New Delhi: In the summer of 2015, ties between India and Canada had seemingly limitless ambition. But by the end of that year, as Justin Trudeau assumed office as prime minister, the two countries headed down a collision course.
Under Trudeau, the relationship between New Delhi and Ottawa saw the differences amplified, with him taking centre stage in accusing Indian officials of being linked to the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, with no evidence to offer. Nijjar, a designated terrorist in India, was gunned down outside a gurdwara in June 2023. Furthermore, the Liberal Party under Trudeau’s stewardship relied on electoral support from extremist elements within the Canadian Sikh community, who have called for violent reprisals against Indian diplomats.
Trudeau also had two trips to India during his tenure, both widely panned, further eroding trust between the two governments.
Having served as prime minister for more than nine years and leader of the Liberal Party since 2013, Trudeau in a press conference Monday announced his decision to step down ahead of the general election due later this year.
“I would argue that Justin Trudeau looked at much of foreign policy and particularly the relationship with India through the lens of diaspora interests and vote banks rather than look at them more broadly in Canada’s national interest,” Ajay Bisaria, the former high commissioner of India to Canada and Pakistan told ThePrint.
The former diplomat added: “On the India relationship consistently there was an attempt to look at ties from a lens of getting the vote banks excited about what he was doing, which explains some of the histrionics during his 2018 visit and the statement during the farmers’ protests.”
It also explains why he chose to take the issue surrounding the killing of Nijjar from a “serious security issue” and made it a political one, added Bisaria.
The Canadian prime minister, especially in the last 18 months, has looked for foreign ties from a “personal survival” standpoint.
Harsh V. Pant, vice president (studies and foreign policy) at the Delhi-based non-profit Observer Research Foundation (ORF) told ThePrint that Trudeau has “knowingly or unknowingly” become the mascot of fall in ties between India and Canada.
Pant added: “His [Trudeau’s] government depends on Sikh extremist groups and their politics in Canada. A lot of divergences in India—Canada ties grew sharper during his tenure. He did not show mature leadership in the relationship, and that is where I think ties took a turn for the worse.”
“He amplified the differences and domestic politics was prioritised over the strategic relationship,” said Pant.
Under Trudeau’s predecessor Stephen Harper, who was in office from 2006 till 2015, New Delhi and Ottawa elevated bilateral ties to a strategic relationship. From that point on, ties went into a tailspin and reached a point in the last few months, where India expelled six Canadian diplomats including its acting high commissioner, while withdrawing its own high commissioner and five other diplomats from Ottawa.
New Delhi has gone so far as to blame the chill in ties to the “political agenda of the Trudeau government centred around vote bank politics,” in October 2024, and chronicling his decision to appoint cabinet ministers with ties to extremist groups promoting a separatist agenda in India.
These flashpoints eroded whatever trust New Delhi had in Trudeau as a leader, which led to ties nosediving in the last nine years, according to Pant.
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The killing of Nijjar
The biggest challenge in bilateral ties stemmed from allegations raised by Trudeau in September 2023, on the floor of the Canadian parliament. He claimed there were “credible allegations” linking the agents of the government of India and the killing of Nijjar.
“His style was the problem. The fact that he sought to make it a big deal in parliament without offering any evidence, putting himself out there with a sense of bravado of taking on India became an issue of ties between the two countries,” explained Pant.
It seemed that for the Canadian prime minister, ties with India “were not a priority” but everything else including his domestic perception was “more important”, added Pant.
By making the issue public, Trudeau in a sense took ownership of it, reducing any space for diplomacy between the two governments.
India called the allegations “absurd and motivated”. Soon after, the Canadian government named and expelled an Indian diplomat, branding him an agent of New Delhi’s intelligence agencies. This led to New Delhi expelling a Canadian diplomat—the head of its intelligence services in India. India also requested the removal of 41 Canadian diplomats from the country to maintain “parity”, a request Ottawa reluctantly acquiesced to in October 2023.
“From India’s viewpoint, New Delhi has tried to reach out to him and make him look at the broader strategic picture of the relationship. However, New Delhi is now playing the long game and was looking at post-Trudeau scenarios because of his actions in torpedoing ties,” said Bisaria.
Ties further deteriorated in October, when the Canadian government requested India to waive diplomatic immunity for six of its diplomats including the high commissioner at the time Sanjay Kumar Verma. The request was made after a meeting between Canada’s National Security and Intelligence Advisor (NSIA) Nathalie G. Drouin and her Indian counterpart Ajit Doval in Singapore. New Delhi withdrew six diplomats and rejected the Canadian request. Moreover, it retaliated by expelling six Canadian diplomats from India.
Ottawa went a step further with Drouin and Deputy Foreign Minister David Morrison leaking sensitive material of the Canadian investigation into the Nijjar killing to an American newspaper, which further eroded ties.
Trudeau confirmed that at the time of his initial speech in September 2023, the government did not have evidence, but has since worked to collect it.
India, meanwhile, maintains “not a shred” of evidence has been shared to date.
2020 farmers’ protests, links to Sikh separatists
In 2020, Trudeau backed protests by Indian farmers by labelling the three farm laws enacted and later withdrawn by Parliament as “concerning” and said Ottawa will “always be there” to defend peaceful protests.
India rejected Trudeau’s comments at the time calling them “ill-informed”. In 2024, India called these comments as “naked interference” by Trudeau in domestic politics to serve the Canadian government’s “separatist agenda”. Trudeau attempted to mitigate the damage in ties by saying he supports only a “one-India” policy, which found no takers in New Delhi.
The Indian foreign ministry took a swipe at the Canadian government saying that there is a “gap between action and words,” in October 2024.
“Instead of rallying the institutional arrangements to handle the challenges with India, Trudeau put himself out there. I think that is the problem, the way he approached India during his tenure,” said Pant.
In 2018, Trudeau visited India. The widely criticised visit, saw his office invite Jaspal Atwal, an individual with a history of militancy and convicted of an attempted assassination of a minister from the Punjab government in 1986 in Canada, to an event in Mumbai. Atwal was even photographed with members from Trudeau’s delegation during the event.
Canadian officials at the time tried to blame India for the invite to Atwal, alleging that it was a ploy to sabotage the visit—an allegation which was refuted by New Delhi.
With Trudeau now leaving office, Pant highlighted that it could offer “some space” to the next leader to work on repairing ties with India.
“The damage Trudeau has done with ties is irreversible. However, India and Canada ties have bottomed out. Any successor will look at ties differently,” said Bisaria.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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