Ottawa: As Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is on his visit to India — widely seen as one of the most pivotal diplomatic missions — a small but disruptive Pro-Khalistan extremist group operating within the North American nation is attempting to sabotage efforts to rebuild bilateral ties, a report said on Monday.
“The stakes could not be higher. Carney’s trip is designed to unlock new opportunities for Canadian workers and businesses across trade, energy, technology, and defence. Canada aims to more than double two-way trade with India to roughly $51 billion annually by 2030 — a cornerstone of Carney’s strategy to reduce Canada’s dangerous over-reliance on the United States,” a report in Khalsa Vox detailed.
The report also highlights that the agenda is “immense”, as the focus will be on cooperation agreements covering nuclear power, oil, critical minerals, AI, quantum computing, and education.
“This is not diplomacy for diplomacy’s sake. It is an economic lifeline-building. And yet, even as Carney works to reset relations poisoned by years of Trudeau-era tensions, extremist groups are doing their best to tear it down,” it added.
According to the report, targeted protests have intensified in Canada in recent weeks, with supporters of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar staging inflammatory acts — including tearing and burning symbols associated with India and openly threatening Canadian PM Mark Carney — apparently designed to strain bilateral cooperation.
It added that such conduct cannot be called a peaceful protest but amounts to deliberate interference in sovereign diplomacy.
The report highlighted how a small pro-Khalistan fringe tried to derail British Columbia Premier David Eby’s trade mission to India in January, by waving Khalistan flags and demanding his resignation, accusing him of placing trade over “justice”.
The same tactic, it said, is directed against Carney’s high-stakes visit as Groups like Sikhs for Justice, flagged by Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) for involvement in “politically motivated violent extremism”, portraying every act of Canadian economic self-interest as betrayal without offering any constructive alternative.
“The costs of tolerating this behaviour are real and measurable. Indian officials have repeatedly described Khalistani extremism as a ‘Canadian problem’ that Ottawa must address internally to foster genuine reconciliation, emphasising that progress on trade and diplomacy depends on both sides demonstrating commitment free from radical interference,” the report noted.
Ottawa, it said, cannot seek New Delhi’s trust as a long-term partner while simultaneously allowing fringe elements to “desecrate Indian symbols and intimidate diplomats on Canadian soil”.
The report further said, “The message to Canadian authorities must be equally clear: protect this diplomatic moment. Free speech ends where deliberate economic sabotage and intimidation of foreign diplomats begin. A handful of extremists should not be allowed to hold Canada’s prosperity hostage. The country’s future is being negotiated in New Delhi — and it deserves to succeed.”
(IANS)
