‘Ontario motion won’t hit ties’

NEWDELHI: The India-Canada relationship is resilient enough not to be affected by a motion passed by the Ontario Assembly describing the 1984 anti-Sikh riots as “genocide”, Canadian high commissioner Nadir Patel said on Thursday.

Patel said the private member’s motion in Ontario and PM Justin Trudeau’s presence at an event in Toronto that featured Khalistani flags should be seen in perspective. “The Canada-India relationship is too resilient to be sidetracked by a private member’s resolution that was voted for by 35 members in a provincial assembly,” Patel told HT. “We appreciate and respect India’s concerns and we don’t downplay them… If any information suggests wrong-doing, we will act on it,” he said.

“Trudeau attending Khalsa Day celebrations is just that. If somebody shows up with signs but no laws are being broken, there’s nothing we can do. The PM attending the event doesn’t mean the government supports breaking up India,” he said. Bilateral ties have not been affected by controversies in recent years but the developments had angered New Delhi. The external affairs ministry described the motion as “misguided” and “based on a limited understanding of India”.

Trudeau’s presence at the Khalsa Day event featuring posters of extremist leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale caused consternation in New Delhi and an Indian official described it as “a matter of concern”. But Patel pointed out that the vast majority of the Indian-origin community in Canada was “peace-loving and had made contributions to bilateral relations”. He also pointed to the healthy state of bilateral exchanges, with eight Canadian cabinet ministers visiting India in nine months to take forward cooperation in areas ranging from trade to education.

Bilateral trade, currently worth about $8 billion, increased by almost 30% in the past two years and Canadian investment in India has grown during the same period years.