Hello and welcome. You're watching Left, right and centre. I'm Gary Rao with our big focus and our first focus on the show tonight. A strain in India Canada's relationship. What is the way out now? Days after being spoken to firmly by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the rising secessionist activities and Kan supporters attacking in diplomatic missions on their land, Canada has now said it is postponing a trade mission to India planned for October. The two nations had earlier said that they aim to seal an initial trade agreement by this year itself. But now negotiations for a bilateral free trade agreement have reportedly been stalled. No reason really has been given now. Relations between the two countries Canada has the largest Sikh population in the world after India have been strained over the increasing PATANI activities there. Following a meeting between Prime Minister Modi and Prime Minister Trudeau on the sidelines of the G 20 recently here in Delhi, India issued a strongly worded statement expressing strong concerns about continuous anti India activities by extremist elements in Canada back home. After he returned from the 20 Justin Trudeau told reporters that Canada will always defend freedom of expression, freedom of conscience and freedom of peaceful protest. So that's where it stands. And now a pull back on these trade talks. So where is the relationship between India and Canada headed? Well, to talk more about this, we're joined now by Terry Miki, a retired senior correspondent, CBC and author of Blood for Blood. 50 Years of the Global Kan Project. Thank you so much for joining us on the programme, and that really is the question. Terry, this is something you know, watched so closely the way it's grown in Canada. The pro kan group has become this very powerful vote bank and a vote bank that neither side can ignore. Not just Mr Trudeau, but the opposition in Canada as well is, you know, seen to go very soft on this vote bank. But at the same time, for India, this is hugely problematic, especially the kind of incidents that we're seeing take place there in Canada. Well, you're right to mention the vote bank politics because all all parties in Canada have been playing that low for many years now and it's been working for them. They they don't They're reluctant to upset that nice little arrangement where you know, they go to the BIA parades at the sea and they smile and wave and hustle for votes. And they look the other way when the parade floats go by with pictures of gun toting mo and assassins and mass murderers. Uh, like, for example, the author of The Atrocity of the Penina bombing in 1985. And so it's been working pretty well. But the pales it has to be said, uh, more recently have really pushed their luck. And that's what's behind the relations going from what was previously cool now to Frosty, I would call it, um, what they've done you you will recall during this past summer, No doubt, uh, the escalation in pales activity, uh, with these killer posters for one, posters which name Indian diplomats show their pictures and their names and name them as killers on the basis for which there is no evidence whatsoever that the theory is that that the Palestinian are are advancing is that India is responsible for sending hit squads out to assassinate prominent Palestinian overseas. Uh, most recently and most importantly in Canada, had naar out in Surrey, British Columbia uh, as I say, there's no evidence that India had anything to do with it. It looks like a AAA gangland killing, which is not at all unknown in Surrey. Uh, but that's what that's where these killer posters started naming. And now now they're putting up, uh, rewards. If you reveal their home addresses, they're putting targets on the backs of Indian diplomats. And that's something about which, uh, uh, Prime Minister Modi's statement at the G 20 was absolutely correct. I'll mention one other case, and that was during the summer. You will recall, uh, in the streets of Brampton, which is kind of little Punjab in in, uh, Canada. Uh, they rode through the streets on the back of a truck with a full life size diorama celebrating the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1984. So there you had the prime minister's life size image splattered all over her sari with red paint to make sure that kids got the message. Uh, and, uh, the two Sikh bodyguards who killed her are blazing away at the front of the truck. And this was held up as something to, uh, we were going to honour the martyrs. That was the theory of this display. Uh uh, because they did a great thing. And this is what they're teaching their Children, that this was a great thing, right? And this is just and other examples that go on if you want, But this is just known over the years what Prime Minister Modi was talking about, Right, Mrs. This is just grown over the years. It's hugely problematic. We can't even show that, you know that parade and and what was shown about Indira Gandhi? It was so highly offensive and a demarche was also issued to Canada. But there's really been no sort of action taken at all. And, you know, we have Justin Trudeau, the prime minister, talking about freedom of speech and democracy and the freedom to protest. But it's really difficult to see how there's a way out of this given, you know, the vote bank politics that we're seeing over there. And as you said, how you know, we've seen it's grown more strident, and you're right about, you know, when you talk about kishka bombing. I was, in fact, a child in Toronto at that time. I was there for a few years, and I knew people who died on the Kishka plane. But it's just a very problematic, how strident it's all become and how you know, the the sort of the on temples, the kind of, you know, graffiti you've had put there. As you said the posters and with India taking this stand that it has. And you know, the prime minister having words with Justin Trudeau and the Prime Minister Justin Trudeau going back and saying what he did, how do you see, you know, bringing this gap together? What is the way out in repairing this India Canada relationship? Well, they they have to agree. They probably will eventually, but it's certainly going to take some time. Uh, they're both right, and they're both wrong, uh, to to some degree, uh, the Indians can reasonably complain, uh, to Canada that, uh, that this goes beyond free speech in in Indian eyes. And the Canadians can rightly complain to the Indians that Look, we're not going to abolish free speech just to please India. No Western democracy is gonna do that. You're gonna have to live with some of this. But what some What does some of this mean Well, the the boundary line for most countries in Canada. I'm afraid to say I'm ashamed to say it as a Canadian is pretty out of date in its legislation. For example, uh, Britain, uh, had banned back in 2006, they had a new terrorism act, and it banned the glorification of terrorism. So when you get across the line into the incitement of violence, the glorification of terrorism by, for example, putting up martyr posters of famous terrorists, uh, and calling for attacks on Indian diplomats, uh, that should be made illegal. And is it legal in many countries in Europe and I? I gave the British example that they they they've done that 17 years ago. Why not Canada? That is, I think, a reasonable complaints where Canada could do something to, uh, update its legislation and show the Indians that they get it at the moment when when our embassy was in in in London, we we you know, we took it up very strongly, and the next time there was a protest, that whole area was cordoned off and the protesters weren't allowed near the embassy there, but are responding. Yes, yes. So that was a very positive, you know, response authorities there in London. Uh, but Mr Ms also, uh, you know, how is this talked about domestically by the media there in Canada? There's also all this talk of interference, and, uh, you know, that has been something that's talked about interference from India. If you could tell us a bit about that, Yes. You're right to bring that up because there's a bit of translation needed here. Uh, we have we we We're two nations separated by a common language in this respect. Um, in Canada, foreign interference in the Indian context translates that as we're taking the assassination theory seriously, it means that what what what is advocate the advocates That we must investigate Indian foreign interference. What they mean is, this is the background to Trudeau's comments. Oh, yeah. We discuss foreign interference. The background is that we are taking seriously the idea that the Prime Minister Modi is sending out, I don't know, hit squads of deadly diplomats who are running around the globe are wiping out, uh, kalesi, uh, as a, uh, once again, there's no evidence for this, but that's what they mean And that is a that only makes the Indians matter a a And and And it really should, uh I mean, the the idea of foreign interference really arose in the context of China interfering in Canadian elections. Let's not get into that. But, uh, there is, um, AAA pending investigation in Canada into the subject. And that's another bone of contention between the two sides. If Canada really is going to take that seriously, I mean, that's an insult, isn't it? To the Indian side? Absolutely. Thank you so much, Mr Terry Beki for joining us on the programme.
