New Delhi, July 25 (UNI) In the wake of Canadian authorities arresting two people in connection with online death threats against PM Justin Trudeau, India on Thursday targeted Ottawa for harbouring double standards with regard to freedom of expression and rule of law.
MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal, answering queries about the arrests of two people in Canada in June in connection with online death threats targeting Trudeau, said:
“We’ve seen these reports. When a democracy adopts different yardsticks to measure or implement the rule of law and freedom of expression, it only exposes its own double standards.
“We expect Canada to take action against anti-India elements who have repeatedly threatened Indian leaders, institutions, airlines and diplomats by violence.
“We would like to see strong action or the same level of action on the threats posed to us as well,” he added.
His comments came as the Royal Canadian Mounted Police’s (RCMP) Federal Policing Integrated National Security Enforcement Team (INSET), Northwest Region, announced the arrests of the two men on Monday.
On June 6, 23-year-old Mason John Baker, a resident of Calgary in Alberta, was charged with uttering threats. On June 13, 67-year-old Garry Belzevick, 67, a resident of Edmonton, was arrested for allegedly uttering similar threats against Trudeau. Those alleged threats, in a YouTube post, were directed not just at Trudeau but also Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland and New Democratic Party leader Jagmeet Singh, as per media reports.
In contrast, Canada has given full freedom to pro-Khalistani elements to voice their separatist agenda and threaten PM Modi and other leaders, and Indian diplomats in Canada, and even threaten to blow up an Air India plane. Canada has not taken action against these people citing freedom of expression.
In June, Khalistani separatists gathered in front of India’s consulate in Vancouver with effigies of the bullet-riddled body of former PM Indira Gandhi while glorifying the Sikh bodyguards who assassinated her
The Khalistanis carried placards reading “KILL MODI politics” and a picture of Talwinder Singh Parmar, the self-proclaimed mastermind of the Air India bombings, who was being glorified as a “Canadian Singh who attained martyrdom fighting Indian terror forces”.
Canadian MP of Indian origin Chandra Arya has criticised the Khalistanis for glorification of the killers of Indira Gandhi.
