‘Hardeep Nijjar was a foreign terrorist’: Canada’s Opposition party leader questions Justin Trudeau

People’s Party of Canada leader Maxime Bernier on Thursday said that if the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Liberal government’s allegations of Indian diplomats engaging in criminal activities on Canadian soil are true, they are deeply serious and must be dealt with decisively.

Maxime Bernier, however, added that while the claims are serious, no solid evidence has been presented so far by the Canadian government, and accused Justin Trudeau of using this crisis to divert attention from other controversies.

“If true, allegations made by the RCMP and the Liberal government that Indian diplomats participated in criminal activities on our territory are very serious and should be dealt with. So far however, we haven’t been given any proof. And Trudeau is clearly using this crisis to divert the attention from other controversies,” Maxime Bernier said in a post on X (formerly Twitter)

Bernier also dismissed the claim that Hardeep Singh Nijjar, the Khalistani terrorist killed last year, was a Canadian.

“One myth should be dispelled though: That the central figure in this controversy, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, the Khalistani militant who was murdered last year, was a Canadian. He was actually a foreign terrorist who used fraudulent documents to claim asylum in Canada several times starting in 1997. His claims were rejected but he was nevertheless allowed to stay in this country and was somehow granted citizenship in 2007,” Maxime Bernier wrote.

Bernier claimed that Nijjar wasn’t a Canadian and proposed posthumously revoking his citizenship to correct this administrative error, saying he should have been deported.

“Nijjar wasn’t a Canadian. We should perhaps posthumously take away his citizenship to right this administrative error. He should have been deported after his first fake asylum claim, like the hundreds of thousands of fake asylum claimants who are in Canada right now,” he added.

Bernier pointed out that this situation stems from Canada’s long history of inviting foreigners and their conflicts, urging the need to recognise this blunder and collaborate with the Indian government instead of risking relations with an important ally.

“All this is happening because Canada has for decades deliberately invited these foreigners and their tribal conflicts into our country. We should recognize this major blunder and work with the government of India to find solutions instead of jeopardizing our relations with a rising world power and an important ally over this issue,” the People’s Party of Canada leader added.

India-Canada ties, which have been in freefall since Prime Minister Justin Trudeau alleged in September last year a link between Indian government agents and the murder of Nijjar, reached a new low this week when New Delhi dismissed Ottawa’s move to question six Indian diplomats, including High Commissioner Sanjay Verma, in connection with the killing as “preposterous.”

Indian government said that the current crisis was precipitated solely by the Trudeau government’s “baseless allegations” against Indian officials, and the Canadian side is yet to act on India’s requests to extradite 26 people and arrest several others accused of terrorism and serious crimes.

Meanwhile, Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, the general counsel for the secessionist group Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) and a designated terrorist in India has confirmed that he communicated with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office in recent years.

In an interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), Pannun revealed that the SFJ had engaged with Trudeau’s office, discussing alleged espionage networks operated by India within Canada.