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Both Justin Trudeau and his father, Pierre Trudeau, have been criticized for taking a soft stance on the Khalista issue.
The roots of this political divide can be traced back to Justin Trudeau’s father and Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau, who also faced challenges in relations with India. File images
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been at loggerheads with India for more than a year now, and relations between the two countries have reached a new level after India withdrew its high commissioner and several ambassadors targeted in the Maple Leaf country. The Indian government’s decision follows Trudeau’s attempt to involve the Indian high commissioner in the investigation related to the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar. India strongly condemned the allegations, describing them as “fabricated” and “politically motivated”.
The roots of this political divide can be traced back to Justin Trudeau’s father and Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau, who also faced challenges in relations with India. According to a CBC report in October 2024, after India conducted its nuclear test in 1974, Canada expressed outrage, and the Trudeau administration struggled to reconcile the event with Canada’s commitment to nuclear non-proliferation.
But the real nail in the coffin was the handling of the Khalistan extremists in Canada by the Pierre Trudeau administration between 1980 and 1984. During the 1980s, many K-elements sought refuge in Canada, including Talwinder Singh Parmar, a key figure in the Khalistan Movement. According to a CBC report in 1985, despite many requests for the Indian government to return to the country, the Canadian government under Pierre Trudeau did not relent.
The situation escalated with the bombing of Air India flight 182 (Kanishka) on June 23, 1985, which resulted in the death of all 329 people (mostly Canadians) on board. The Kanishka bombing was considered the single worst incident of air terrorism until the 9/11 attacks in the United States. Talwinder Parmar, who was “protected” by the Trudeau administration, was identified as the mastermind behind the Kanishka bombings. Although Parmar was later shot dead by the Punjab police in 1992, he is still considered the mastermind of the Air India 182 terror attack. Everyone arrested for the Kanishka bombings (including Talwinder Parmar) was released, and only one was convicted. .
According to a CBC report in August 1984, a French Canadian named Gerry Boudreault told the Royal Canadian Mounted Police that some Sikhs in Vancouver offered him $200,000 in cash to smuggle a bomb onto an Air India flight from Montreal to London.
“This guy met me with a suitcase,” Boudreault recalled fifteen years later. ‘A Sikh. He opened it, and there it was, full of $200,000, and all I had to do was put a bomb on an Air India plane. I had done bad things in my time, in prison, but I planted a bomb on a plane—not me. I went to the police,” he said
a Calgary Sun report by Peter Smith dated February 14, 1999, quotes Boudreault.
Even after such a big confession, the Canadian police chose not to trust Boudreault and did nothing discreetly. But, a month later, according to a CBC report in September 1984, a Vancouver man, Harmail Singh Grewal, told CSIS and the RCMP about a similar plot.
“In September, 1984, Vancouver liquor store employee Harmail Singh Grewal tried to plead guilty to theft and fraud charges by providing information to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and the RCMP in connection with a plot to plant a bomb on an Air India flight from Montreal. But the deal was successful after Grewal was dismissed by authorities. as untrustworthy.’ … Grwal told the agents the story of how he and a French Canadian man became involved with a group of Sikh militants who wanted to plant a bomb,” said an Ottawa Citizen report by Neil Macdonald and Terry Glavin from September 23, 1987.
According to CBC reporter Terry Milewski, Grewal even said that the first plan included two planes and two bombs. But nothing was done to investigate any intelligence by the Trudeau administration.
In June 1985, Paul Besso, a paid RCMP informant, claimed to have recorded Sikhs on Vancouver Island discussing the Air India attack. Besso told the CBC in September 1987 that he used an RCMP “body bag” to record interviews with suspected Sikh drug dealers in Port Alberni and Duncan.
This is not the first time that India and Canada have clashed over the issue of Khalistan. The rift goes back to 1982, when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi spoke her mind on the matter with Justin Trudeau’s father. According to Terry Milewski in his book Blood for Blood: Fifty Years of the Khalistan Project, in 1982, Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi complained to Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau that Sikh extremists in Canada were financing and planning terrorist attacks against Indian victims.
Both Justin Trudeau and his father, Pierre Trudeau, have been criticized for taking a soft stance on the Khalistan issue. Now, Justin Trudeau is facing mounting challenges to his leadership, with calls of no confidence in the House of Commons. Only time will tell if his administration will continue the legacy of his father’s approach or take a different approach to solving this complex problem.