Pierre Poilievre Is Soft On (Indian Government Organized) Crime
"I can guarantee you that if it were China or Russia the RCMP was exposing, Poilievre’s statement would have read very differently. He probably would have released a couple of videos by now as well."
Jaskaran Sandhu
October 17, 2024 | 5 min. read | Opinion
Have you seen Pierre Poilievre’s statement regarding the unprecedented RCMP press conference on Indian transnational repression from this past Monday?
This was the press conference at which the RCMP said they don’t usually hold pressers when there are ongoing investigations, but considering the very real and continuing security threat to all Canadians, they have to say something about what they have found so far.
They shared at this press conference that the "breadth and depth" of organized crime and transnational repression orchestrated by "agents of the Government of India" targeting Sikh Canadians across Canada is of serious concern. The RCMP stressed that there are clear links tying the Government of India to homicides, extortions, shootings, violent acts, and the use of organized crime to target Canadians.
They even went as far as to share that Indian diplomats have also been using their official positions to engage in clandestine activities in Canada, and they are recruiting Canadian informants through coercion.
You may have missed Poilievre’s statement on these bombshells because the leader of the official opposition, the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC), never actually shared it from any of his personal or official accounts.
In fact, he did not even retweet the posts of the few MPs who did share his statement.
This is unusual for two reasons. One, if you don’t follow Canadian politics, Poilievre is seldom this quiet about something. And two, the RCMP’s press conference made international headlines and front pages, not just in Canada - hardly an issue to ignore or minimize.
So what are we, as Canadians, supposed to make of this?
Poilievre is soft on Indian government-sponsored organized crime and criminal activities in Canada.
Before going any further, I want to clarify that this article is not some sort of partisan play. This is not a political attempt to undermine Poilievre in order to favour another political party. I have a history with all three major parties in Canada. I have friends in all three (although I am not sure if the feeling is always mutual). I have been very hard on Trudeau in the past as well, especially after his now infamous trip to India in 2018, and Baaz has written extensively on where the Canadian government has gone wrong on Sikh issues. Also, if polls are to be believed, and they usually should be, Poilievre is poised for a clear majority in the next general election. In other words, I have little incentive to denounce the man or the CPC for the sake of just denouncing them. However, I, and at the very least, every other Sikh Canadian, cannot accept Poilievre’s growing track record on the issue of Indian foreign interference in Canada.
Let’s now take some time to actually read Poilievre’s statement.
For a man of many words, Poilievre devotes less than 100 to what was likely a pivotal moment in Canadian history. I have never encountered an example quite like what we are witnessing right now. A moment that not only proved once and for all that Sikh Canadians were right about how India has been targeting us but also that Canada is on the receiving end of what can easily be called foreign state-sponsored terrorism.
If you took your news from Poilievre, which is likely true for many Canadians on the right end of the political spectrum, you would have no idea what RCMP allegations the statement is alluding to. I can guarantee you that if it were China or Russia the RCMP was exposing, Poilievre’s statement would have read very differently. He probably would have released a couple of videos by now as well, perhaps even a mini-documentary.
Poilievre also dilutes the whole issue by, for lack of better words, all-lives-mattering it. At this particular moment, we are not talking about denouncing “any foreign interference from any country.” We are specifically talking about India unleashing organized crime against Canadians. No other country is doing that. The scale of what we are witnessing is so crazy its hard to believe. Say it out loud. Recognize it directly.
When the rash of extortions exploded suddenly across the country in the last few months, it was not just Sikhs facing the brunt of it. Shootings in residential streets at the hands of Indian organized crime groups impact all Canadians. Homicides and brazen crimes by Indian-sponsored criminals pull on police resources for all Canadians. You would have no idea that Conservatives are supposed to be the tough-on-crime party by watching their reaction to these revelations.
This gets us to the final paragraph of Poilievre’s statement.
Why is the CPC making this seem like a partisan or political issue rather than a national security one?
The Indian Government-Organized Crime Nexus that was illustrated by the RCMP, including the extortions and homicides, escalated in earnest after the Trudeau government denounced India for killing a Canadian citizen, after we began the Public Inquiry into Foreign Interference, exposing India as the second biggest culprit of foreign interference in Canada, and after the world, including our allies in America, called on India to cooperate with ongoing investigations into the assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
And, another thing - the same criminal nexus unleashed in Canada by India was also used in the United States, as we learned through an unsealed indictment concerning Nikhil Gupta - an Indian national tasked by Indian government agents to assassinate Sikh Americans.
Instead of loudly and clearly denouncing India for its rogue behaviour and actions, Pierre dedicated a good chunk of his ~100 words to attacking the Canadian government instead. This is not the sign of a leader serious about tackling transnational repression.
It is also difficult to evaluate Poilievre’s timid reaction to the RCMP press conference independently of his other actions related to India:
His refusal to receive the confidential intelligence briefing on India’s transnational repression is simply unacceptable, and it puts his own party and Canada at further risk. This is even more damning when you consider the multiple reports on how India may have interfered in the CPC leadership race.
His joining the now disgraced Indian High Commissioner at a Diwali event two months after Trudeau shared that Canadian intelligence believes India was behind the assassination of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil, and an RCMP investigation into the matter was ongoing, was, to put it kindly, extremely ill-advised.
His ongoing inability to speak in clear terms about India’s attack on Sikh Canadians has attracted the ire of major Sikh organizations, including the World Sikh Organization of Canada (WSO), which had raised concerns back in September over the lack of CPC representation during an emergency debate on the topic in Parliament, and the Ontario Gurdwaras Committee (OGC) and the British Columbia Gurdwaras Council (BCGC), which released an open statement in late September 2023 criticizing the CPC for Poilievre’s “flippant and partisan comments” which had the impact of “undermining the gravity and veracity of the intelligence” Trudeau relied on before his parliament address.
Recall that Poilievre also told CP24 during this time that “[Justin Trudeau]’s got an embarrassing dispute now that he's losing with India.” Those comments were made as Canada and other Five Eye partners continued to call on India to cooperate with an RCMP criminal investigation concerning India’s role in the murder of Nijjar.
The same investigation we learned more about this past Monday.
I can’t explain the hesitation Sikhs are sensing from Poilievre on this topic. It is troubling and worrisome. And in these times, it is unacceptable.
Jaskaran Sandhu hails from Brampton, Canada, and is the co-founder of Baaz. He is a Strategist at the public affairs and relations agency State Strategy and a lawyer. Jaskaran also previously served as Executive Director for the World Sikh Organization of Canada and as a Senior Advisor to Brampton’s Office of the Mayor. You can find Jaskaran on Twitter at @JaskaranSandhu_
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