TORONTO, Oct 10:
A prominent Indo-Canadian community member has voiced deep concern over the “ecosystem” in Canada that has enabled Khalistan extremists to use violence, threaten and bully those opposing their “nefarious agendas’.
“It is very concerning for us as a country,” National Convener, Canada India Foundation, Ritesh Malik, said in an exclusive interview here, amidst the diplomatic standoff between Canada and India over the killing of a pro-Khalistan separatist in Surrey in British Columbia province in June.
Malik cautioned that political appeasement for short-term gains is not in the interest of Canada’s future.
“It is very concerning for us as a country, as Canadians… the direction which we as a country are taking in the sense of giving freedom of expression, which is our charter right, to people who don’t believe in that same,” he said.
“Peace-loving Canadians do not believe in (a) certain ideology which is very extreme, which does not belong to Canada,” he said.
Referring to Khalistan extremists in Canada, Malik said these people “create differences in society and disturb communal harmony. They work with a nefarious agenda and are derailing relationships between the two countries,” he said.
“Freedom of expression should be for everyone. We have unfortunately created that kind of ecosystem in Canada where these people are very vocal, very violent, very aggressive, and they don’t let anybody…. Come out against them,” Malik said.
“They will bully, they will threaten, they will use every possible illegal means… To counter any sanity,” he said, adding that Sikhs across the US, Canada and the UK have come out and said that they don’t believe or endorse the Khalistan ideology.
“These (are big issues) that worry us as Canadians, in the long-term interest of Canada. We feel worried about the future of our children, about the rifts between communities,” he said, adding that leaders in Government and officials in policy and advocacy should take up those issues for the larger interest of Canada.
India and Canada are embroiled in a diplomatic standoff following allegations by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in the Canadian Parliament last month that “Canadian security agencies have been actively pursuing credible allegations of a potential link between agents of the Government of India and the killing” of Khalistani extremist Hardeep Singh Nijjar on Canadian soil on June 18. India has rejected the charge as “absurd” and “motivated”.
Malik referred to the bombing of Air India Flight 182 in 1985 and said people and families of victims to date feel they have not got justice.
The Montreal-Delhi Air India ‘Kanishka’ Flight 182 exploded 45 minutes before it was to have landed at London’s Heathrow Airport on June 23, 1985, killing all 329 people on board, most of them Canadians of Indian descent.
The bombing was blamed on Sikh militants in retaliation to the ‘Operation Blue Star’ to flush out militants from the Golden Temple in 1984. (PTI)
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