When India-Canada ties were reset

Canada's ties with India have plummeted to their lowest point since the 1980s due to the Khalistan issue. In 2010, Canadian PM Stephen Harper apologized for the 1985 Air India bombing, and the subsequent visit by PM Manmohan Singh saw a reset in ties. 9/11, 26/11, and Singh's visit all led to the apology and subsequent cooperation in areas such as trade, investment, and counter-terrorism. However, Trudeau's Liberal Party's dependence on the NDP led by Jagmeet Singh has led to a deterioration in ties, with Trudeau accused of tolerating hate speech and glorifying Indira Gandhi's assassination. Former diplomats say Trudeau must find a way to end the row.

The story so far: As ties between India and Canada plummet to their lowest point since the 1980s, former diplomats say that a change in Canadian responses to the Khalistan issue are necessary for any future reset in ties, pointing to the 2010 apology by the then Canadian Prime Minister as an example. Addressing families of the victims of the 1985 Air India ‘Kanishka’ Flight 182 which exploded over the Irish coast after a bomb placed in the luggage went off, for which Khalistani separatist operatives were convicted, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said he was “sorry” on behalf of the Canadian government.

“Some wounds are too deep to be healed even by the remedy of time,” Mr. Harper said at the Air India memorial at Humber Bay Park in Toronto on the 25th anniversary of the terror attack, where he admitted for the first time that the bombing was an “atrocity conceived in Canada, executed in Canada, by Canadian citizens, and its victims were themselves mostly citizens of Canada.” Despite 280 of the 329 on board the Kanishka being Canadian citizens, the Prime Minister at the time, Brian Mulroney, had extended condolences to Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, leading to criticism from the Indian community in Canada.

Since the attack, India had expressed its outrage over the slow pace of investigations and the trial, which delivered its verdict in the case only in 2005. Therefore, it was particularly significant that Mr. Harper went on to address fellow political leaders saying they must “not to reach out to”, but rather “carefully and systematically marginalise those extremists who seek to import the battles of India’s past” to Canada.

Three important events led up to what experts referred to as Canada’s “change of heart” in 2010. The first was the 9/11 attacks in the U.S. in 2001, after which Canada signed on to a number of terror conventions, abjuring officially a policy of being soft on what it saw as “freedom movements” and allowing those fleeing terror charges from several countries including India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh into Canada. The second was the 26/11 Mumbai attacks in 2008, which hardened India’s resolve. The third was Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit for the G-20 summit in Toronto, and a chance to reset ties. No Indian Prime Minister had visited Canada since 1973, mainly due to tensions over the Khalistan issue, and although it was a multilateral summit visit, the bilateral meeting with Mr. Harper saw a number of agreements signed, which many think was only possible due to the apology given by him a few days earlier.

“In the joint statement during Dr. Manmohan Singh’s visit in 2010, the very first issue raised was terrorism and the Kanishka bombing. Then came the big breakthrough on civil nuclear cooperation which marked a 180 degree turn in Canada’s position on cooperation with India in this sector,” said Pankaj Saran, former Deputy National Security Adviser, who served in Prime Minister Singh’s office in 2010, and now runs the NatStrat thinktank in Delhi.

The shift, and the subsequent visit by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2015 changed India-Canada cooperation substantially. Trade doubled during the decade from about $5 billion to $10 billion, investment from Canada shot up from $700 million to more than $55 billion, and the two sides set up working groups on countering terrorism, improving strategy, energy ties, nuclear fuel MoUs and a number of other areas. However, diplomats say that after the election of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party, and his dependence on the New Democratic Party led by Jagmeet Singh for his minority government, has meant that the Trudeau government doesn’t share the previous government’s avowal of ties with Khalistan separatists.

“Canada and India should have enjoyed the closest of ties. Yet that is not to be. The Khalistani issue continues to bedevil the relationship, with certain political parties especially the Liberals prioritising their engagement with them over ties with India, as they control a few parliamentary constituencies and allegedly extend material and financial support to the latter parties,” former High Commissioner to Ottawa Vishnu Prakash told The Hindu.