— Feature, Musings —09.20.2023 09:30 AM
My latest: murder is murder
You’re on the Internet.
You express opinions. You write a letter. You show up at a meeting.
If you’re Irish and Catholic, let’s say, you express sympathy for those who want to unite Ireland, and leave the United Kingdom.
Or, let’s say you’re Italian, and you’ve passionately expressed support on Facebook for any one of the many separatist movements that have been active in Italy for a long time.
Or, you’re of German ancestry, and you’ve written letters to the editor about making Bavaria or Saxony a separate country.
Or you’ve publicly expressed support for the Basques in France. Or the ones in Spain. Or any of the currently – current, not historic – active separatist movements in Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovakia or Switzerland. (And that’s just Europe.)
That’s not an exhaustive list, of course. In just about every country in the world, there is a constituency who wants to break away and form their own homeland. Here in Canada, we’ve had people like that in Quebec and Western Canada for a long, long time. Some of them even have seats in our Parliament. They won them, fair and square.
We may not like it when nationalists express a desire to separate. It makes people pretty upset. (In this writer’s case, our family literally left our longtime home of Quebec to get away from separatist xenophobia and prejudice. We moved to Alberta, which welcomed us.)
That’s generally how we do it here in Canada: peacefully. Most of us don’t like the Bloc Québecois or the Parti Québecois or things like the Western Canada Concept. At all.
We oppose them with our words, as my former boss Jean Chretien successfully did for 40 years. Or we oppose them, too, with our actions – rallying against their referendum, or defeating them at the ballot box.
What we don’t do is kill them.
As someone did to Hardeep Singh Nijjar. He was a 45-year-old plumber, and he was active in his Sikh temple in Surrey BC. He was married and had two kids, and he drove a gray Ram 1500 pick up.
At around 8:30 p.m. on June 18 of this year, Nijjar was in his truck at the Sikh temple where he and his family worshipped. Two men wearing masks stepped up to his truck, and fired shots through the window, killing him. They then ran to a car, where a third man was waiting for them, and drove away.
Three months later, no one knows who killed Nijjar. No one has been caught.
His family and friends figure they know. As the indefatigable Stewart Bell has reported, local gang members had told Nijjar that Indian intelligence agencies had put a bounty on his head. The Canadian Security Intelligence Service, too, reportedly told Nijjar that he was under threat from professional assassins.
He was scared, his family was scared. He’s been scared for a long time, in fact. Because Nijjar wanted a separate state for Sikh in India.
That’s why he came to Canada for the first time in 1997, as a refugee. He said he feared for his life, and that he had been detained and tortured at the police station in the city of Phillaur. Canadian officials didn’t believe him.
He got married to a Canadian. Canadian officials didn’t believe him about that, either. But he eventually got to stay here.
He never gave up on a separate Sikh state. One time, Nijjar even went to Geneva to ask the UN Human Rights Council to accept that anti-Sikh violence was genocide. He wrote a letter asking for support to the United Nations in New York, too.
And then, just a few months after Nijjar did those things, India issued a warrant for his arrest. They said he was “mastermind/active member” of something called “Tiger Force.” Which was it? The “mastermind,” or just a “member?”
Didn’t matter. India kept after him. They issued another notice via Interpol. They put out a reward for him, because they wanted him captured. They wanted an end to his advocacy.
Three months ago, in a parking lot at a place of worship, they allegedly did. Canada’s government says they have information implicating India in the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar. India’s government, predictably, has denied it.
There’s been a lot of commentary about whether Justin Trudeau can be trusted. There’s been commentary about Nijjar being a bad guy. There’s been commentary about how inadvisable it is to pick a fight with a big country like India. And so on.
I don’t give a sweet damn. I don’t care if Hardeep Singh Nijjar agitated for Sikhs, or if he was dislikable, or what this will do to trade with India.
Ours is a country of laws. No one – no person, no country – is allowed to come here and murder one of our citizens, on Canadian soil, in cold blood. No one.
If we allow that to go unpunished, we cease to be a country of laws.
Oh, and this: any of you out there, writing letters to the editor about some separatist ambitions in your ancestral home lands?
You can become a target, too.
Is there credible proof that links the death of Hardeep Singh Nijjar with the Government of India?
WE SHOULD TRUST TRUDEAU ON THIS!……also Trudeau “Johnston awarded millions in contracts when cabinet ‘rapporteur'” . “Government records show while he was cabinet “rapporteur” on Chinese interference, David Johnston awarded millions in sole-sourced contracts to favoured consultants, according to Blacklock’s Reporte”
Mr. Nijjar used a fake passport and had his claim for refugee status rejected. He owned considerable land in India and was wanted by Interpol. In Canada he called for the assassination of Indian politicians. Surely that is a serious offence. Why was he allowed into Canada and why was he not in jail?
Gilbert,
Take this with a grain of salt but what I was told is that this Prime Minister was viewed by India as being “sympathetic” to the Khalistan cause.
Did he actually advocate for the assassination of Indian politicians? I hadn’t heard that. As for being wanted by Interpol l, that’s because of India being pissed with his separatist activities and not because he committed any actual crime.
However even if both were true, even if he should have been in jail, what FUCKING right does that give a foreign power to murder a Canadian citizen in Canada?
As I understand it, the thing for India to do is charge him with an offence and then file an extradition request. I have had difficulty finding any evidence of that, and I find that the media is failing in its job in specifying whether an actual extradition request was ever made by India on this. It’s hugely relevant for any proper, informed analysis of this situation and what everyone’s options were.
I never argued that India had the right to murder Mr. Nijjar, but I want evidence. I know how Mr. Nijjar got into Canada. He married a Canadian woman. Mr. Nijjar worked with ISI and helped to organize training camps for extremists. There’s no doubt he used Canada as a base for his terrorist activities.
Yes well if that’s the case the proper thing for India to have done was file an extradition request. And again, maybe I’m not checking or reading the right sources but none of the media reports I’ve read address that issue. And to me it’s key.
“There’s no doubt he used Canada as a base for his terrorist activities.” What evidence do you have of that? Please share that with the authorities since you have some insider knowledge.
Trust me. I’m sure they know far more than they’re telling us.
The prime minister’s comments, stated in the House of Commons, imply blame for the murder on the Indian government. Given this, if a suspect is found and charged, how might the prime ministers comments affect his/her chances for a fair trial? What accountability does the prime minister have in this regard (since Canada is, ostensibly, governed by the rule of law)?
RKJ,
None, nada, zilch, squat, provided he spoke in the House chamber.
Thanks Ronald,
I understand JT’s behind is covered. However, based on JT’s comments, would it be possible for a person charged with the crime to receive a fair trial? How would a defence lawyer handle this type of case, where the prime minister, in Parliament, made leading statements indicating likely guilt?
RKJ,
I was never a defence counsel, but I assume that line of argument would be made. To my mind, these vague statements by this Prime Minister strike me as being more akin to hearsay than actual demonstrable evidence, much less evidence that can be proved in court. But again, criminal law was never my forte. In fact, most law specialties weren’t either. LOL.
Justin said “Canadian security agencies have been actively pursuing credible allegations of a potential link between agents of the government of India and the killing of a Canadian citizen, Hardeep Singh Nijjar.”
Who’s credible allegations?
Potential link?
Or is the “potential link” someone’s conspiracy theory?
Where’s the evidence?
Peter,
“Canadian security agencies have been actively pursuing credible allegations of a potential link between agents of the government of India and the killing of a Canadian citizen, Hardeep Singh Nijjar.”
Again, I’d like to hear that from THEM. As a throw-away statement, it has about as much probative value as this: MENSA has been actively pursuing credible allegations that this Prime Minister is a certified imbecile.
Excellent article. The rule of law must always be placed first and foremost in any rational society.
Great article, here is the problem, there is barely a commentator here that believes the prime minister, fewer who have not written about his lack of ethics, frankly most have placed him just under that layer of scum at the bottom of the lake in terms of his elevated level on the levels of intelligible life chain.
The man is a liar, he is not beneath accusing an ally who has upbraided him. He is that childish.
Now, we have an allegation of state sponsored killing coming after the turd came home from where? India?
Of course Murder is Murder but I cannot believe this man and won’t till he produces proof – not some stupid bullshit proof is a proof because it is proven sort of corrupt liberal drivel but actual documented proof.
When that comes out yes I have no problem with outrage at India or any other country.
If I state my neighbour is an asshole well that is my opinion. If I state he murdered his wife and have no proof….? That is at minimum reckless. If I do so while being questioned for burning down his house, I may not be he best source to adhere to.
Mr. K. as a lawyer, (I think you’ve won a few slander cases). Don’t we need something from the spawn before we move for a trial?
Sounds like a classic case of blackface that cries wolf. Mr. Trudeau has spent so long denouncing those among us who experience things differently that we’re not certain he’s to be be believed while still actively engaged in the Axis of Weasels with a Khalistani supporter.
Yes, India’s government stands in responsibility for shady and underhanded dealings, as do most. Trudeau is no boy scout. And the issue of a Sikh homeland has in the past involved some pretty serious terrorist acts, including one on Canadian soil.
Thus do gang wars become our wars?
Yes Andy My point is becoming clearer as this unfolds. Five eyes intelligence according to the US ambassador is the source or at least a source for the accusations.
Here we have a clamouring of the aghast. Pointing to Turdo as if what he says can be believed – Hell most of us have posted about how unethical the man is. Our nation’s top official is such a pathetic laughingstock that allies are slow to demand anything from India.
It appears that yes there is evidence of state sponsored murder but Canada is being Trudeaued because the rest of the world thinks of us through our vacuous and immoral leader and it has a tough time being sympathetic to the dramatic arts major with the funky socks.
Let’s all be outraged about a couple criminal act sponsored by a so called ally. Let us equally be outraged that our leadership has chosen to turn a blind eye to Chinese acts of meddling in our democratic process.
Let us not forget if that little shit with the great coiffure had not gotten elected on a classic liberal platform of joy and thin pablum and then gone to both countries, made a fool of himself with costumes and virtue signalling that just maybe the world would have a different view.
From communists to Basques to Tamalees to khalastine successive Liberal regimes have chosen to preach to mainstream audiences in countries that didn’t buy a ticket to the sanctimonious games.
Spawn of Castro looked at foreign policy as an opportunity to take his schtick on the road.
WK, good article, espcially considering your recent conflict with PMJT specifically and the LPC generally- here you rise to the occasion and recognize the importance of the fundamental issue with this news.
It’s sad to see how many of your following, based on these posters, are so deep down their own rabbit holes. I am reminded that none of yet us truly realize the corrosive impact of social media on our society.
I wasn’t siding with Trudeau. I was siding with the law.
I for one do side with the law as well. What I’m feeling just a tad uncomfortable with is how quick a two-faced liar and opportunist is able to lead the moral outrage parade. For he EVERYTHING is political and as such while India’s alleged criminal behaviour is vile, guilt in all cases must come after the trial.
Hey Stuck, the problem here for those of us down in the “rabbit holes”(a place I will only go down into for music history, just for the record) as you so ridiculously put it, given the past 8 years, those of us with a brain don’t believe a word that comes out of his mouth and for very good reason-I can provide same helpful links. Your mileage clearly varies. Of course the law has to be enforced but, pro tip, two things can be true at once.
So…. Thoughts on Osama Bin Ladin’s killing by the US in Pakistan or multiple Israeli assassinations of terrorists worldwide, which I by the way whole heartedly support? Why should we be outraged that another govt does it on our soil?