Indo-Canadian journalist Deepak Punj has slammed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for failing to address Khalistani violence and immigration issues, while also alleging police inaction against separatist groups in the country.
Deepak Punj, an Indo-Canadian journalist and radio host who was assaulted in February 2022 in his studio for slamming Khalistan-related violence, has said Canadians “hate” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for his immigration politics, and that the police in his country do not act against separatist groups and make no arrest. Punj also said Trudeau supports Khalistani forces.
Hours after India and Canada on Monday expelled their envoys amid a major diplomatic row, Punj, speaking exclusively to CNN-News18, said, “White Canadians hate Trudeau for his immigration politics.”
Read More: Pakistan SCO Summit: Restrictions Imposed in Karachi, Punjab amid PTI’s Islamabad protest call
“The forces want Khalistani issues to be alive so that they can get asylum in Canada, and Justin Trudeau is only helping them. The situation in Trudeau’s regime has become bad and the people now want change,” he said.
“Even the Canadian Police don’t act against separatist groups, and even in my case, no arrests were made,” Punj said.
In February 2022, Deepak Punj, host of Frontline Radio, was accosted by three men at around 12.30 pm local time while preparing to enter the building housing his studio.
A day before, he had featured a show during which he had criticised the display of Khalistan flags and anti-India slogans during a vigil in Brampton, a GTA town.
One of the unidentified assailants was armed with a handgun, while another hit Punj on his head with an empty beer bottle and punched him.
Speaking further to CNN-News18 on Monday, Punj said, “Justin Trudeau will soon be replaced by someone else in the Liberal Party of Canada, it’s just a game of ‘note’ and ‘vote’.”
He also said the Prime Minister has “fully failed” on several issues and that many journalists like him are being attacked when they speak against Khalistani forces.
“Trudeau has fully failed on the issue of cost of living, mortgage rates, and more. Journalists like us are being attacked when we speak against his government and Khalistani forces. Trudeau wants to hold on to his chair and that’s what he is doing,” Punj said.
“If the Conservative Party of Canada comes to power, the ties with India will be restored,” he added.
Punj also alleged, “Trudeau and Canada’s New Democratic Party leader Jagmeet Singh, whose party pulled out of Trudeau’s government, were still political allies.”
INDIA-CANADA ROW ESCALATES
Canada announced the expulsion of six Indian diplomats Monday, including the high commissioner, after the police accused agents of the Indian government of being linked to homicides, harassment and other “acts of violence” against Sikh separatists in the country.
Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Melanie Joly said in a Monday statement that the decision to expel the diplomats “was made with great consideration and only after (Canadian police) gathered ample, clear and concrete evidence which identified six individuals as persons of interest in the prominent Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar case.”
The extraordinary step has sharply escalated diplomatic tensions between the countries, with India swiftly expelling six Canadian diplomats in response, including the acting High Commissioner Stewart Ross Wheeler, according to a statement from India’s Ministry of External Affairs.
Relations between both countries hit rock bottom last year when Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he had credible information linking the Indian government to the assassination on Canadian soil.
Read More: Lockdown in Pakistan: Colleges, schools, markets to remain shut; Know what’s open, what’s closed
CANADA ACCUSES INDIA OF MAKING A ‘FUNDAMENTAL ERROR’
During a Monday press conference, Trudeau accused the Indian government of making “a fundamental error in thinking that they could engage in supporting criminal activity against Canadians on the Canadian soil, whether it be murders or extortion or other violent acts, is absolutely unacceptable for any country, any democracy, that upholds the rule of law.”
He said that was why the Royal Canada Mounted Police (RCMP) “chose to come out today and disrupt the pattern of Indian diplomats collecting, through questionable and illegal means, information on Canadian citizens that were then fed to criminal organizations that would then take violent actions from extortion to murder against Canadians.”
The Indian government has called the accusations “preposterous” and said it was withdrawing the officials expelled by the Canadian government.
“There is a deliberate strategy of smearing India for political gains,” the statement added Monday. “The aspersions cast on (High Commissioner Sanjay Kumar Verma) are ludicrous and deserve to be treated with contempt.”
INDIA-CANADA ROW
Earlier this year, Canada charged several Indian nationals with the killing of Nijjar. At the time, authorities were investigating whether they had ties to the Indian government.
Nijjar was gunned down by masked men on June 18, 2023, outside a Sikh temple in Surrey, British Columbia. He was a prominent campaigner for a separate Sikh homeland out of India, which would be known as Khalistan and include parts of India’s Punjab state.
Last September, Trudeau said he had credible information linking the Indian government to the killing of Nijjar. The allegation outraged India, which has forcefully denied the claim, calling it “absurd.” The diplomatic fallout saw tit-for-tat expulsions of senior diplomats from both countries.
In its statement Monday, the Indian government said that since Trudeau made those allegations, the Canadian government had “not shared a shred of evidence” and that recent assertions had also been made “without any facts.”
