Trudeau's troubled visit to India 'highlights Canada's soft stance on separatism'
The prime minister has been making headlines on his trip to India this week, but not for the reasons he might hope.
Jaspal Atwal, a Sikh separatist once convicted of attempted murder against an Indian politician on Canadian soil, was pictured with Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, the prime minister's wife.
Atwal was also invited to dine with Justin Trudeau and some of his ministers at a formal reception. The prime minister said that he never should have received the invitation, it was rescinded immediately, and that Randeep Sarai, "the Member of Parliament who included this individual has and will assume full responsibility for his actions."
The revelations caused a media storm in India, highlighting what CBC journalist Terry Milewski called "Canada's long-standing reputation in India as being soft on [Sikh] separatism, and not just separatism but extremism."
The trip was intended to improve relations between the two countries, but Ujjal Dosanjh, former NDP premier and attorney-general in B.C., said that this may act as a wake-up call.
"India has never been as direct or as angry as it is today," said Dosanjh, who survived an attack by Sikh separatists in 1985, in which he was nearly beaten to death. Atwal was charged in relation to that assault, but never convicted.
"I think that finally it has come home to Canada… that Indians are very sensitive about anybody talking about the division of the country," he said. "We lived through 1947 — millions were butchered crossing newly minted borders by the British and India is never going to allow that to happen ever."
Listen to the full conversation at the top of this page, which includes a conversation with former CSIS officer Michel Juneau-Katsuya about how politicians need to be more careful of people trying to utilize their influence.
This segment was produced by The Current's John Chipman and Howard Goldenthal.