Harper opposed to terrorism and violence but not the separatist ideology

Exclusive report from Gurpreet Singh who is traveling with Canadian prime minister to attend APEC Conference and then visit India

Singapore: The Canadian Prime Minister, Stephen Harper who is on way to India told reporters that Canada is opposed to those engaged in violence and threats. Replying to a SAP question during a press conference in Singapore, Harper said, ``we don’t in Canada question peoples’ political views, what we strongly oppose are people engaged in violence and threats. This is our shared value with the government of India’’.

Harper was asked how is going to deal with the Sikh separatists who are still active on the Canadian soil when the India government in the past has blamed Canada for being soft on its separatists. Harper who had ordered a full Air India bombing inquiry said that they (India) should know that there are organizations that advocate violence and separation in India are illegal in Canada.’’
However, he called it a broad political question and said, ``We have our own home grown separatists who have problem with Canada’’.

329 people were killed in the 1985 Air India bombing. The conspiracy of this crime was hatched on the Canadian soil. The bombing was blamed on the now banned Sikh separatist group, Babbar Khalsa, which was banned after 9/11. The Harper government which is tough on crime and terrorism had ordered a full Air India inquiry which has now ended. Ironically, the mainstream Canadian political parties, including Harper’s Conservative Party of Canada are opposed to the separatists of Quebec, whereas the political leaders of Canada continue to visit the temples managed by the Sikh separatists in BC and Ontario during election campaigns.

The BC NDP leader, Carole James had expressed her concern when the Federal NDP had tried to form a coalition with the BQ to topple the minority Conservative government in Ottawa. ``I am a proud Canadian’’, she had said on learning about an alliance between her party and the ``separatists’’. Interestingly, her party MLAs frequently visit the temples managed by the Sikh separatists in BC.

Meanwhile, Harper has begun his firs tour of India

The Canadian Prime Minister, Stephen Harper is heading to India after attending APEC 2009 in Singapore. This would be his first visit to the world’s largest democracy not even as the Prime Minister but as an individual, sources in the PMO confirmed. Harper who is accompanied by a dozen Canadian journalists and staff besides, the Indo Canadian Tory MP from Alberta, Deepak Oberoi will be later joined by other Indo Canadian MPs in Mumbai, his first stop over in India. Neena Grewal and Tim Uppal are expected to receive him in India. From there, the delegation which is travelling with Harper on his flight CF01 will proceed to Delhi and later Amritsar. During the 26 hours journey to Singapore, including halts at the Alaska and Japan airports Harper did not have any contact with the media persons.

Rumours are that he worked on his book on hockey during the air travel. However, he addressed the media persons on separate occasions during his stay in Singapore with journalists being allowed to ask a limited number of questions.

Among the ethnic media persons on board are Ajit Jain, the editor of India Abroad, Gurpreet Singh from Radio India and T. Raghavan Paranchothy from Tamil Vision TV and Canadian Multicultural Radio.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his officials hope India visit t will mark the warming of a relationship that has been decidedly frosty for more than 30 years, ever since India angered Ottawa by developing a nuclear bomb with unknowing Canadian help.

On May 18, 1974, India exploded its first nuclear bomb in a project code-named Smiling Buddha. Back in Canada, Smiling Buddha caused public outrage because the plutonium used in the bomb was produced by a reactor built on a donated design and technical help provided by Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. based on one of its research reactors at its Chalk River, Ont., laboratory.

The government of then-prime minister Pierre Trudeau cut off any exchange of nuclear materials and technology with India in the wake of the test. The rest of the world's nuclear powers quickly formed an organization called the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) set up to monitor and regulate trade in nuclear materials. India was shut out of the NSG and resentment towards Canada among India's scientists and government officials grew.

But last year, the NSG — with Canada voting in favour — lifted that moratorium and that, perhaps more than anything else, made it possible for Harper to begin a three-day tour of India which will include stops in Mumbai, New Delhi and Amritsar.

"I think that was quite a momentous development in the relationship because that is where there is the greatest impediment or the greatest amount of resistance for advancing the relationship," said Manoj Pundit, a Bay Street mergers and acquisitions lawyer who is also the spokesperson for the Canada-India Foundation.

Shawn-Patrick Stensil, a Toronto-based energy and climate campaigner for Greenpeace Canada, says Canada's about-face on selling nuclear technology is more a result of its interest in finding customers for its ailing Crown corporation, AECL.

"Harper is following the lead of (former U.S. president) George Bush in re-opening nuclear relations with India. The reason? Business, pure and simple," Stensil said. "Despite the PR, there isn't much of a market for reactors, and vendors — and their loyal state sponsors — are desperate to sell to anyone, even if it means undermining international agreements to stop nuclear arms proliferation."

BACK