星空传媒

Skip to main content

India angered by apparent Sikh parade float in Canada portraying assassination

India's Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar holds a news conference in Melbourne, Australia, Saturday, Feb. 12, 2022. (AP Photo/Hamish Blair) India's Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar holds a news conference in Melbourne, Australia, Saturday, Feb. 12, 2022. (AP Photo/Hamish Blair)
Share
OTTAWA -

India's foreign minister is condemning images of a parade said to have occurred in Brampton, Ont., which seemed to portray the 1984 assassination of prime minister Indira Gandhi by her two Sikh bodyguards.

The Canadian Press has not verified the source of a short video that appears to show a parade float on a suburban street with men in turbans pointing guns at a woman who resembles Gandhi.

India's External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar argues the incident shows Ottawa's lax approach to extremism.

He says the incident 鈥渋s not good for relationships鈥 and 鈥渘ot good for Canada.鈥

New Delhi has long argued that Canada's free-speech approach to Sikh separatists goes too far, with some temples found to be openly venerating people connected with acts of violence like the 1985 bombing of an Air India flight.

Canada's envoy to India also condemned the parade, saying he was 鈥渁ppalled鈥 by reports that it celebrated the assassination.

鈥淭here is no place in Canada for hate or for the glorification of violence. I categorically condemn these activities,鈥 Canada's high commissioner to India, Cameron MacKay, wrote on Twitter.

At a Thursday press conference in New Delhi, Jaishankar said his government is puzzled that Ottawa gives so much freedom to those advocating for an independent state they call Khalistan.

鈥淚t isn't only one incident, no matter how egregious it may be,鈥 Jaishankar told reporters.

鈥淭here is a larger underlying issue about the space which is given to separatists, to extremists, to people who advocate violence,鈥 he said.

鈥淲e are at a loss to understand, other than the requirements of vote-buying politics, why anyone would do this.鈥

Last week, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's national security adviser said India was among the top sources of foreign interference in Canada, a public designation Ottawa has largely limited to authoritarian states.

Federal agencies have indirectly warned in recent years of India exerting improper influence in Canada, but rarely by name and almost always in internal documents.

Jaishankar said he found it hypocritical that Canada would call out India for interference.

鈥淚f anybody has a complaint, we have a complaint about Canada; the space that they're giving to Khalistanis and to violent extremists,鈥 he said.

Last fall, the Liberals highlighted India as part of their Indo-Pacific strategy and as a priority for establishing closer economic and scientific ties. Trudeau is widely expected to visit New Delhi for the G20 leaders' summit in September.

Indira Gandhi's 1984 assassination followed the Indian military storming the holiest temple in the Sikh faith, which India argued was necessary to contain the risk of violence by separatists.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 8, 2023.

CTVNews.ca 星空传媒

Since she was a young girl growing up in Vancouver, Ginny Lam says her mom Yat Hei Law made it very clear she favoured her son William, because he was her male heir.

An Ontario man says it is 'unfair' to pay a $1,500 insurance surcharge because his four-year-old SUV is at a higher risk of being stolen.

The province's public security minister said he was "shocked" Thursday amid reports that a body believed to be that of a 14-year-old boy was found this week near a Hells Angels hideout near Quebec City.

Local Spotlight

They say a dog is a man鈥檚 best friend. In the case of Darren Cropper, from Bonfield, Ont., his three-year-old Siberian husky and golden retriever mix named Bear literally saved his life.

A growing group of brides and wedding photographers from across the province say they have been taken for tens of thousands of dollars by a Barrie, Ont. wedding photographer.

Paleontologists from the Royal B.C. Museum have uncovered "a trove of extraordinary fossils" high in the mountains of northern B.C., the museum announced Thursday.

The search for a missing ancient 28-year-old chocolate donkey ended with a tragic discovery Wednesday.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police is celebrating an important milestone in the organization's history: 50 years since the first women joined the force.

It's been a whirlwind of joyful events for a northern Ontario couple who just welcomed a baby into their family and won the $70 million Lotto Max jackpot last month.

A Good Samaritan in New Brunswick has replaced a man's stolen bottle cart so he can continue to collect cans and bottles in his Moncton neighbourhood.

David Krumholtz, known for roles like Bernard the Elf in The Santa Clause and physicist Isidor Rabi in Oppenheimer, has spent the latter part of his summer filming horror flick Altar in Winnipeg. He says Winnipeg is the most movie-savvy town he's ever been in.

Edmontonians can count themselves lucky to ever see one tiger salamander, let alone the thousands one local woman says recently descended on her childhood home.

Stay Connected