Don Martin: Canada is back on the world stage. And mostly alone.
CTV
Justin Trudeau got one promise right: Canada is back on the world stage. Sadly, it’s for all the wrong reasons, writes Don Martin in an exclusive opinion column for CTVNews.ca.
On the bright side, Justin Trudeau got one promise right: Canada is back on the world stage.
Sadly, it’s for all the wrong reasons after the prime minister accused the government of the world’s fifth largest economy of dispatching assassins to kill a Sikh separatist leader in broad daylight outside a Surrey, B.C. temple.
The world took notice, but didn’t exactly rush to Canada’s side despite having advance warning the bombshell would soon be dropped into the public domain.
The Americans allowed they are “deeply concerned” and urged India to co-operate while the stoic Brits vowed to remain in “close touch” about the “serious allegations.” Australia opted to say nothing at all.
In other words, nobody’s jumping aboard Canada’s boat-rocking lest it put their interests in conflict with India’s growing importance democratically, militarily and economically.
The strongest reaction came from India, not surprisingly, which dismissed the allegation as “absurd” and ejected a Canadian diplomat to avenge a similar ouster by Canada.
Trudeau, in classic why-did-he-say-that fashion, insisted Tuesday that his accusations were not intended to “provoke or escalate” tensions with India.
