Trudeau’s false narrative grabs US attention, threatening India relations

A recent report in the U.S.-national daily, the Washington Post, alleges that a plot to kill Khalistani activist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, wanted on terror charges in India, was ordered by the previous chief of the Indian Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW), with official sanction from senior intelligence officials tied to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s inner circle. Vikram Yadav, an R&AW official, allegedly directed Indian businessman Nikhil Gupta, now in custody in the Czech Republic pending extradition to the U.S., to hire a hitman to kill Pannun outside his New York residence. In response to these allegations, the Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson stated that a “high-level committee is looking into information shared by the American side with us, as it equally impacts our national security.”

The problem with bad stories and rumors is that they never disappear; they keep circulating and sometimes return in even worse forms. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau set the ball rolling on these baseless allegations when he informed his Parliament on September 18, 2023, that his country’s security and law enforcement agencies found a “potential” link between the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar on June 18 and “agents of the government of India.”

It was inevitable that this bad story would strain Indo-Canadian bilateral relations. Another issue was that it put Canada’s NATO ally, the U.S., in a tight spot. However, the White House National Security Council Spokesperson, Adrienne Watson, swiftly refuted these reports, stating, “reports that we rebuffed Canada in any way on this are flatly false. We are coordinating and consulting with Canada closely on this issue.”

Two months later, in November 2023, a report by the UK-based Financial Times claimed that the U.S. warned India after busting an alleged plot to kill Sikh radical Gurpatwant Singh Pannun on American soil.

Has Trudeau been demanding action from the U.S. over receiving New Delhi's message that extremist elements in Canada are "promoting secessionism and inciting violence against Indians"?

These U.S. ‘warnings,’ issued soon after warm exchanges during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's state visit and at a time when India-US defense and strategic ties are strengthening, suggest that the Biden administration felt compelled to issue warnings over Canada’s insistence. The U.S. likely feels obligated to stand by Canada due to mutual defense commitments under NATO and a close intelligence partnership as members of the Five Eyes alliance. What's interesting is that the Washington Post story also delves into differences between the White House administration and the Justice Department overseeing the FBI-DEA investigation in the case.

Trudeau’s bad story was so ridiculous that Canada’s Conservative opposition leader, Pierre Poilievre, urged him to present the evidence the government has in hand.

The Trudeau administration had many reasons to implicate the government of India. First was the appeasement of the Sikh vote in Canada. Trudeau stated at a recent Khalsa Day event in Toronto, “To the nearly 800,000 Canadians of Sikh heritage across this country, we will always be there to protect your rights and your freedoms, and we will always defend your community against hatred and discrimination.” Clearly, Trudeau’s pro-Khalistan stance aims to secure another term and ensure continued support from his alliance partner Jagmeet Singh’s New Democratic Party.

The second reason is to divert attention from rampant gang violence in Canada. Operating across British Columbia (BC), Alberta, Manitoba, and Ontario, gangs comprised of Indo-Canadian Punjabis are involved in various criminal activities. Gangs such as Dosanjh brothers, Brothers Keepers, Dhak-Duhre, Dhaliwal, Sanghera, Malli-Buttar, and others engage in arms trafficking, racketeering, extortion, narco trafficking, money laundering, and assassinations. Gang violence has been so extreme since the 90s that in 2004, Canada formed a ‘Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit (CFSEU-BC)’ to disrupt and suppress organized crime in British Columbia.

Violence committed by and between gangs has remained historically consistent in British Columbia.

Indo-Canadian Sikh gangs have been engaged in an unparalleled wave of violence that began in the 90s. On February 27, 1994, violence erupted in an event that arguably still impacts present-day gang violence in BC. Jimsher Dosanjh (29) was shot and killed by two men in the 4900 block of Fraser Street. Dosanjh, a hired hitman, had been charged in March 1991 with the first-degree murder of Theodore Salcedo (25). The charges were stayed after witnesses recanted their stories.

In April 1994, one of the boldest shootings in Vancouver’s history occurred when Ron Dosanjh (Jimsher’s brother, who had been killed six weeks earlier) was driving on Kingsway Street at 9:45 a.m. when a car pulled up alongside his and opened fire with an AR-10 semi-automatic assault rifle, showing no regard for the lives or safety of others.

The violence continued; in retaliation for the murders of the Dosanjh brothers, their gang associates accidentally shot and killed an innocent man named Glen Olson in a case of mistaken identity. A gunman armed with a high-powered rifle shot Mr. Olson multiple times as he walked his friend’s dog. Olson lived next to one of the most infamous BC gangsters, Bindy Johal, who police considered a suspect in the Dosanjh murders.

In August 1995, notorious gangster Ranj Cheema (27) was shot several times as he left a karaoke bar in the 8200 block of Alexandra Street in Richmond.

Less than a week after a jury acquitted Bindy Johal, Peter Gill, Raj Benji, and others for first and second-degree murder charges of the Dosanjh brothers, the house of Paul Cheema, an associate of the Dosanjh brothers, was shot at five times.

Then, on December 21, 1998, in a pivotal gang shooting, notorious gangster Bindy Johal was killed. Johal was on the dance floor of the Palladium Nightclub, surrounded by over three hundred partygoers, when a gunman came up from behind and shot him in the back of the head. The brazen nature of the attack and the frustration of the murder never being solved were apparent. Despite numerous people nearby, law enforcement concluded that the quality of witnesses and video evidence was insufficient to charge anyone with the murder.

In April 2002, the gang slaying of Gary Sidhu was the fiftieth Indo-Canadian gang murder since the 1994 slaying of the Dosanjh brothers.

In January 2005, Surrey Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) pulled over a suspicious vehicle and found Jatinder Natt and Sukhjinder Sohal killed from gunshot wounds.

In February, Delta Police investigated the murder of Harpreet Khurmee (34) when he was found shot on Annacis Island.

The world media has consistently drawn attention to the gang violence in British Columbia. The BBC, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, CNN, The Economist, and even Maxim magazine have featured stories on the situation.

In 2009, Bill Law of the BBC, Kim Murphy of the Los Angeles Times, and Patrick Oppmann of CNN were granted the opportunity to partake in a police ride-along with a gang unit in BC. Each reported on the stories of violence to their respective international audiences, resulting in growing disquietude over BC’s gang problem. Bill Law reported that there were “unprecedented levels of gang warfare that have left scores of people dead.”

The Economist’s headline was “British Columbia or Colombia?,” referencing similarities between Colombia. The article stated, “in recent years Vancouver, BC's largest city, has gained notoriety for gun crime, especially among drug gangs. Since 1997 nearly 450 gangsters have been killed there.”

In 2019, Robin Levinson-King of BBC News reported on ‘How gangs used Vancouver's real estate market to launder $5bn.’ A panel of experts estimated that C$5.3bn ($4bn, £3bn) was laundered through real estate in the province of British Columbia, with most of it funnelling through Vancouver, its largest and most expensive city.

In a complementary paper, former RCMP deputy commissioner Peter German hypothesized that Canada in general, and Vancouver in particular, became attractive to international organized crime for a number of reasons. Canada is attractive because the country's justice system has made it difficult to catch money laundering, German believes. It has some of the most lax financial reporting rules in the developed world, and few police and prosecutorial resources devoted to white-collar crime.

Indo-Canadian Sikh gangs have been consistently violent: there were murders, shootings, and gang fights. Since the mid-1990s, several hundred Indo-Canadian - or South Asian - men under the age of 30 have been murdered in Greater Vancouver.

The Trudeau administration's sensational accusations about the Indian government’s role in the Nijjar assassination conveniently implicate India and stir trouble among separatist elements of the Indo-Canadian Sikh community. Trudeau's actions aim to involve other Western nations in his crusade against the Modi government, which has urged Ottawa to act against Sikh extremism.

Trudeau’s bad story began with Nijjar and has now expanded with a sensational story about his American lawyer, Gurpatwant Singh Pannu. Despite residing in the United States, Pannu continues to threaten Indian diplomats, leaders, and the Indian Parliament. He brazenly makes videos warning "Indo-Canadian Hindus" to leave Canada with impunity. If Nijjar was such a saintly figure, why was he on the no-fly list of the US and Canada? He was an internationally wanted criminal with an Interpol red corner notice against him.

The Trudeau administration refuses to acknowledge that gang violence has always been part of Canada’s social fabric. Meanwhile, expatriate Sikh communities in the West, especially in Canada, regularly face harassment and threats of violence from criminal gangs demanding support for the Khalistan cause. Overseas Sikh communities that have tried to counter pro-Khalistan disinformation cannot be left to defend themselves anymore.