Canada’s cabinet ministers slam Khalistanis for targeting foreign minister at protest

Canada’s locker ministers feature condemned the brazen targeting of government minister of strange affairs Anita Anand during a resist organised by the secessionist group Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) outside the Indian Consulate in Toronto on Friday.

As SFJ staged protests outside Indian’s missions in Canada on Friday, what stood out was the targeting of Anand, who has been carrying out Prime Minister Mark Carney’s policy of engaging with India as part of an overall attempt to diversify from the trade dependence on the United States.

Among the posters on display during a protest outside India’s Consulate in Toronto on Friday was one showing Anand and late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. That was juxtaposed to a tableau showing the late PM’s assassination. Another poster depicted Anand’s meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi during her bilateral visit to India earlier this month.

The display, on the 41st anniversary of Indira’s assassination, showed her being riddled with bullets fired by her bodyguards-turned-assassins Beant Singh and Satwant Singh, who were also depicted with guns pointed towards her, and at the poster morphed with Anand’s image.

That portrayal drew a furious response on Saturday from Canada’s minister of public safety Gary Anandasangaree, who posted, “A recent protest in Toronto showed two men shooting at the image of a federal minister — which is absolutely vile and unacceptable.”

“Canada condemns all threats to public officials, full stop. Those responsible for inciting such hate and violence must be found and held accountable,” he added.

Echoing that sentiment was minister of international trade Maninder Sidhu, who said, “I strongly condemn the actions and rhetoric that promoted violence during the demonstration in Toronto. It is unacceptable and entirely contrary to the values of respect, peace and unity that define our country. Canadians have the right to peacefully express their views, but that right can never be used to justify hate, intimidation or harm.”

Secretary of state for international development Randeep Sarai added, “Targeting a public official with threats or violence undermines our democracy.”

While there were no disruptive incidents during the Friday protests, it highlighted pro-Khalistan radicals in Canada turning more provocative as their influence on the government diminished following the departure of Justin Trudeau from the PM’s post in March this year. SFJ has already held a protest outside the residence of India’s high commissioner to Ottawa in October and has scheduled the next phase of its so-called Khalistan Referendum in the Canadian capital later this month.

Amid a gradual reset in Canada’s relationship with India, and waning political influence, pro-Khalistan separatists in the country have grown shriller, adopted more radical stands including attacks on Anand.

In July, a video emerged of prominent pro-Khalistan figure Moninder Singh appearing to support an armed option for the creation of Khalistan. Singh, a spokesperson for the Sikh Federation of Canada and the British Columbia Gurdwaras Council, told a gathering in a speech in June in Punjabi, “Even if we don’t take part in the armed struggle, it’s not our right to reject it.”

“If there is a struggle that emerges organically within the youth of Punjab, we should not let them down due to our weakness,” he said.

Singh was speaking at a memorial function in mid-June to mark the two-year death anniversary for Hardeep Singh Nijjar, the pro-Khalistan figure, who was killed in Surrey, British Columbia, on June 18, 2023. The venue was the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara in Surrey which Nijjar led till his death.

“Listen to the speeches of Nijjar, he never spoke against armed struggle, against those who died for Khalistan,” Singh said. He described as “nonsense” the argument proffered by some that weapons were not required in fight for Khalistan.

He reeled off the names of late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, Army chief SP Vaidya and Punjab chief minister Beant Singh, who were assassinated by pro-Khalistan extremists, and said, “You decided their time.”

A video of the speech was posted on Instagram by a group calling itself the Khalistan United Front or KUF and then posted on X by the handle Journalist V.

This isn’t the first time that Singh has said violence can’t be ruled out for the secessionist cause. In May 2018, he told the Hindustan Times, “The Khalistan movement doesn’t necessarily have to be associated with violence. Self-resistance, resistance against the state, self-defence — these modes sometimes require people to resist in many different ways including armed struggle.”

Singh is often prominently featured in Canadian media, particularly after relations between India and Canada cratered following then Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s statement in the House of Commons on September 18, 2023, that there were “credible allegations” of a potential link between Indian agents and Nijjar’s killing.

“There are various ways of fighting this war,” Singh said in the address.

He did not respond to emailed queries related to the speech sent earlier by the Hindustan Times.

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