India-Canada, Mexico and South America: News and Discussion

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Falijee
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Re: India-Canada, Mexico and South America: News and Discussion

Post by Falijee »

Analysis: It's the Atwal effect — and nobody's immune
By Terry Milewski, CBC News
The tsunami is spreading far from the epicentre of the Jaspal Atwal earthquake. And it doesn't discriminate between political parties.The Liberals, of course, have been the ones swept farthest out to sea. A week after Atwal — a former wannabe hitman for the Sikh separatist cause — was summoned to dine with Justin Trudeau in India, the prime minister and his national security adviser were neck-deep and clinging to a conspiracy theory.It was an Indian plot, they said, meant to make us look soft on separatism. So far, the theory isn't selling well.But are the Conservatives and the NDP still high and dry? Not exactly. Take the case of the Conservatives first. Mr. Milewski is one of the most experienced Canadian reporter covering Sikh politics in Canada. Therefore, his claim that all the three major parties of Canada are courting Sikh voters ( and in the process being soft on Khalistan ) is not incorrect
Hoping to paint the Liberals as soft on terror, the Tories drafted a parliamentary motion this week that states that the party "values the contributions of Canadian Sikhs" but condemns "all forms of terrorism, including Khalistani extremism and the glorification of any individuals who have committed acts of violence."It was a trap, of course. Had the Liberals voted yes to the motion, they would have been repudiating some of their Khalistani allies. If they'd voted no, they'd have been caught in bed with them. :D
The word "glorification," of course, takes aim at a painful topic for families of the victims of the Air India Flight 182 bombing: the re-branding of the man who planned the terrorist act as a saintly hero.
He is Canada's deadliest mass-murderer by far: Talwinder Singh Parmar, the architect of the 1985 bombing, whose portrait adorns Sikh temples in Surrey, B.C. and Malton, Ont. Children are being taught that the man who blew 329 innocents out of the sky was a model citizen and a persecuted martyr. (Parmar's role in planning the attack, which was accepted as fact by the Air India inquiry, was confirmed by the testimony of the man who admitted to making the bomb.)
So the Conservative motion had a sharp point on it. But there was a problem: as soon as they got wind of it, the separatist lobby, led by the World Sikh Organization, peppered Ottawa with complaints that this was an attack on all Sikhs, not just the violent ones. The Sikh Lobby in Canada is politically powerful !
A flurry of text messages went out. "They are targe[t]ing the Sikh community and tarnishing us as extremists," one of the messages said. "Canadians are starting to see us as terrorists when we are not ... Everyone please leave voicemails at the offices of Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer ... Please communicate to them that if the Conservatives carry through and bring this motion forward then we will not welcome them in our Gurdwaras and we will absolutely not support them in the future."
It was a familiar tactic: claiming that a critique of extremists is an assault on all Sikhs. But by morning, the blitz of messages seemed to have worked — or so the World Sikh Organization claimed.So, the Conservatives reconsidered — and not for the first time.[/quote]
Like Trudeau, Harper emphasized that separatists have freedom of speech in Canada. Neither Harper nor Trudeau thought to mention that Canadian politicians also have freedom of speech — and have rarely used it to denounce the celebration of Parmar. Or so it was until — oddly enough — the very day the Jaspal Atwal story broke.
Until Trudeau's forgotten comment in New Delhi, then, all three of these parties have been reluctant to confront Sikh extremists — and separatist sympathies have rarely been a bar to membership in any party. Jaspal Atwal, for example, was well-known in the Liberal party as an activist at both the federal and provincial levels.If Randeep Sarai, the MP who invited him to Trudeau's dinner in New Delhi, thought Atwal was suitable company, he wasn't alone. Some of Sarai's own campaigns were handled by the former president of the World Sikh Organization, Prem Vinning. The WSO was founded to fight for an independent Sikh state.
And Indian leaders may conclude that the Atwal episode is not a cause of Trudeau's Khalistan problem, but a symptom of a much wider Canadian one.Indeed it is !
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Re: India-Canada, Mexico and South America: News and Discussion

Post by Bart S »

^ For an interview with Terry, please see the below video.

Despite their leaders being spineless weasels, one has to give credit to at least a few Canadian journalists who have clarity of thought that you would probably not see in the US or UK when it comes to India. This is a must-watch:

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Re: India-Canada, Mexico and South America: News and Discussion

Post by Sanju »

Terry is a journalist who was there in India before, during and after Op. Blue Star. He was a young reporter (as he explained on a radio interview) and knew Parmar and talked on the radio about death-squads going out of The Golden Temple and "killing hundred of innocents".

Unfortunately, the Sikhs in Canada are doing a great disservice to their own young by inculcating hatred for India and Hindus.
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Re: India-Canada, Mexico and South America: News and Discussion

Post by chetak »

here is the main article


It's the Atwal effect — and nobody's immune

It's the Atwal effect — and nobody's immune


For the opposition parties, pointing fingers over Sikh extremism is proving to be tricky

Terry Milewski - CBC News

March 03, 2018

Image

Justin Trudeau, right, is greeted by supporter Prem Vinning, past president of the World Sikh Organization, while attending the 20th Annual Mela Gadri Babian Da cultural festival in Surrey, B.C. in August, 2015. (Darryl Dyck/Canadian Press)

The tsunami is spreading far from the epicentre of the Jaspal Atwal earthquake. And it doesn't discriminate between political parties.

The Liberals, of course, have been the ones swept farthest out to sea. A week after Atwal — a former wannabe hitman for the Sikh separatist cause — was summoned to dine with Justin Trudeau in India, the prime minister and his national security adviser were neck-deep and clinging to a conspiracy theory.

It was an Indian plot, they said, meant to make us look soft on separatism. So far, the theory isn't selling well.
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Re: India-Canada, Mexico and South America: News and Discussion

Post by Ravi Karumanchiri »

^^^^^
Fun fact:

The CBC Anchor above interviewing Terry Milewski is none other than Natasha Fatah, daughter of a truly great Canadian, journalist Tarek Fatah.

8)
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Re: India-Canada, Mexico and South America: News and Discussion

Post by Falijee »

India's MEA Officially Denies Any "Indian Conspiracy" Re: Atwal
Official Spokesperson's response to a query on invitation to Jaspal Atwal
February 28, 2018
n response to a query regarding invitation to Jaspal Atwal, the Official Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said: "We have seen the recent exchange in the Parliament of Canada regarding two invitations issued to Jaspal Atwal by the Canadian High Commissioner, for functions hosted in honour of the Canadian Prime Minister in India.Let me categorically state that the Government of India, including the security agencies, had nothing to do with the presence of Jaspal Atwal at the event hosted by the Canadian High Commissioner in Mumbai or the invitation issued to him for the Canadian High Commissioner's reception in New Delhi. Any suggestion to the contrary is baseless and unacceptable.”
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Re: India-Canada, Mexico and South America: News and Discussion

Post by sudeepj »

Haresh wrote:I have been to Canada at least 9 times over the years.
From what I have seen of these khalistani's (in the UK as well) the older generation is filling the younger generations with ideas of greatness and glory from the times of M. Ranjit Singh, the younger generation are keen to re-establish their roots and have grasped onto these fables & stories.
After all everyone wants to know who they are and where their roots lay.
The khalistani's & their paki supporters are trying to develop a fictional historical enmity between the Hindu & Sikh communities, which obviously has never/will never exist. I would say that only about 5% of the Sikhs I have met are khalistani.
True, the problem is, virtually 100% of Sikhi related political content is Khalistani, where Khalistanis are painted as completely blameless people, when it was far from the case. Sikh hardliners, Akali politics, and competition among Sikh clergy to control the SGPC monies have all contributed to bringing Punjab to the brink of 1984.

Just to give an example, a Khalistani gal from Canada wrote an OpEd in Washington Post with the familiar litany of Indian and Damn hindus, and it started by holding Indians responsible for the death of 13 Sikhs in nirankari scandal in 78. In reality, Sikh hardliners led by Fauja Singh (Akhand Kirtani Jatha) and Jernail Singh Bhindranwale attacked the nirankari sect at a religious gathering they were holding. The nirankaris were themselves well armed.. Fauja Singh tried to behead the leader of the nirankari sect, and was shot dead for this troubles, along with 10 of the Akhand Kirtani jatha and 3 of Jernail Singh's followers. This is held up as some kind of atrocity by the Indian state!

This virus is rapidly spreading from Canada/US to India.. Much of the political Punjabi content is soft Khalistani if not full Khalistani, and the murders of the 9 Hindu/Christian leaders must be seen as a fallout of this renewed propaganda campaign.

I have full confidence in the Punjab police and the Indian govt to take care of these losers, but I think, Canada is going to have a problem with these mal-adjusted immigrants for decades to come.
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Re: India-Canada, Mexico and South America: News and Discussion

Post by Prem »

The recent murders of Hindus leaders in Punjab have Canadian financing connection. Trudeau's visit was gonna go sinister but got flopped.
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Re: India-Canada, Mexico and South America: News and Discussion

Post by Prem »

Varoon Shekhar
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Re: India-Canada, Mexico and South America: News and Discussion

Post by Varoon Shekhar »

https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contrib ... loset.html

Sorry folks, but look at this, why did the Star take so long? Right wing, fascist, human rights violations, skeletons in Modi's closet etc etc. I have responded on her facebook account.
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Re: India-Canada, Mexico and South America: News and Discussion

Post by pankajs »

This is encouraging IMHO. To my rather simplistic way of thinking, this is a confirmation of the butt hurt that has happened in the Canadian circles over the India trip. The butt hurt has spread beyond the immediate entourage. Tells me how DEEP the message has reached. Impotent rage. Theek hai. Who care.

BTW, one just has to note the Arrivals and Departures in New Delhi to understand the tectonic shift that is taking place in international diplomacy. There is a hindi saying "Hathi chala bazar kutte bokke hazar".
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Re: India-Canada, Mexico and South America: News and Discussion

Post by Varoon Shekhar »

No, it's not simple minded. It's just not indicative of any mass thinking or group think in Canadian political circles, liberal or conservative. There are, however, some Khalistanis and Moslems( like the writer of the article) who go on these rants and tirades against India and Hindus every now and then. They must be countered and discredited. As of course should any of their supporters and sympathisers among the political parties ( to repeat, there are few if any explicit supporters in this group).
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Re: India-Canada, Mexico and South America: News and Discussion

Post by Ravi Karumanchiri »

The Gift that Gives and Gives......


(Haven't watched the whole thing, just yet, but thought I'd share ASAP.... Important Extracts to follow in text form.....)
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Re: India-Canada, Mexico and South America: News and Discussion

Post by Ravi Karumanchiri »

^^^^^^^^
Atwal started by reading a prepared statement.... (I looked for it online, but could not find it. Cannot his lawyer post it to Scribd? Or the law firm's website or some such?)

Questions were to be answered by the lawyer only.

Atwal's statement says what you'd expect, including:

Admits that he was a terrorist, as judged by the court that sentenced him.

Claims to have reformed, and is no longer a security threat to any country.

Says he no longer seeks Sikh separatism and renounces the pursuit of Khalistan.

Wants reconciliation with India, notes that India wants reconciliation with reformed or rather ex-Khalistanis.

16:20 - India has been reevaluating the Blacklist. About 150 or more people removed from blacklist at roughly the same time as Atwal. There was no illegal entry of Atwal to India.

20:00 - Politicians in all parties have had many dealings/contacts with Atwal.

22:00 - Lawyer Rants about how Western press seeks out militants to interview, rather than regular folk, plus how things are blown out of proportion. (Elsewhere in interview, explains that his client earned a living selling advertising on media outlets; helped arrange interviews for the press with people from the Punjabi community.) [Oh, the irony.]

29:40 - Jordan Armstrong of Global News 'breaks a rule' and asks if he'd vote Liberal again. Lawyer freaks out, calls the journalist's ethics into question.

33:09 - Journalist asks good question, "Why was your client surprised about the outcry, when there had been one before?" regarding an earlier incident that lead to someone resigning (when Atwal attended a budget ceremony in BC years ago).



SUMMARY IMPRESSION: Atwal went to a criminal attorney, rather than a PR professional, to represent himself to the press. As a result, the press conference came across as confrontational; and ended with something of a caution against slander and defamation directed at his client. Not exactly the 'soft touch' that would have seemed to be the appeal, given Atwal's prepared remarks.

Why has no journalist asked if Atwal ever advocated to a Canadian politician, for an independent Sikh state -- and if so -- When was the last time? (Is the "reconciliation" real?)

Going solely by his prepared remarks: He has renounced Khalistan.

Would be nice to know, if he held that view prior to Trudeau's visit.
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Re: India-Canada, Mexico and South America: News and Discussion

Post by arun »

^^^ Time for India to close the chapter on the Jaspal Atwal affair and move on albeit without even the smidgen of suggestion that India in any manner lets up any pressure on Canada’s well established ambivalent position on Khalistan, given that Jaspal Atwal has paid for his crime, done his time, expressed unqualified apology over his previous actions and has explicitly stated he does “not advocate in any sense for an independent Sikh Nation” and has said that “India is my homeland”.

The below linked India Today article carries a link to twitter which has the six page statement Jaspal Atwal made at the Vancouver Press Conference:

Don't back Khalistan anymore, sorry for invite mess during Trudeau's India trip: Jaspal Atwal
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Re: India-Canada, Mexico and South America: News and Discussion

Post by Haresh »

sudeepj wrote:True, the problem is, virtually 100% of Sikhi related political content is Khalistani, where Khalistanis are painted as completely blameless people, when it was far from the case. Sikh hardliners, Akali politics, and competition among Sikh clergy to control the SGPC monies have all contributed to bringing Punjab to the brink of 1984.
I have noticed this as well. The worst thing is that they have developed a perverse & irrational paki/arab/islamic logic & mindset.
They are conspiratorial * suspicious. I have been accused of being a Indian spy or the one I like the most (it sounds more Special Forces!!) of being an "Operative" just because I ask questions which they cannot answer or have no answer for or have never thought of.

Living in the west, some Indians (Khalistani's are Indians, like it or not) think they have all the answers to Indian problems, we don't, we can contribute, but we are not farmers, we do not live there.
Some of these idiots have a romantic image of village life in Punjab, water buffalo, wheat, maize fields swaying in the breeze, sunrise and sunset, the mist rising in the morning, temples etc it is all very romantic and I have fond memories.

However it is fantasy, Punjab is in crisis. More people can be employed on a factory built on 5 acres of land than can be employed to farm 5 acres of land. They think they are going to go back to some romantic agricultural subsistance farming lifestyle (not the khalistanis in the west, they want to keep their luxury).

I have relations who have full turban/beard and I dread to think what would had happened to them if they had been in Delhi after IG was assassinated . But these idiots need to accept that it was their so called Heroes and warriors who were dragging Hindu's off buses and machine gunning them.
They are not innocents.
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Re: India-Canada, Mexico and South America: News and Discussion

Post by srin »

arun wrote:^^^ Time for India to close the chapter on the Jaspal Atwal affair and move on albeit without even the smidgen of suggestion that India in any manner lets up any pressure on Canada’s well established ambivalent position on Khalistan, given that Jaspal Atwal has paid for his crime, done his time, expressed unqualified apology over his previous actions and has explicitly stated he does “not advocate in any sense for an independent Sikh Nation” and has said that “India is my homeland”.

The below linked India Today article carries a link to twitter which has the six page statement Jaspal Atwal made at the Vancouver Press Conference:

Don't back Khalistan anymore, sorry for invite mess during Trudeau's India trip: Jaspal Atwal
So, the damage to relationship wasn't the Atwal affair, it was the way JT and his Govt responded. Especially when his NSA accused Indian Govt agencies of orchestrating this, and JT defended that in the Parliament.
The MEA won't forget this for a long time.
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Re: India-Canada, Mexico and South America: News and Discussion

Post by panduranghari »

Why Canada Defends Ukranian Fascism

No directly related to India. However, the pandering to the extremist elements seems like the agenda of the Canadian Government from the past to the present (and probably into the future).
The most notorious of the Nazi collaborators who immigrated to Canada was Mykhailo Chomiak, a mid-level Nazi operative in Poland, who came under US protection at the end of the war and eventually made his way to Canada where he settled in Alberta. Had he been captured by the Red Army, he would quite likely have been hanged for collaboration with the enemy. In Canada however he prospered as a farmer. His grand-daughter is the “Ukrainian-Canadian” Chrystia Freeland, the present minister for external affairs. She is a well-known Russophobe, persona non grata in the Russian Federation, who long claimed her grandfather was a “victim” of World War II. Her claims to this effect have been demonstrated to be untrue by the Australian born journalist John Helmer, amongst many others.

In 1940 the Liberal government facilitated the creation of the Canadian Ukrainian Congress (UCC), one of many organisations used to fight or marginalise the left in Canada, in this case amongst Canadian Ukrainians. The UCC is still around and appears to dominate the Ukrainian-Canadian community. Approximately 1.4 million people living in Canada claim full or partial Ukrainian descent though generally the latter. Most “Ukrainian-Canadians” were born in Canada; well more than half live in the western provinces. The vast majority has certainly never set foot in the Ukraine. It is this constituency on which the UCC depends to pursue its political agenda in Ottawa.

The Canadian Ukrainian Congress (UCC) president Paul Grod

After the coup d’état in Kiev in February 2014 the UCC lobbied the then Conservative government under Stephen Harper to support the Ukrainian “regime change” operation which had been conducted by the United States and European Union. The UCC president, Paul Grod, took the lead in obtaining various advantages from the Harper government, including arms for the putschist regime in Kiev. It survives only through massive EU and US direct or indirect financial/political support and through armed backing from fascist militias who repress dissent by force and intimidation. Mr. Grod claims that Russia is pursuing a policy of “aggression” against the Ukraine. If that were true, the putschists in Kiev would have long ago disappeared. The Harper government allowed fund raising for Pravyi Sektor, a Ukrainian fascist paramilitary group, through two organisations in Canada including the UCC, and even accorded “charitable status” to one of them to facilitate their fund raising and arms buying. Harper also sent military “advisors” to train Ukrainian forces, the backbone of which are fascist militias. The Trudeau government has continued that policy. “Canada should prepare for Russian attempts to destabilize its democracy,” according to Minister Freeland: “Ukraine is a very important partner to Canada and we will continue to support its efforts for democracy and economic growth.” For a regime that celebrates violence and anti-Russian racism, represses political opposition, burns books, and outlaws the Russian language, “democracy” is an Orwellian portrayal of actual realities in the Ukraine. Nevertheless, late last year the Canadian government approved the sale of arms to Kiev and a so-called Magnitsky law imposing sanctions on Russian nationals.
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Re: India-Canada, Mexico and South America: News and Discussion

Post by Varoon Shekhar »

https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contrib ... emism.html

Very cunning, or grotesquely ignorant, article in the Toronto Star( written by a Moslem) on Jagmeet Singh. Attacks Indian security forces for the deaths of "tens of thousands of Sikhs", forgetting that those tough measures were also 20+ years ago, like the last Sikh extremist attack. And were necessary to control the bloody insurgency. Without those measures, the Khalistani terror would have continued for many more years. And it wasn't just the crackdown by the army and paramilitary. it was also democratic elections conducted right at the village level. Cunningly omits the Air India terror attack.

Not impressed so far by the meager response by Indo-Canadians and NRIs here. Ravi Karumanchiri, I plead with you, answer this awful article, with all your intelligence and eloquence. Don't let this garbage pass.
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Re: India-Canada, Mexico and South America: News and Discussion

Post by Vivasvat »

Reuters: Van hits pedestrians in Toronto, driver in custody: police. http://google.com/newsstand/s/CBIwtIHmojg
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Re: India-Canada, Mexico and South America: News and Discussion

Post by anupmisra »

Vivasvat wrote:Reuters: Van hits pedestrians in Toronto, driver in custody: police. http://google.com/newsstand/s/CBIwtIHmojg
Want to take bets?
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Re: India-Canada, Mexico and South America: News and Discussion

Post by Vivasvat »

anupmisra wrote:
Vivasvat wrote:Reuters: Van hits pedestrians in Toronto, driver in custody: police. http://google.com/newsstand/s/CBIwtIHmojg
Want to take bets?
Already cross posted. :twisted:
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Re: India-Canada, Mexico and South America: News and Discussion

Post by nachiket »

Ravi Karumanchiri wrote:John Oliver - Trudeau in India

:rotfl:
I like John Oliver and his show but I watched the entire episode and Oliver was very disingenuous while reporting. He didn't say a word about the Atwal affair which was the bigger problem and only made fun of Trudeau's err.. wardrobe malfunctions. He also went on to immediately compare Trudeau's trip to that of Donald Trump Jr. and concluded that Trump had a worse India visit. Only reason I can think of for doing this is to shield Trudeau who is a liberal darling. Can't show him hobnobbing with terrorists.
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Re: India-Canada, Mexico and South America: News and Discussion

Post by Ravi Karumanchiri »

Vivasvat wrote:
anupmisra wrote:
Want to take bets?
Already cross posted. :twisted:
It’s hideous to think that right-wing media were hoping for a Muslim villain after the van rampage

Rather than avoid speculation or pray it doesn’t turn one group against another, some people actually appear to thirst for a specific motive — to yearn for the revelation that the accused in question does in fact belong to a particular group, Emma Teitel writes.


<snip>

All of this is understandable because most decent, reasonable people do not want the already vast carnage around them to give way to divisiveness and discrimination at their own expense or anybody else’s. But not everybody is decent and reasonable. Rather than avoid speculation or pray it doesn’t turn one group against another, some people actually appear to thirst for a specific motive — to yearn for the revelation that the accused in question does in fact belong to a particular group. In this case, yearning that he is a Muslim immigrant.

<snip>
:( Everyone knows this path does not lead to the high road, so why take it? Where does this lead us?

Turns-out, mental disorder is a major factor with the "van attacker" in Toronto on Monday. My early reading however, is that this won't be prosecuted as if he's full-bore mentally ill (which would result in a custodial sentence to be served in a mental hospital -- potentially for an undetermined length of time -- potentially the rest of his days). Rather, he'll face the criminal justice system, and he'll get a sentence of 25 years to life prison (parole eligibility after 25 years, but that's no guarantee of release at that time).

His motivation -- such as it was -- wasn't political or ideological, it was pure rage -- fed primarily by his hatred for women, that "drove him". IMO he is at once, both mentally ill and criminally responsible. He wasn't delusional, he knew he was killing and he wanted to kill. This is the basis of criminal culpability. That there was no profit motive or political or religious motive, doesn't matter IMO, he is also a terrorist. I see no particular benefit to society or academia or whatever, to somehow put his van attack in a different column from the other vehicle attacks we've seen elsewhere. They're all 'sick' and also 'terrorists' and at the same time, 'criminal'.

All I can say is, What a phuk-up! If he was suicidal, he should have started there and spared us all this terrible mess.

My guess is, he'll die in prison after the Canadian taxpayer foots the bill for all the lawyers and everyone else, it'll cost tens of millions before long.


One particularly bright light in this terribly dark moment, was the exquisite policing of one Constable Ken Lam, who acted with all restraint and professionalism to subdue the suspect without firing a shot! As he closed the distance, the arresting officer holsters his pistol and extracts his expanding baton. As soon as the attacker realizes that 'suicide by cop' isn't on offer any more; just 'beating by cop', he quickly complied and surrendered.

Seriously folks, this is an example of 'Toronto's Finest worth watching....




Facebook post linked to Alek Minassian cites ‘incel rebellion,’ mass murderer

But reference to trolling website 4chan is a “red flag” for online hoaxes involving mass killings, expert says.


<snip>

“Private (Recruit) Minassian Infantry 00010, wishing to speak to Sgt 4chan please. C23249161,” read the Facebook post. “The Incel Rebellion has already begun! We will overthrow all the Chads and Stacys! All hail the Supreme Gentleman Elliot Rodger!”

The authenticity of the post was strongly questioned, both by academics and in online comments. Media manipulation experts warned that online hoaxes are extremely common in the wake of mass murders, particularly when it comes to stories involving 4chan — a notorious messaging site associated with troll culture, which is mentioned in the Facebook post attributed to Minassian.

There were also questions raised about the timing of the post. An archive of the Facebook page appears to show a timestamp of 1:27 p.m. EDT, shortly after police started receiving calls about a van that had jumped the curb and struck pedestrians. An image of the Facebook message, which was posted anonymously to 4chan, suggested it was published at around 2:15 p.m., however, when Minassian would have already been in police custody.

<snip>
The ‘incel’ community and the dark side of the internet


<snip>

The post on Mr. Minassian’s Facebook also references “Supreme Gentleman Elliot Rodger,” the gunman who opened fire on students at the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2014, killing six. In a video posted before his attack, Mr. Rodger called his planned attack “retribution” for the women who rejected him and for “all you men for living a better life than me.”

Mr. Rodger, before his shooting rampage and suicide, was known to post on at least one incel message board, online communities almost entirely made up of men who blame society for their inability to find a partner. Now, many such communities idolize him. He is often invoked with his initials, “ER,” sometimes used in the context of “Going ER,” as in pulling off a copycat attack.

While it remains unclear exactly how Mr. Minassian fits into these online communities of anti-feminist trolls, many self-styled incels spent Tuesday celebrating the attack he is alleged to have carried out. The incel community exists in a dark corner of the internet, infamous for its sexist, racist and homophobic language, where cyberbullying and posts normalizing rape are common.

<snip>
Suspect in Toronto van attack publicly embraced misogynist ideology


<snip>

Classmates described a seven-year journey to complete his course that included many wild academic swings – he left the program for at least a year at one point, but also had high marks at times – along with emotional ups and downs.

Friends, classmates and a former teacher said he had a form of autism along with social anxiety and mental-health issues.

His own mother described her son as having Asperger syndrome – but that terminology is no longer used in medicine. Rather, people who were said to have Asperger are now diagnosed with autism-spectrum disorder and deemed high-functioning.

“He was afraid of girls and very shy in general,” said Nikki Feinstein, a former high school classmate who is now a teacher. “He didn’t say much, but when he did he was difficult to understand because of his cognitive disabilities.”

Robin Holloway, a psychologist who specializes in treating youth with autism-spectrum disorder, said having autism or other social or mental disorders is not a cause of violence. But, he said, there are rare cases he has labelled “uninhibited/aggressive” types who “over the years have built up a list of grievances based on being scorned, rejected, bullied, including sexually” and are prepared to act.

“They have built up a tremendous volume of internal anger … and want others to experience their suffering and mental agony in the way they experienced it,” said Dr. Holloway, author of Asperger’s Children: Psychodynamics, Aetiology, Diagnosis and Treatment and a clinician at Toronto’s Willow Centre. “Vengeful fantasies can turn into horrible reality.”

Dr. Holloway stressed he has only seen a handful of violent uninhibited-aggressive cases of mild autism in his 30 years of practice, and that they can be treated with proper intervention, time and sufficient resources.

<snip>
Bart S
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Re: India-Canada, Mexico and South America: News and Discussion

Post by Bart S »

Ravi Karumanchiri wrote: One particularly bright light in this terribly dark moment, was the exquisite policing of one Constable Ken Lam, who acted with all restraint and professionalism to subdue the suspect without firing a shot! As he closed the distance, the arresting officer holsters his pistol and extracts his expanding baton. As soon as the attacker realizes that 'suicide by cop' isn't on offer any more; just 'beating by cop', he quickly complied and surrendered.

Seriously folks, this is an example of 'Toronto's Finest worth watching....




Who cares....what does this have to do with India.

What would be interesting is if the country's politicians and security establishment move away from being terrorist supporting, hypocritical scum.
Manish_P
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Re: India-Canada, Mexico and South America: News and Discussion

Post by Manish_P »

Not many years ago, an Indian policeman, 'armed' only with a stick, had shown a fine example of policing when he tackled and held on to a Jihadi terrorist, who moments ago had shot and killed Anti Terrorism Squad officers, despite the terrorist shooting him with an AK assualt rifle..
Vips
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Re: India-Canada, Mexico and South America: News and Discussion

Post by Vips »

Manish_P wrote:Not many years ago, an Indian policeman, 'armed' only with a stick, had shown a fine example of policing when he tackled and held on to a Jihadi terrorist, who moments ago had shot and killed Anti Terrorism Squad officers, despite the terrorist shooting him with an AK assualt rifle..
Bravery of Tukaram Omble in catching Ajmal Kasab.
arun
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Re: India-Canada, Mexico and South America: News and Discussion

Post by arun »

BBC article on the couple of years down ongoing impact of the Brazilian multinational Odebrecht admitting guilt in a cash-for-contracts corruption scandal in 12 nations that resulted in Odebrecht and its petrochemical subsidiary, Braskem, admitting bribery to the staggering tune of USD 788 Million and agreed a record-breaking fine of at least USD 3,500 Million.

The impact the scandal has been so widespread that it is said in another article that “The Odebrecht scandal has ricocheted around Latin America like a corruption cluster bomb”:
"In the Odebrecht case, there are many reasons for you to become speechless," says Deltan Dallagnol, lead prosecutor in Curitiba.

"How a company created a whole system only to pay bribes, and how many public agents were involved. This case implicated almost one-third of Brazil's senators and almost half of all Brazil's governors.

"One sole company paid bribes in favour of 415 politicians and 26 political parties in Brazil. It makes the Watergate scandal look like a couple of kids playing in a sandbox."

And the web of corruption had tentacles reaching to Africa and across the region.

The president of Peru {Pedro Pablo Kuczynski. A yet earlier President, Ollanta Humala is in jail though about to be released on bail} was forced to resign last month in allegations related to Odebrecht. The vice-president of Ecuador {Jorge Glas} is in prison.

Politicians and officials from 10 Latin American nations continue to fall under the Odebrecht bus.
From the BBC:

'The largest foreign bribery case in history'
ramana
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Re: India-Canada, Mexico and South America: News and Discussion

Post by ramana »

Bank of Credit and Commerce International or BCCI is forgotten.
Amber G.
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Re: India-Canada, Mexico and South America: News and Discussion

Post by Amber G. »

A concise and nice article by Terry Milewski - good read for Canadian friends..

Khalistan’s Deadly Shadow

Posting as IMO it is nice-

quillette.comquillette.com
Khalistan’s Deadly Shadow
Apr. 27th, 2018

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The New York City police officers looked bored, unable to understand a word, as they eyed the angry crowd at Madison Square Garden. A sawmill worker from the Canadian province of British Columbia took the stage with a retinue of robed warriors toting curved swords. He wore an ornate turban and sliced the air with his hand as he promised a massacre of Hindus.

“They say that Hindus are our brothers!” he declared in Punjabi. “But I give you my most solemn assurance that, until we kill 50,000 Hindus, we will not rest!”

In response, the crowd erupted in slogans: “Hindu dogs! Death to them! Indira bitch! Death to her! Blood for blood!”

“Indira” referred to Indira Gandhi, then prime minister of India. She lived for only three months after this scene unfolded.

It was July 28, 1984—the founding convention of the World Sikh Organization (WSO), created to carve an independent Sikh state out of India. The millworker, Ajaib Singh Bagri, was number-two in the Babbar Khalsa International, a terrorist group engaged in an armed struggle to win that state, to be called Khalistan, or Land of the Pure.

Bagri’s leader, Talwinder Singh Parmar—also a resident of British Columbia—was wanted for murder in India, and was therefore barred from the United States. So in New York, Bagri spoke on Parmar’s behalf.

Canada, though, did not bar either man. Both had been granted Canadian citizenship. Moreover, in 1982, the government of Pierre Elliot Trudeau had refused to extradite Parmar to India. So he was spared the need to stand trial for the killing of two Indian policemen, and was free to collect donations from Sikh gurdwaras, or temples, across Canada. There, he preached that 50,000 Hindus must die—the pledge that Bagri repeated in New York—and that “Indian planes will fall from the sky.”

Less than a year later, he kept his word. Air India Flight 182, from Toronto to New Delhi via London, was destroyed by a bomb while in Irish airspace. All 329 passengers and crew were killed. A Canadian commission of Inquiry concluded that the leader of the criminal conspiracy was none other than Talwinder Singh Parmar.

* * *

The Sikh faith, created in what is now northern India by the 15th-century Guru Nanak, remains obscure to many in the West. Turbaned Sikh men are sometimes confused with Muslims, and some have been assaulted by confused thugs following Islamist terrorist attacks. Like the United States, Britain and other Western countries, Canada has been home to emigrant Sikhs for generations—the vast majority of them living peaceably in their adopted homeland.

In the 1980s, however, a powerful spasm of separatist militancy shook India and spread to the Sikh diaspora. In June, 1984, two months before the Madison Square Garden convention, Prime Minister Gandhi and her government set out to end a killing spree by Sikh militants who had turned the Sikhs’ holiest site—the Golden Temple at Amritsar—into an armed camp. The Indian army wrecked the temple complex and took many lives. Revenge came on October 31, 1984, when Gandhi was gunned down in her garden by two of her Sikh bodyguards. Hindu mobs immediately took revenge for the revenge, slaughtering thousands of Sikhs in hellish reprisals that were aggravated by official complicity. The police looked the other way. The horrors of 1984 won’t be forgotten by either side.

Soon, Canada and its Sikh community were dragged into the thick of the struggle. In June of 1985, Parmar’s Babbar Khalsa placed suitcase bombs on two planes leaving Vancouver. One brought down Flight 182, a massacre that remained, until 9/11, the deadliest terrorist attack in the history of aviation. The second bomb, intended to destroy another Air India plane simultaneously, exploded on the ground at Narita Airport in Japan, killing two baggage handlers. The reverberations from the attack were so profound in Canada that even today, 33 years later, a striking emblem of the Khalistani dream survives: a large “martyr” poster honouring Talwinder Parmar, sword in hand, permanently fixed to the exterior of an important Sikh gurdwara in Surrey, British Columbia. Tens of thousands gather beneath it each spring for an annual Sikh parade. In American terms, the poster is equivalent to a public veneration of Osama Bin Laden.


A poster of Talwinder Parmar fixed to the exterior of the Dasmesh Darbar temple in Surrey, British Columbia. Parmar was named by two Canadian judges as the leader of the 1985 Air India bombing, in which two bombs took 331 lives. (CBC)

* * *

Air India Flight 182, a Boeing 747 named for the second-century Indian emperor Kanishka, had just checked in with Shannon airport on the west coast of Ireland when the dynamite-based bomb exploded. On a terrifying tape from air traffic control, a strangled cry is heard as a blast of wind seems to hit the pilot’s microphone. Then, silence. The Shannon controller tries to keep calm as he hails Air India again and again.

“Air India 182, Shannon … Air India 182, Shannon.”

It’s no good. The controller hails nearby flights, asking them to look around. In disbelief, an American pilot asks, “Do you have him on radar?”

“Negative.”


A rescue helicopter retrieves a body after the bombing of Air India Flight 182, off the southwestern coast of Ireland, June 23rd, 1985. (Tom Smyth/BC Supreme Court)

Nobody sees anything until hours later, when Irish sailors are sent out to gather bodies floating in a sheen of jet fuel. (Some of the sailors still lose sleep over it.) One of the first bodies found was that of an elderly Sikh with a long beard. A ghastly and mercifully blurred piece of video, taken inside a rescue helicopter, shows the corpse of a small child being winched up from a grey sea.

But only 131 bodies were recovered. The Kanishka’s passengers and crew had been obliterated at 31,000 feet as Capt. Narendra Singh Hanse—a Sikh and a former pilot for Prime Minister Gandhi—prepared to descend over the Irish coast towards Heathrow. Most of the dead were Canadian citizens of Indian descent, travelling to visit relatives. They included not only Hindus, but also Muslims, Christians, dozens of Sikhs and 86 children.

Today, the parents who lost their children are old, the orphaned children have their own children and the Sikh struggle for independence is moribund in India. Last year, in fact, Sikh voters overwhelmingly supported a united India and were key to the election of the Congress Party—the party of Indira Gandhi—to govern the Sikh homeland of Punjab. Support for Congress was especially strong in majority-Sikh districts. And Punjab’s Chief Minister is a strongly pro-unity Sikh, Amarinder Singh, who has alleged separatist influence in the Canadian government.

Harjit Sajjan, a Sikh who is Canada’s Minister of National Defence, firmly denied the claim. And on Justin Trudeau’s visit to India this year, Singh agreed to a photo-op including Sajjan. But the Chief Minister let it be known that he’d handed over a list of Canadians he suspects of fundraising for Punjab’s few remaining separatist Sikh militants.

The listed suspects amount to a tiny subculture among Canada’s 450,000 Sikhs, the vast bulk of whom seek no return to the bloody 1980s and 1990s, when the battle for Khalistan took some 20,000 lives in India, most of them Sikh. But the hardliners are a well-organized political force, still raising the cry of “Khalistan Zindabad!”—long live Khalistan—in some Canadian gurdwaras where “martyred” Sikh assassins are memorialized as models for the young. These include the two bodyguards who machine-gunned Indira Gandhi. Khalistani fervour is alive on social media and a 2018 tweet from “George” (@PCPO_Brampton) declared: “Indira’s assassins are HEROES. Sikhs should glorify them.”

The endurance of such attitudes in Canada reflects the weak record of its justice system in deterring violence. For years, it seemed, Canadian courts were where terrorism cases went to die.


“Honour the martyrs who killed the sinner” – the caption on Toronto weekly Sanjh Savera’s 2002 cover celebrating the anniversary of prime minister Indira Gandhi’s assassination on October 31st, 1984, by her Sikh bodyguards, Beant Singh and Satwant Singh.

For the most part, it’s a record of inaction. In 1985, Ujjal Dosanjh, a Canadian Sikh moderate who publicly condemned prime minister Gandhi’s murder, was severely beaten in Vancouver by a Khalistani thug with an iron bar. No one was convicted. The same year, Balraj Deol, another vocal moderate, was beaten by a group of Sikh militants in Ontario. Again, no-one was convicted.

In 1986, Parmar and several others were charged in Canada with a plot to blow up the Indian parliament. The case failed on a technicality and Parmar walked free. Also in 1986, four separatists shot a visiting Punjab cabinet minister on Vancouver Island. The gunman, Jaspal Atwal, was sentenced to 20 years, but was released after four years and became a Liberal party activist. In 1988 and again in 1998, a British Columbia publisher, Tara Singh Hayer, was shot, the second time fatally, after publicly implicating Parmar and Bagri in the Air India bombing. No one has been charged with Hayer’s murder. Meanwhile, Talwinder Parmar fled Canada for Pakistan and was killed by police in Punjab in 1992, without facing trial for the destruction of Flight 182.

In 2005, a four-year Canadian trial of Sikhs accused of participating in Parmar’s plot ended with acquittals for two members of the Babbar Khalsa—Ajaib Singh Bagri and Ripudaman Singh Malik. Witnesses against both Malik and Bagri reported receiving death threats, for which no one was ever arrested. A third accused, Inderjit Singh Reyat, previously convicted for making the Narita airport bomb, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in return for a five-year sentence for the Kanishka bomb. He confessed that he built both bombs for Parmar, a fact confirmed by surveillance; Canadian intelligence officers had tailed both men to a test bombing, three weeks before the real thing. But Reyat refused to name any other members of the conspiracy. His claims of ignorance led to a third conviction, for perjury. He is now free and living in British Columbia.


Talwinder Singh Parmar, left, with Ajaib Singh Bagri, photographed by Canadian Security Intelligence Service officers at Parmar’s home in Burnaby, BC, July 1985, (CSIS/BC Supreme Court)

All of this may explain the nonchalant attitude shown by Sikhs who openly revere Talwinder Parmar—despite the fact that the judge, the defence and the prosecution at the Air India trial all agreed that Parmar (long dead by then) led the plot. So did retired Supreme Court Justice John Major, who conducted a judicial inquiry and reported in 2010 that it was a “fact” that Parmar commissioned both bombs.


Young men wearing logos of the International Sikh Youth Federation, banned as a terrorist group, at the 2007 Vaisakhi parade in Surrey, BC. (CBC)

The Canadian nonchalance regarding Sikh extremism extended to the political class, too. A startling example came In 2007, when politicians flocked to court the crowd on Vaisakhi—the birthday of the Sikh religion—at the annual parade run by the Dasmesh Darbar gurdwara in Surrey, BC. During that year, the temple committee added Talwinder Parmar to the lineup of killers whose portraits, garlanded with tinsel, adorned the parade floats.

At the time, the oversize image of Parmar had not yet been fixed to the outside wall of the temple. The posters on floats were a test—and none of the politicians uttered a peep. MPs from all major Canadian political parties attended, as did the Liberal premier of British Columbia, Gordon Campbell—around the same time as his fellow Liberal, Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty, visited another temple exhibiting its own picture of Parmar in a heroic pose.

Questioned about his presence at the parade, Premier Campbell at first said there was no problem with what he’d seen—adding that he’d attend again in future years. A day later, though, his spokesman withdrew that statement and said the Premier was “upset” about the posters.

Conservative MP Jim Abbott, attending on behalf of then-prime minister Stephen Harper, flip-flopped in the opposite direction. First, he said he was “flabbergasted” to hear that Parmar had been honoured—but later consulted the party brass and said he would “vigorously defend” the event. Both Liberal and New Democratic Party MPs saw no reason to make a fuss. Sikh voters comprise important constituencies in several swing ridings in B.C. and Ontario, and the major parties didn’t want to risk alienating any part of them.

Two notable Liberals, though, stayed away from the parade. Both condemned the glorification of the Air India bomber; and both were Sikhs who bore the scars of their previous encounters with Parmar’s admirers. One was Dave Hayer, a member of the provincial legislature and the son of the murdered publisher, Tara Hayer, who had accused Parmar and Bagri 20 years earlier. The other no-show was the aforementioned Ujjal Dosanjh, victim of the 1985 beating, who rose to become Premier of B.C. and later a federal Liberal cabinet minister.

One indicator of the limited extent of extremist views within Canada’s Sikh community: these two vocal anti-extremists were elected and re-elected for 20 years in Dosanjh’s case and for 11 years in Hayer’s. Even so, they are routinely dismissed as spokesmen for the Sikh community by more radical Sikhs who have never sought election. Strangely, though, it is often the latter who have the ear of white politicians.

* * *

Even today, the hardliners remain a political force in Canadian politics. That became evident late last year, when Jagmeet Singh, a 39-year-old Sikh activist from Ontario, captured the leadership of Canada’s left-leaning New Democratic Party.

Singh got his start in Canadian public life by fighting for Sikh causes. Two of his earliest supporters—his brother, Gurratan, and his leadership campaign spokesman, Amneet Bali—were founders of the Sikh Activist Network, which they called “a previously underground network…of Sikh activists working for social justice while resisting the poisonous exploitative and murderous powers of neo-imperialism.” Their literature pledged to fight the “Oppressive Domination of the Fascist Indian Machinery.”

Jagmeet Singh himself had appeared at Khalistani events in North America, had been denied a visa to visit India, and had campaigned for clemency for a confessed Babbar Khalsa terrorist involved in the 1995 assassination of Punjab’s Chief Minister, Beant Singh (along with 17 bystanders). Singh later took part in a successful drive to have the Ontario legislature declare the 1984 massacre of Sikhs in India a “genocide.” Now, as a federal party leader, he hopes to achieve the same in the national parliament.

The day after he won the NDP leadership in 2017, Singh’s long involvement with these issues led me to explore the topic on a CBC television news show that I hosted. In an on-air interview for Power and Politics, I asked Singh whether he thought it appropriate for some Sikhs to put up martyr posters glorifying Talwinder Parmar, despite his status as Canada’s worst mass murderer.

Singh declined five invitations to answer that question. He would not condemn the posters and would only say that he condemned the bombing—but without conceding that Parmar or any Sikh was to blame for it.

“I don’t know who’s responsible,” Singh said, “but I think we need to find out who’s responsible, we need to make sure that the investigation results in a conviction of someone who is actually responsible.”

This answer raised serious concerns—including among some NDP supporters—because what Singh said wasn’t accurate: Canada did secure a conviction—three convictions, in fact—of “someone who is actually responsible” for the Air India bombing. Parmar’s bomb-maker, Inderjit Reyat, was convicted first for the explosion at Narita airport, then for the one aboard Flight 182, and finally for perjury. Reyat also confirmed that Parmar ordered both bombs. Yet five months passed until Jagmeet Singh revised his answer to my question. He now acknowledges Parmar’s guilt and condemns the posters honouring him.

Singh’s comments in his CBC interview also were unsettling for his repetition of extremist tropes. The call to “find out who really did” Flight 182 often comes from Parmar’s admirers, who entertain the conspiracy theory that the Indian government blew up its own plane, using Parmar as its agent to discredit the Khalistani cause. Such theories are promoted by self-appointed voices in the Sikh community, such as the World Sikh Organization, launched at the infamous 1984 Madison Square Garden convention. The WSO complained in 2008 that John Major’s judicial inquiry failed to take the so-called Air India Truthers seriously.

On Twitter, Jagmeet Singh’s defenders denounced my interview with him in a blizzard of angry tweets. Some declared flatly that the Indians were behind the bombing. Others condemned the CBC and me for asking about the Parmar posters “just because Singh is Sikh.” Jaskaran Sandhu, a WSO board member called me “racist” and “bigoted.” It was as though only a bigot would object to the glorification of a mass killer of Indo-Canadians, including many Sikhs.

A second wave of critics claimed that I’d failed to grasp the “cultural” reasons for the veneration of Parmar, arguing that he was a victim of “persecution” whose “confession to the Air India bombing came under torture” by the Indian police. In fact, the official findings of Parmar’s guilt rest on hard evidence acquired while he was in Canada, seven years earlier. Neither the trial nor the inquiry relied upon any rumoured confession.

For his part, Jagmeet Singh seemed to agree that my questions smacked of racism. A week after the interview, asked directly if that was so, he replied, “Should I just say, yes?” He went on: “I think there was definitely some sort of clear problematic line of thought behind that question, so I’m definitely concerned with it … It was offensive to me that that was even a question.”

It was clear, though, that the question Singh found “offensive” was not one he’d been asked: whether he condemned the bombing. “It’s obvious that anyone would denounce something as heinous and as tragic as that incident,” he said. “The fact that that question is being raised makes me wonder why it is being raised.”

In truth, he’d been asked about the martyr posters, not the bombing. Asked if the posters should come down, he ducked that question, too.

“I’m not here to tell what a community should or shouldn’t do.”

As the controversy unfolded, Singh’s supporters continued to paint him as a victim of racism. A Toronto podcaster and self-described media critic, Jesse Brown, declared that my questions to Singh were “irresponsible, and “looked racist.” More inventively, British blogger Sunny Hundal argued that Parmar’s sympathizers didn’t honour Parmar because he was a terrorist, but because he led the Babbar Khalsa (which was, in fact, the terrorist organization which blew up Air India). For his part, the WSO’s President, Mukhbir Singh, contended that Sikhs who display Parmar’s portrait—for the most part grizzled veterans of the separatist struggle—were “naïve, not radical,” because, for some unexplained reason, they “think” that Parmar was innocent.

Anyone familiar with the politics surrounding militancy in, say, the Muslim community, might expect that Singh’s political rivals would have seized upon his remarks; the charge that left-wingers are “soft on terror” is commonplace in many countries. Yet Canada’s ruling Liberals and the opposition Conservatives both steered clear. The NDP have no monopoly on cynical ethnopolitics; and the other parties were no more eager to alienate any part of the Sikh community.

This background is well understood in India, where Justin Trudeau—like his Conservative predecessor, Stephen Harper—was taken to task for Canada’s tolerant attitude towards Khalistani extremism. On Trudeau’s arrival for his trade mission in February, the Chief Minister of Punjab, Amarinder Singh, was quoted as saying, “there seems to be evidence that there are Khalistani sympathizers in Trudeau’s cabinet.” Indeed, he once called Sajjan, Canada’s Defence Minister, a “Khalistani sympathizer.”

Although there’s no evidence that Sajjan has done anything to promote Sikh separatism, he has long been viewed with suspicion by Sikh moderates. In December, 2014, his nomination to stand for the Liberal party provoked an angry on-camera walkout by some 30 of his fellow Sikh Liberals. The scene played out in the district of Vancouver South—once held by the moderate Ujjal Dosanjh.

To outsiders, Sajjan seemed like an attractive candidate—a decorated Afghan war veteran and a former city cop. But the party rebellion included senior figures from the Sikh mainstream who’d been Liberal stalwarts for years. They complained that their preferred candidate, a secular moderate named Barj Dhahan, had been pushed aside by the party brass in favour of Sajjan, a turbaned Sikh whose father is a veteran WSO supporter and whose nomination was backed by Liberal power-broker Prem Singh Vinning, an ex-president of the WSO.

Jagdeep Sanghera, twice chairman of the Liberal executive in Vancouver South, joined the revolt. “The majority of the Sikhs are not part of the WSO. As a group we have decided we will not support the Liberal team,” he said. Kashmir Dhaliwal, former head of the Khalsa Diwan, Canada’s oldest Sikh society, added that “the Liberal Party, especially Justin, is in bed with extremist and fundamental groups. That’s why I decided to leave the Liberal Party.” Another to quit was Majar Sidhu, who lost three family members in the Air India bombing. Referring to the Conservative prime minister of the day, Stephen Harper, Sidhu said, “the Liberal Party is encouraging terrorist people. I’m supporting Harper.”

Still, there was no retreat by Trudeau. Although the Vancouver South rebels were nearly all Sikhs, Trudeau’s top aide, Gerald Butts, scoffed at the affair, telling me that, “I suppose you’re going to do a story about how the Sikhs are taking over the Liberal Party.”

It was a familiar tactic used by Khalistanis and their political allies: cast any criticism of Sikh radicalism as if it were a racist attack on all Sikhs. The remark also suggested that Butts identified “the Sikhs” with the WSO; and that Sikhs who don’t stand with the WSO are not really Sikhs.

* * *

Despite such controversies, Trudeau had every reason to expect that the final leg of his trip to India would go well. Heading into a pivotal meeting in New Delhi with prime minister Narendra Modi, Trudeau strongly endorsed a united India. Then, pressed to repudiate the posters back home honouring Talwinder Parmar, the Prime Minister said what NDP leader Jagmeet Singh did not: “I do not think we should ever be glorifying mass-murderers, and I’m happy to condemn that.” So far, so good. But all of that would be forgotten amid the furore that unfolded next.

It began with a buzz on my phone, signaling a new arrival in my inbox. Astonishingly, it was a snapshot from Mumbai, showing Trudeau’s wife, Sophie, in an evening gown, posing with a convicted Khalistani hit-man.

I gaped at the screen. I knew this guy. In fact, I’d interviewed him some years back about a campaign finance scandal. It was the same Jaspal Atwal whom Ujjal Dosanjh had accused of trying to beat his head in with an iron bar; and the same Jaspal Atwal who, as described earlier, had been convicted for the attempted murder of a Punjab cabinet minister on Vancouver Island in 1986.

More pictures came in, showing Atwal with members of Trudeau’s delegation. Another showed a posh-looking invitation to the next day’s dinner for the Trudeaus in New Delhi. The host: Canada’s High Commissioner in New Delhi. The guest: Jaspal Atwal. A convicted terrorist had the inside track on Trudeau’s Indian junket.

The story came together quickly, and the prime minister’s office rushed to contain the damage by rescinding Atwal’s invitation to the New Delhi bash. Then they blamed a Sikh Liberal MP from B.C., Randeep Sarai, for putting Atwal on the guest list. Sarai apologized, stepped down from his post as chair of the Liberals’ Pacific Caucus, and pledged that, “moving forward, I will be exercising better judgment.”

But it was too late to contain the scandal. I was marched from one studio to another to discuss the story again and again. I also interviewed Dosanjh, the former Liberal cabinet minister and well-known Sikh moderate, who observed acidly that the prime minister had long been “cavorting with Khalistanis.”

The Indian media pounced, too. The Sophie-and-the-hitman photo went viral. According to one estimate, the story in its various forms got 300-million hits in India.

As bad as this was for Trudeau, his team nevertheless found a way to make it still worse—by trotting out a dubious theory that unnamed “rogue elements” within the Indian government had somehow conspired to manufacture the Atwal affair in order to sabotage the trip.

This Indian Plot theory did not sell well—certainly not with the Modi government, which called it “baseless and unacceptable.” The theory raised eyebrows in Canada, too, for it seemed to suggest that Canada’s High Commissioner to India was an Indian agent. It also contradicted the earlier claims of Trudeau’s staff that the whole episode had been the fault of their own MP, Randeep Sarai.

And then things got even worse. It soon emerged that Atwal had been a fixture at Liberal events and fundraisers, both federal and provincial, for years. This would-be murderer had even served on the Liberal executive for a federal electoral district and had set off an earlier furor by getting himself invited to the British Columbia legislature.

Eager to paint the Liberal government as soft on terror, the opposition Conservatives promised to force a Parliamentary vote on a motion to condemn “terrorism, including Khalistani extremism and the glorification of any individual who has committed acts of violence.” But that plan sputtered when the WSO and its allies bombarded the Conservatives with angry messages swearing never to vote Conservative if the motion were not abandoned. “This sort of political rhetoric will damage the reputation of Canadian Sikhs in the public eye and hurt the community immensely, particularly our youth,” the WSO tweeted. The next day, the Conservatives caved. The motion was abandoned.

Soon, though, the spotlight turned back to NDP leader Jagmeet Singh. In early 2018, videos emerged of the NDP leader attending Sikh separatist events in California and London. The videos were several years old but raised new questions that Singh had difficulty answering. Pressed on whether he endorsed armed struggle in the cause of Khalistan, he replied, “Well, I think you’re actually on the complexity of the situation…Given that it’s complex, it requires that thoughtfulness to proceed forward.”

* * *

None of this changed the fact that Khalistani militants remain a small minority of Canadian Sikhs, whose political influence frustrates moderate Sikhs in both Canada and India. Meanwhile, Khalistanis still hope for a referendum on independence in 2020—although their chances are slim: Sikhs in Punjab keep voting in large majorities for a united India.

But the separatists’ political impact in Canada is keenly felt by relatives of the Flight 182 victims. Perviz Madon described the problem when she testified at the Air India inquiry in 2006. Her husband, Sam, had gone down with Flight 182, leaving her with two young children to raise alone. She urged Justice Major to look squarely at the Khalistani parades, the so-called martyrs, and the pandering politicians who turn a blind eye.

“We need to stop our politicians from attending those kind of events,” she said. “I’m sorry, I know it’s about your votes. But that’s dirty business. You don’t want to be associated with a group that is linked to terrorism. You don’t want those kinds of votes.”

So far, though, they do. Three decades after Talwinder Parmar slaughtered 329 innocents on Flight 182, Canada’s politicians still remain wary of standing up to those who call the man a hero.

Terry Milewski, a CBC journalist, was the network’s senior correspondent until his retirement in 2016.
Varoon Shekhar
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Re: India-Canada, Mexico and South America: News and Discussion

Post by Varoon Shekhar »

[quote="Amber G."]A concise and nice article by Terry Milewski - good read for Canadian friends..

Khalistan’s Deadly Shadow


Absolutely fabulous article by Terry Milewski. Lucid, comprehensive, principled, uncompromising.. Not a 'good read' only, but a must read. Mr Milewski should be praised and valorised by all Indians and Indo-Canadians. Thank you, Amber.
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Re: India-Canada, Mexico and South America: News and Discussion

Post by putnanja »

Looks like Canada hasn't given up its anti-India mindset yet. Still not approving visas for ex-Indian army personnel! Check out the twitter/FB post below:

https://t.co/zIu9dEmeZk
Lt.General K.S.Rao - Since you have served the Indian Army, we will do our best to help you. However, the final decision is with Canadian High Commission. https://t.co/zIu9dEmeZk
@SushmaSwaraj

Hon'ble Minister,I am Lt Gen KS Rao. I retired from the Army on 30 Sep2007.I was DGBR .I wanted to go on a cruise to Alaska along with my wife. We booked our tickets on ship leaving Seattle on 15 Jun.Canada visa is essential. We applied on 2Apr
Philip
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Re: India-Canada, Mexico and South America: News and Discussion

Post by Philip »

Canadians are a queer bunch.No pun intended.They are deliriously proud of their Anglo- Saxon and French heritage, but do not subscribe to the " Great American dream ".Members of the " 5- eye " ultra-exclusive intel club of white Anglo- Saxon nations that include Britonistan, Oz, NZ and the US,.They in many respects are the northern hemisphere's equiv. of Oz.Very envious of coloured nations that overtake them economically, scientifically, intellectually, militarily and sportingly.When that happens, they go racist and like OZ recently, disgraced the "gentleman's game", cricket, by blatant cheating on their captain's orders!

I turn to Venezuela which has just re- elected Madurai, reeling under a combination of an economic crisis and massive US efforts at regime change becos of its massive oil wealth! Wherever there's oil the US seeks to grab it.Vemezuela is looking forward to India to step in and rescue it offering us v.cheap oil.At z time when we are witnessing a volcanic effect on our fuel prices, this is an offer too good to lose and must be seized immediately.

Venezuela has asked for payment not in $$$, but in their crypto currency the Petro. We could do so along with a barter deal as they require a host of commodities and consumer goods as large subsidies are part of the policy of this socialist state.
chanakyaa
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Re: India-Canada, Mexico and South America: News and Discussion

Post by chanakyaa »

News of a blast at an Indian restaurant in Toronto. 10-15 ppl hurt.
VishalJ
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Re: India-Canada, Mexico and South America: News and Discussion

Post by VishalJ »



You can skip to 9m15s for the part about his India trip :D
IndraD
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Re: India-Canada, Mexico and South America: News and Discussion

Post by IndraD »

https://www.spencerfernando.com/2018/06 ... paratists/
Disturbing: Police Car In Greater Toronto Area Seen Flying Flag Of Khalistani Separatists

Image
IndraD
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Re: India-Canada, Mexico and South America: News and Discussion

Post by IndraD »

responding to the contreoversy police ops have said they belong to peel region https://twitter.com/TPSOperations/statu ... 2662472707
ramana
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Re: India-Canada, Mexico and South America: News and Discussion

Post by ramana »

Up. For UB sake!!!
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