The Canadian prime minister’s understanding of the national interest appears to extend to fossil-fuel profits but not to the safety of Canadian Sikh citizens, argues John Clarke

Canadian prime minister Mark Carney is utterly devoted to increasing the scale of Canada’s oil and gas projects and finding markets for these environmentally destructive products. He is so single-minded in this regard that he is ready to ignore lethal attacks on Canada’s Sikh community by agents of the Modi government in the interests of furthering climate-wrecking trade with India.

After replacing the increasingly unpopular Justin Trudeau as leader of the Liberal Party and prime minister last March, Carney soon found himself confronting the harsh impacts of the trade-war measures adopted by the Trump administration. His approach to this trade crisis, has been to seek terms with the US, while doing all he can to diversify and expand trading relationships, so as to reduce Canada’s reliance on the US market.

Writing for Counterfire in September of last year, I noted that the ‘costs that the Canadian state will take on, in developing fossil-fuel projects, along with a massive increase in military spending that the government is committed to, will be paid for by a brutal intensification of austerity, major social cutbacks and an assault on public-sector workers.’ It now appears that the safety of Sikh communities will also be sacrificed in order to further these objectives.

Reconciliation with Modi

Carney’s obvious efforts to appease Modi at any cost, reflect the clear priorities of his government. On 20 January, the Narwhal reported on extensive efforts by oil and gas companies to ensure major changes to ‘environmental and energy policy in order to “unlock” fossil fuel industry growth.’ This has led to a situation where: ‘We’re seeing an incredible alignment of government interests and fossil fuel industry interests.’

In this context, the attractions of the Indian market are enormous for Canadian fossil-fuel companies. As the CBC has noted, Carney travelled to India in late February for a visit that would be ‘laser-focused on cutting new business deals and getting negotiations for a free trade agreement underway as part of a push to diversify from the American market.’

Stressing the receptiveness of the Modi government to trade enhancement of this kind, India’s high commissioner to Canada, Dinesh Patnaik, declared that: ‘On energy, there is an appetite which even Canada cannot fulfill and we are willing to buy whatever Canada is offering on crude, on LPG, on LNG.’

This new cordial alignment follows a very deliberate effort to close the books on previous discord. ‘Relations between the two countries have been frosty since former prime minister Justin Trudeau accused unnamed Indian agents of involvement in the 2023 killing of a Canadian Sikh separatist.’

The far from squeamish Carney, however, made sure to invite Modi to participate in last year’s G7 Summit that Canada was hosting. The ‘two leaders agreed to pursue a comprehensive economic agreement’ and a situation has now been generated where, as Patnaik would have it: ‘It’s going to all come together so energy can redefine our relationship completely. Up until now, what we have been doing is just a drop in the bucket.’

A further CBC report informs us that a ‘senior Canadian official says the Carney government believes that India has ceased its attempts at transnational repression in Canada.’ The official emphatically declared that: ‘I think we could say we’re confident that that activity is not continuing,’ and added that, ‘If we believed that the government of India was actively interfering in the Canadian democratic process, we probably would not be taking this trip.’

Representatives of the Sikh community, however, don’t share the Carney government’s confidence and are outraged at the readiness to belittle the ongoing threat of violence that they face. ‘Sikh activists in Canada are pointing to signs of a continuing threat to their safety, even as the federal government tries to move on.’ At the same time, ‘Sikh groups have now issued an ultimatum to federal politicians to pay more heed to their concerns or face a boycott and a ban on entering gurdwaras and attending Sikh events organized by them.’

The National Post also takes note of the Carney government’s claim that ‘previous allegations the agents of the government of India were linked to many violent crimes or threats in Canada, including the murder of B.C. Sikh-Canadian leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar in 2023’ can be put aside because: ‘We’re confident that that activity is not continuing.’

However, despite this, ‘Canada’s spy agency says India remains one of the main perpetrators of foreign interference and espionage against Canada, contradicting a claim by a senior government official last week that Indian agents are no longer linked to such crimes.’ Several Liberal MPs have also broken ranks and publicly disagreed with the government line with considerable indignation.

Murder-for-hire

There is yet further evidence that the Carney government is disregarding the severity of the threat of illicit and lethal conduct by agents of the Indian government. A recent article in the Pointer shows that the ‘man who US prosecutors allege conspired with an employee of the Indian government to kill the leader of a Sikh separatist movement in New York pleaded guilty on February 13 to his role in a foiled assassination plot that Canadian government officials say is part of a wider, transnational effort by the Hindu nationalist BJP government in New Delhi to silence Sikh advocates in North America.’

Nikhil Gupta, who faces up to forty years in prison on these charges, intended to kill a New York-based Sikh activist who holds Canadian citizenship and is closely linked to co-thinkers in various parts of Canada. The intended victim, Girpatwant Singh Pannun, commented that ‘Gupta’s guilty plea is judicial confirmation that India’s Modi government orchestrated a structured murder-for-hire assassination plot on American soil.’

The article also reports that a recent Sikh community meeting in Brampton, Ontario involved allegations of a lack of official action on the part of the Canadian authorities ‘to deal with ongoing threats the Sikh community is facing at the hands of the Indian government, including extortion and violence.’

Yet, despite all this disturbing evidence, so anxious is the Carney government to minimise the severity of the threat that Canadian Justice Department lawyers are trying to suppress ‘sensitive’ information that could otherwise be used in the trial of the four men who have now been charged with murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in British Columbia. They claim that the disclosure of this information ‘would be injurious to international relations and national security’ (not to mention fossil-fuel profits).

Mark Carney has a very sharp focus on the stability and profit-making capacities of Canadian capitalism to the exclusion of all other considerations. In the midst of the present trade crisis, he has frequently taken to flag-waving references to his commitment to stand up for the national interest in the face of threats and intimidation. Yet, as we see from his readiness to disregard the presence of Modi’s death squads on ‘Canadian soil’, this is cheap bluster that is simply for public consumption.

So anxious is Carney to firm up full access to the Indian market for destructive Canadian fossil-fuel products that he is prepared to give murderous agents of the Indian government a free hand, to minimise their crimes and deny copious evidence in the process.

Yet, the shadowy activity of the authoritarian and chauvinistic Modi government does, indeed, pose a threat to the safety and well-being of members of the Sikh community across Canada. Modi’s agents and supporters can only draw confidence from the failure of the Carney government to hold them to account.

The abandonment of the Sikh community is a sharp expression of Carney’s priorities and objectives. As he imposes a brutal agenda of austerity, linked to the vigorous promotion of fossil-fuel extraction and export, his readiness to tolerate the deadly violence of Modi’s agents in Canada leaves no doubt as to just whose ‘national interest’ he champions.