Jagmeet Singh has a lot more explaining to do

Canada’s honeymoon with federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh likely ended last week after the disturbing revelations he had twice participated in rallies with Sikh extremists abroad before taking over the party at home.

In 2016, while an NDP member of the Ontario legislature, Singh took part in a gathering in the United Kingdom in which the co-founder of the British-based National Sikh Youth Federation said political violence was a “legitimate form of resistance” for creating an independent Sikh homeland in India.

The year before, Singh attended a rally in California that was billed as a commemoration of Sikhs who died during the invasion of the Golden Temple in Amritsar in 1984, but which also celebrated Sikh separatism and political violence.

On neither of these occasions did he explicitly reject the use of violence.

Since this news came out last week, however, Singh has taken pains to condemn “all acts of terrorism.”

He has also accepted the results of an inquiry that concluded Talwinder Singh Parmar masterminded the worst act of terrorism in Canadian history, the 1985 bombing of Air India Flight 182, which killed 329 people.

Those were the right things for Singh to do even though his clarifications should have come earlier when he faced reasonable media questions about his stand on the contentious issue of Sikh separatism in India.

If many Canadians doubt Singh’s judgment today, he has only himself to blame.

When elected to become the federal New Democratic Party leader last October, Singh was welcomed as the first-ever visible minority federal party leader and a worthy centre-left opponent to Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Trudeau is young and charismatic. Singh is younger and oozing charm.

And as a proud member of the Sikh community, Singh seemed a perfect fit for an era that embraces diversity.

It’s entirely reasonable for the NDP leader to denounce the violence that claimed thousands of Sikh lives in the mid-1980s and express compassion for

Sikhs who are still traumatized by that bloodshed.

Yet Singh’s flirting with Sikh separatists and radicals is dangerous, unacceptable behaviour for the leader of a major federal party and someone who aspires to be Canada’s next prime minister.

It drives a wedge into Canada’s 500,000-strong Sikh community, which is split over Sikh separatism and how a separate Sikh state might be established.

It is also divisive for the larger, 1.4-million-strong Indian-Canadian community. India’s future could soon become a needlessly thorny subject in this country

Beyond all this, Singh’s focus on Indian politics could exacerbate rising tensions between Canada and India, a fellow Commonwealth nation we wish to court for many reasons, including trade.

Trudeau’s recent trip to India was deemed a disaster, partly because a Canadian Sikh who had been convicted in this country of the attempted murder of an Indian cabinet minister received an invitation to an important event on the Trudeau tour.

Today, Canada officially supports a united India. Singh will not say if he does. On this subject, too, he should clear the air if he expects to become prime minister.

If many Canadians doubt Jagmeet Singh’s judgment today, he has only himself to blame.