the current PM in power in Canada will make relations better, anytime soon. The current Canadian federal Opposition leader, Pierre Poilievre just can shake his head and state that Trudeau is a laughingstock in India and has acted in an amateur way with New Delhi.
Regarding Canada’s foreign minister, rather amiable seems out of her depth with limited external affairs experience, especially when compared to the relative “giants” of US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken and his Indian counterpart S. Jaishankar with decades experience in high level external affairs ministry positions, even including top ambassadorial positions. Melanie Joly. Canada’s lead for Trudeau on foreign affairs had little global distinction before gaining Canada’s top foreign affairs post. She was a failed mayoral candidate in Montreal. This may be symptomatic of Canada’s continued decline in making a mark on the international scene with some exceptions on climate change and biodiversity, possibly.
These are not the more Halcyon days of when Canada stood out on developing UN peacekeeping, a real better NATO, UN human rights, North to South relations under Justin Trudeau’s father, the late PM Pierre Trudeau and a Canada under Liberal PM Jean Chretien that refused to join in the ill-fated, US led Iraq war imbroglio. Or these are not the days of Canada’s first female External Affairs Minister, Flora MacDonald that received a major award of distinction from the Indian government. Someone by her activism over many years of promoting peace and development had earned her job. With the current foreign minister, Canada’s role abroad has been near muted and/or ineffective. But to be fair, irrespective of her limited experience on the job, her boss has handcuffed her one might argue from fulfilling her job well. Interestingly, the former chief of staff in Trudeau’s party to the ex-Prime Minister Jean Chretien may see her as a worthy candidate to replace Trudeau as leader. All of this may add to her being careful not to upset the Canadian PM or to outshine him.
One can only pray that Canada will eventually get its foreign affairs act better together under new leadership as polls indicate Justin Trudeau may not be in power for much longer. And it will certainly not be because of India’s interference but by result in part of his demonstrated incompetence to deal with India and India’s leaders in a more professional and fair way. Meanwhile, out of risk of petulance or just plain bad political skills he should be careful that Canada does not interfere with internal Indian affairs, including with its farmers or the coming national elections. India will not put up with it-period.
Peter Dash is an educator and former Canadian federal government civil servant. He is a former Associate of Harvard University’s Center for International Affairs.