Canada’s relationship with India is now arguably as bad as it’s ever been. Experts say Canada faces a kind of diplomatic isolation that results from years of poor foreign policy, and specifically relating to India, it’s due to not taking seriously an issue of extreme sensitivity for that country.
“I don’t think that we will see any improvement in the relationship so long as Trudeau and Modi are in office,” an expert on Indo-Canada relations, Vivek Dehejia, told The Epoch Times on Sept. 23.
Mr. Dehejia, economics and philosophy professor at Carleton University, added that if tensions are somehow de-escalated, the result will be a “very low-level relationship” between Canada and India going forward.
International trade expert Eric Miller, who has made a number of trips to India as a representative of think tanks and business organizations, explained that Canada has shown a naive attitude toward some of the biggest challenges India faces. In particular, India has long directed criticism at Canada for not cracking down on the Sikh separatist movement in the country.
“This issue was raised with me even before Mr. Modi came to power, so there’s a long-term thread in the upper levels of Indian political, business, and intellectual circles around concerns about Canada’s handling of this issue of Sikh separatism,” Mr. Miller, president of the Rideau Potomac Strategy group, said in a Sept. 25 interview.
He said the difficulty in Indo-Canada relations is due in part to a dichotomy stemming from the fact that Canadians have freedom of speech while India views the situation as Canada harbouring terrorists who advocate secession.
Mr. Dehejia confirms that “there’s a high level of frustration from the Indian side that they don’t perceive much cooperation from Canada in extraditing people who are facing serious charges in India.”
Mr. Trudeau’s Choice
Mr. Dehejia points out two ways to handle the allegation of an extrajudicial killing—privately through diplomatic channels or going public, as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau did in the House of Commons on Sept. 18.
“I think Canada’s allies feel they’ve been put into an awkward situation by Trudeau’s very public mode of making these allegations. … You know, all of these guys are really walking a diplomatic tightrope, in terms of what they say,” he said.
“No one has actually come out and condemned India outright—none of the allies,” Mr. Dehejia added.
Mr. Miller says Mr. Modi is doing whatever he can to defend the security of India. And doing so helps him politically.
“This has become an election issue, but one that helps Modi. And all of this leaves Canada in a situation where its closest allies are not overtly out willing to stand by its side,” he said.
Mr. Miller said that although the Indo-Canada relationship has succeeded with people-to-people ties, deep structural issues exist that impede the relationship, and he doesn’t think that will change anytime soon.
“This is a rift whose foundations are not just based on one speech and one allegation. But it’s based on years of complicated bilateral relations where two sides have come at some very fundamental issues for their countries from different angles,” he said.
