Sikhs in Canada were angered by Prime Minister Mark Carney’s invitation to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to attend this weekend’s G7 summit in Alberta as a guest.
Carney’s predecessor, Justin Trudeau, publicly accused Modi’s government of assassinating Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Vancouver in June 2023.
“‘Outrage’ is the kind of term that I’ve heard from people,” Sikh activist Moninder Singh, a personal friend of Nijjar, told Reuters on Saturday. He said Sikh groups would protest Modi’s presence all the way through the end of the G7 summit.
Those protests started early in Ottawa on Saturday, as hundreds of Sikhs demonstrated against Modi on Parliament Hill. Many of them waved kirpans, the traditional Sikh ceremonial knife, and waved flags of the Khalistani Movement, which seeks to carve an independent homeland for Sikhs from India’s state of Punjab.
Moinder Singh, who was among the Parliament Hill demonstrators, said Modi’s attendance at the G7 summit was a threat to Canadian sovereignty.
“We want everyone in Canada to know that this is not just a Sikh issue. This is actually a Canadian issue, and India using violence, intimidation, threats, and coercion to force Canadians to bend the knee to them and to toe the line that they want toed, whether it’s our politicians, our media, or the average citizen,” he said.
“If there’s a foreign government trying to kill your political leaders, you would think they wouldn’t be welcome in your country, but it seems Prime Minister Carney thinks otherwise,” said Balpreet Singh, legal counsel for the World Sikh Federation of Canada.
“There’s over a dozen Sikhs that are living with duties to warn, which means there are imminent threats to their lives from the Government of India,” said Balpreet Singh. “They can’t be around their families, they can’t be in public spaces. They have to change the way they live their lives, and this is just the past couple of years.”
A “Duty to Warn Notification” is issued by Canadian police when they believe there is a credible threat against the life or safety of an individual. Moinder Singh said he has received several such notices from the police since Nijjar was murdered.
“Sikh lives aren’t as important as the fifth-largest economy in the world that needs to be at the table,” he said, dismissing Carney’s effort to mend fences between Canada and India.
“Any meetings with them should have been under the conditions that Mr. Modi and his government would take responsibility for what has been uncovered and cooperate, but none of that happened,” he said.
Canada’s Global News reported last week that Jagmeet Singh, the Sikh former leader of the left-wing New Democratic Party, was placed under the protection of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) in 2023 because a “suspected Indian government agent” was keeping him under surveillance.
The report rekindled animosity from Canadian Sikhs toward Modi’s government, coming as it did on the eve of Modi’s arrival in Canada. Jagmeet Singh had previously said the RCMP notified him of a threat to his life, but did not tell him the threat allegedly emanated from an Indian government operative.
Indian media outlets were critical of the Canadian Sikh demonstrations. The Times of India (TOI) reported on Monday that a banned Khalistani separatist group called Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) released a video sarcastically thanking Carney, who it dismissed as “more of a businessman than a Canadian PM,” for “giving pro-Khalistan Sikhs a historic opportunity to ambush Modi’s politics right in front of G7 nations.”
For good measure, SFJ condemned India’s recent military action against Pakistan as a “terror attack” that deliberately targeted mosques.
OpIndia slammed Khalistani activists for using their children as props in their protests, egging their children into desecrating the Indian flag and stomping on photos of Modi for social media videos.
“Khalistanis are mimicking Islamists, who are known to use children and women to attain their religious and political goals through their radical activities,” the Indian news organization fumed.
OpIndia also noted some Khalistani activists have talked about “ambushing” Modi in a more literal sense when he visits Canada.
Moderate Sikh leaders in India denounced the anti-Modi theatrics on Monday, especially the social media videos that used children as props.
“Sikhs around the world are being defamed. Sikhs across the globe are being viewed differently. This behavior reflects the mindset of the Taliban. Sikhs have always followed the path shown by the Gurus, and this act goes completely against their teachings,” said Delhi Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa.
“To those who are throwing stones at the Prime Minister’s photo and burning his effigy, those days are gone. The fear you once tried to create is over. He went straight to the place you used to ignite hate from. Do whatever you want, he is standing before you. This stone-pelting, insulting the national flag, all of this has lost its impact now,” said Maninderjeet Singh Bitta, president of the All India Anti-Terrorist Front.
“It was very shocking to see and hear. We do not support what happened. Today what PM Modi is doing, he is setting an example with his leadership,” Harbans Singh, secretary of the Takht Sri Harmandir Sahib (an important Sikh temple) said of the anti-Modi videos using children.
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