'Mixed feelings' in B.C.'s Sikh community after PM suggests link between Indian government, gurdwara president's killing

Leaders from B.C.’s Sikh community say they have “mixed feelings” about Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s announcement that the Indian government may have been involved in the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar earlier this year.

Leaders from B.C.’s Sikh community say they have “mixed feelings” about Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s announcement that the Indian government may have been involved in the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar earlier this year.

Moninder Singh, spokesperson for the BC Gurdwaras Council, considered Trudeau’s remarks an overdue acknowledgment of concerns his community has been raising for decades about Indian interference in Canadian affairs.

“It’s something that should have been done a long time ago. The community's been after this issue for over 40 years,” Singh said, speaking outside the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara in Surrey on Monday.

“It is very unfortunate that it took the death of Hardeep Singh Nijjar on this property a few hundred feet away to actually bring this about,” he continued.

Nijjar, the gurdwara’s president, was gunned down in his vehicle in the parking lot on June 18.

Speaking to the House of Commons earlier in the day, Trudeau said national security agencies are investigating “credible allegations of a potential link between agents of the government of India” and Nijjar’s killing.

"Canada is a rule of law country, the protection of our citizens in defence of our sovereignty are fundamental. Our top priorities have therefore been one, that our law enforcement and security agencies ensure the continued safety of all Canadians. And two, that all steps be taken to hold perpetrators of this murder to account,” Trudeau said.