Guess who’s not coming to dinner?
TERROR-LINKED CON Invite for Atwal latest gaffe on PM’s India trip
After the embarrassing revelation that a convicted attempted murderer with links to a Sikh terrorist group was invited to dine with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during his official visit to India, the Liberal government has been quick to describe the incident as a mistake caused by a backbencher.
“Obviously we take this situation extremely seriously. The individual in question never should have received an invitation and, as soon as we found out, we rescinded the invitation immediately,” Trudeau told reporters in India. “The member of Parliament who included this individual has, and will, assume full responsibility for his actions.”
But Jaspal Atwal, who was photographed with Sophie-Grégoire Trudeau and Infrastructure Minister Amarjeet Sohi at an event in Mumbai on Tuesday, already had something of a history of inserting himself into Canadian Liberal politics before he was invited to the event on Thursday by MP Randeep Sarai.
Here’s what we know about Atwal, including his criminal history and his ties to federal and provincial politics.
Atwal was once a member of the International Sikh Youth Federation, an extremist group aiming to establish an independent Khalistan that was banned in Canada as a terrorist group in 2003. He was one of four men who shot and wounded an Indian cabinet minister, Malkiat Singh Sidhu, on Vancouver Island in 1986, and was convicted of attempted murder for his part in the attack. He served jail time and was later paroled.
Atwal was also charged with a 1985 attack on former B.C. premier and Liberal MP Ujjal Dosanjh, a vocal opponent of the Sikh separatist movement, but was later acquitted.
More recently, in 2010, Atwal was found to have been part of an automobile fraud ring that cheated the Insurance Corporation of B.C. by falsely reporting vehicles as stolen, changing their identification numbers and re-selling them. Atwal was a car salesman at the time and helped convert one of the stolen vehicles, a judge found. He lost an appeal in 2012.
This isn’t the first time Atwal has caused embarrassing headlines for Canadian politicians. In 2012, Atwal was invited to watch the budget speech in the B.C. legislature, leading to the resignation of a Liberal official and a review of the invitation process after he was noticed in the gallery. At the time, former premier Christy Clark claimed she’d been unaware of Atwal’s background.
At the time, Atwal had a position on a federal Liberal riding association executive in Surrey, the Vancouver Sun reported, which he’d held since at least March 2011.
Gulzar Cheema, a former B.C. Liberal cabinet minister, told the Sun that Atwal had been active for both the federal and provincial Liberal parties, and would attend fundraisers for the federal Liberals that Cheema organized, including one attended by then-Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff.
Atwal has made other attempts to insert himself into federal and provincial politics. Aside from this week’s photos with Grégoire-Trudeau and Sohi, older photos have surfaced of Atwal posing with prominent Canadian politicians, though dates and locations are not always clear. Photos shared on social media show Atwal with Trudeau at a Liberal Party event in Vancouver in May 2015, as well as with Public Services Minister Carla Qualtrough, Ignatieff and Brampton Liberal MP Sonia Sidhu. An older photo, which Atwal posted to his Facebook profile in January 2013, shows him with a longhaired Trudeau before he was elected Liberal leader.
Sarai has taken responsibility for putting Atwal on the guest list for Thursday’s dinner, to be hosted by Canadian high commissioner Nadir Patel. In a statement, Sarai said he acted alone and “should have exercised better judgment.” Reports from Indian media say the Indian government is looking into how Atwal obtained a visa for the trip.
In text messages, Atwal told the Vancouver Sun that he travelled to Mumbai on business for Media Waves, a Surrey online radio station. The Prime Minister’s Office has said he is not part of the official delegation.