New Delhi: For Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who is no stranger to diplomatic knock-down-drag-outs, the month of September was particularly harsh. Reportedly sidelined during the recently-concluded G20 Leaders Summit in New Delhi, Trudeau alleged the involvement of Indian intelligence agencies in the killing of a Canada-based Sikh separatist, and to top it off, embarrassed the President of Ukraine during the latter’s visit to Ottawa last week, by overseeing a standing ovation to a former Nazi soldier.
Trudeau’s foreign policy has been called naive by various commentators at different points during his eight-year tenure as the leader of Canada. During his three terms as prime minister, Trudeau (51) has also estranged various nations for a myriad of reasons — from the export of garbage to the Philippines to the latest confrontation with India.
ThePrint looks at a few of the countries and administrations the Trudeau government engaged in diplomatic squabbles with over the years.
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India
The latest crisis between Canada and India stems from an allegation Trudeau made in the Canadian Parliament on 18 September 2023. Speaking in the House of Commons, he accused India of potentially being linked to the killing of Khalistan Tiger Force (KTF) chief Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who was killed on 18 June this year in British Columbia.
The Canadian government also named and expelled Pavan Kumar Rai, a Punjab cadre IPS officer — described by Canada’s foreign ministry office as the chief of India’s Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) at the High Commission of India in Ottawa.
In a tit-for-tat move, India expelled Olivier Sylvestre, believed to be a Canadian intelligence official working in its mission in New Delhi, as reported by ThePrint. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) also asked Canada to downsize its missions in India, and suspended visa services to Canadians citing the “threat” posed to Indian diplomats in Canada.
Earlier in 2018, during his visit to India, Trudeau caused outrage by inviting Jaspal Atwal — a man convicted for attempting to assassinate a cabinet minister from the state of Punjab in 1986 — to two engagements, an event in Mumbai and a dinner in Delhi. Trudeau’s wife was seen in photos with Atwal from the Mumbai event, which triggered a controversy, leading to the invitation being rescinded for the dinner in New Delhi.
Ukraine
Trudeau’s administration has been an ardent supporter of Ukraine since Russia invaded the country in 2022. On Friday, Ottawa reportedly announced $650 million in new military assistance to Ukraine over the next three years. Ukrainian President Volodoymyr Zelenskyy also addressed the Canadian Parliament during his visit to Ottawa, Friday.
But the visit was marred by the Canadian Parliament venerating a former Waffen-SS veteran, the nonagenarian Yaroslav Hunka. Hunka was called a “Ukrainian hero” and acknowledged by Zelenskyy with a raised fist. The Waffen-SS Galicia Division, of which Hunka was a member, was declared a criminal organisation at the end of World War II owing to its role as a voluntary unit under the command of Nazis.
This incident provided fodder to President Vladimir Putin’s stated aim of the “denazification” of Ukraine — a statement he made last February, at the beginning of Russia’s ‘special military operation’ in Ukraine. The veneration of Hunka even led to the Polish ambassador in Canada seeking an apology from the fellow NATO member state over the incident.
09/22 🇨🇦&🇺🇦 leadership at @OurCommons cheered a member of Waffen-SS Galizien, notorious #UA military formation of #WW2 responsible for murdering thousands of Poles & Jews.
🇵🇱 best ally 🇺🇦 has, will never agree on whitewashing such villains! As 🇵🇱 Amb. to 🇨🇦 I expect an apology. pic.twitter.com/j6EkVWGg1d
— Witold Dzielski (@WitoldDzielski) September 24, 2023
Saudi Arabia
In 2018, a bitter diplomatic row between Saudi Arabia and Canada arose after Global Affairs Canada – the department that manages its diplomatic and consular relations – posted on X (formerly Twitter) calling on the Saudi authorities to “immediately release” civil society and women’s rights activists arrested by Riyadh.
Canada is gravely concerned about additional arrests of civil society and women’s rights activists in #SaudiArabia, including Samar Badawi. We urge the Saudi authorities to immediately release them and all other peaceful #humanrights activists.
— Foreign Policy CAN (@CanadaFP) August 3, 2018
Saudi Arabia reportedly expelled the Canadian ambassador to the kingdom and withdrew its own ambassador from Ottawa, sold various of its Canadian investments and ordered its students to leave the country. Its national flag carrier Saudi Air also suspended flights to Canada.
It was only five years later, in May 2023, that the two countries restored their ties.
The Philippines
Between 2013 and 2014, 103 containers containing Canadian household garbage — plastic bottles, plastic bags, newspapers and adult diapers — reportedly reached the shores of the Philippines, using forged documentation. The origins of the 103 containers shipped from Vancouver remained a mystery. But the items, labelled as recyclable plastic scraps, threatened to destroy diplomatic relations between Canada and the Philippines.
The then president of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte even threatened to ‘declare war’ against Canada in April 2019, almost five years after the last shipment of garbage arrived in Manila, unless Canada retrieved the containers. “I will declare war against them. I will advise Canada that your garbage is on the way. Prepare a grand reception. Eat it if you want to,” Duterte said in a televised statement as reported by the Guardian.
In 2016, a court in the Philippines ruled that Canada had to take back roughly 2,400 tonnes of waste. Canada, as reported by the Vancouver Sun, maintained at the time that it did not have the legal tools to compel a company to take back the garbage.
Duterte’s ultimatum eventually worked with Canada reportedly signing a $1.14 million contract with a shipping company to retrieve the garbage in May 2019.
China
On his first visit to China in 2016, Justin Trudeau, according to a report by The Washington Post, presented his seven-year-old daughter to the assembled media and declared, “The friendship and the openness towards China that my father taught me, I am certainly hoping to pass on to not only my children but to generations of Canadians in the future.”
But the relationship between China and Canada quickly soured.
On 1 December 2018, Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Huawei — the Chinese tech giant which overtook Apple to become the world’s second-largest smartphone vendor in August that year — was arrested by Canadian authorities upon her arrival at the airport in Vancouver on the basis of a provisional extradition request by the US.
China, in turn, arrested two Canadian citizens, Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, shortly after Meng’s arrest and charged both of them with espionage-related offences.
In September 2021, Meng reached a plea deal with the US and departed Canada for China. An hour later, Trudeau reportedly announced that the two Canadians, having been freed by China, were returning home.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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