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Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau is facing an international\u2014and existential\u2014crisis. (Artur Widak via Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n
The Canadian prime minister has alienated the largest democracy on Earth and played host to a former Nazi. And that was just this week.<\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\nBy\u00a0Rupa Subramanya
\nTHE FREE PRESS<\/p>\n
OTTAWA \u2014 In the span of five days, Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau has managed to alienate the government of the largest democracy on Earth; anger key allies from Washington, D.C. to Canberra; and outrage Jews around the world.<\/p>\n
Now, the promise of Trudeau\u2014the young, strapping progressive born into political royalty, with his ostensibly forward-looking ideas about\u00a0medically assisted suicide<\/a>,\u00a0puberty blockers<\/a>, and\u00a0the suspension of truckers\u2019 civil liberties<\/a>\u2014is on the brink of imploding.<\/p>\nLate Tuesday night, limousines clustered outside Parliament, as senior officials from Trudeau\u2019s Liberal Party feverishly debated how to right this ship and save the prime minister.<\/p>\n
That emergency powwow took place four days after Canada\u2019s Parliament honored 98-year-old Ukrainian Yaroslav Hunka. The Speaker of the House of Commons, Anthony Rota,\u00a0introduced<\/a>\u00a0Hunka as a \u201cUkrainian hero\u201d and \u201cCanadian hero\u201d who fought against the Soviet Union during World War II. The whole of Parliament rose to give him a\u00a0standing ovation<\/a>. It later emerged that Hunka did indeed fight the Soviets\u2014or, as Rota put it, the Russians\u2014but alongside the\u00a0Nazis<\/a>.<\/p>\nHunka\u2019s appearance came as part of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky\u2019s trip to Canada, where he hoped to bolster support for the war against Russia. Zelensky seemed unfazed by Parliament\u2019s honoring Hunka (he gave a fist pump in support)\u2014even though he is Jewish and lost family in the Holocaust. (It\u2019s unclear how many people in Zelensky\u2019s family were killed. The president has\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0that his great-grandparents were murdered when the Nazis burned down their village, which was common practice during the war.)<\/p>\nBut afterward, pretty much everyone else seemed horrified, and on Monday, Rota (like Trudeau, a member of the Liberal Party)\u00a0apologized<\/a>\u00a0to the Jewish community, and on Tuesday, he\u00a0resigned<\/a>.<\/p>\nTrudeau refused to accept blame. Instead, he sought to\u00a0link<\/a>\u00a0the controversy to Russia\u2019s \u201cdisinformation\u201d campaign against Ukraine while acknowledging that the Hunka affair was \u201cdeeply embarrassing\u201d to Parliament\u2014the leader of which is Justin Trudeau. Then, yesterday, he gave a\u00a0short speech<\/a>\u00a0in which he blamed Rota for this \u201chorrendous violation\u201d\u2014which, he noted, hurt Jewish people as well as \u201cPolish people, Roma people, 2SLGTBQIA+ people, disabled people, racialized people.\u201d<\/p>\nThat debacle is competing for headline space with Trudeau\u2019s other recent catastrophe: his decision to blame India for an extrajudicial murder on Canadian soil.<\/p>\n
That happened earlier in the week, on Monday\u2014the first day of the fall session of the Canadian legislature after a long summer recess. Trudeau\u00a0declared<\/a>\u00a0that \u201cagents of the government of India\u201d were behind the recent murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in a Vancouver suburb.<\/p>\nNijjar was a Sikh plumber who had been born in India, immigrated to Canada, and ultimately gained Canadian citizenship. He was also a vocal advocate for Sikh autonomy. He had long embraced the\u00a0Khalistan movement<\/a>, which calls for a separate Sikh state in the northern Indian province of Punjab. (The movement spawned a terrorist insurgency in the 1970s that included the 1984\u00a0assassination<\/a>\u00a0of Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi and the 1985\u00a0bombing<\/a>\u00a0of an Air India jet flying from Toronto to London, which killed 329 people\u2014the worst terrorist attack in Canadian history.)<\/p>\nNijjar was\u00a0suspected<\/a>\u00a0of planning a bombing in Punjab and wanted in India on terrorism charges, and, in fact, Interpol issued a so-called\u00a0red notice<\/a>\u00a0calling for his arrest in November 2014. On June 18 of this year, Nijjar was\u00a0gunned down<\/a>\u00a0outside the Sikh gurdwara, or temple, where he was president. So far, no one has been apprehended for the crime.<\/p>\nThen, on September 18, Trudeau\u00a0announced<\/a>\u00a0he had intelligence showing India was responsible for the murder. This was followed by a diplomatic tit for tat, with Canada\u00a0expelling<\/a>\u00a0an Indian diplomat and India expelling a Canadian diplomat. Canadian authorities cautioned Canadians against traveling to India. India denies its involvement in Nijjar\u2019s death.<\/p>\nThere are two big problems with Trudeau\u2019s claim: First, the evidence that the Indian government or its \u201cagents\u201d were involved in the murder appears wobbly. (On Sunday, Canadian Defense Minister Bill Blair\u00a0indicated<\/a>\u00a0the evidence has yet to be confirmed.) Second, even if that evidence is airtight, pretty much everyone agrees that the smart, diplomatically astute thing to do is to speak with Indian prime minister Narendra Modi or his foreign minister behind closed doors to avoid a public spectacle.<\/p>\nThat, presumably, is why longtime Canadian allies like the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia have been signaling their displeasure with Trudeau\u2019s tangle with Modi\u2014who the West would like in its camp, especially given the escalating tensions with India\u2019s neighbor China. (Recall that in November 2022, Chinese President Xi Jinping\u00a0publicly rebuked<\/a>\u00a0Trudeau at a G20 summit in Bali.) U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has\u00a0expressed<\/a>\u00a0\u201cconcern\u201d over Nijjar\u2019s killing, but has yet to condemn India for it while encouraging the Canadians to press on with their investigation.<\/p>\nNow, the Americans and Brits and everyone else in the West finds itself in the awkward spot of having to say something indicating concern or dismay about Nijjar\u2019s death while trying to avoid alienating Modi, who\u2014say what you will about India\u2019s nationalist prime minister\u2014has been an important bulwark against Chinese hegemony in South Asia and elsewhere.<\/p>\n
We should be clear about what prompted this protracted diplomatic disaster last week: domestic politics. Trudeau\u2019s\u00a0poll numbers<\/a>\u00a0are abysmal, with even young Canadians backing the Conservative Party over Trudeau\u2019s Liberal faction, 32 percent to 24 percent.<\/p>\nWhen Trudeau was elected in 2015, he was seen as a breath of fresh air, a charismatic departure from the outgoing, stodgy Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper. But then, Trudeau\u2019s government was engulfed by a series of corruption scandals, and then it came out that Trudeau had appeared in\u00a0blackface<\/a>\u00a0at parties several years earlier.<\/p>\nThen the pandemic happened, and Trudeau projected the image of a statesman\u2014but he went too far. He\u00a0shut down<\/a>\u00a0the truckers\u2019 protests. He declared an emergency. He was seen, increasingly, as having a quasi-authoritarian tendency. And he lost the heart of the country.<\/p>\nAnd it may not be long before the heart of the country ultimately dispenses with Trudeau.<\/p>\n
\nTHE FREE PRESS<\/p>\n
Late Tuesday night, limousines clustered outside Parliament, as senior officials from Trudeau\u2019s Liberal Party feverishly debated how to right this ship and save the prime minister.<\/p>\n
That emergency powwow took place four days after Canada\u2019s Parliament honored 98-year-old Ukrainian Yaroslav Hunka. The Speaker of the House of Commons, Anthony Rota,\u00a0introduced<\/a>\u00a0Hunka as a \u201cUkrainian hero\u201d and \u201cCanadian hero\u201d who fought against the Soviet Union during World War II. The whole of Parliament rose to give him a\u00a0standing ovation<\/a>. It later emerged that Hunka did indeed fight the Soviets\u2014or, as Rota put it, the Russians\u2014but alongside the\u00a0Nazis<\/a>.<\/p>\n Hunka\u2019s appearance came as part of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky\u2019s trip to Canada, where he hoped to bolster support for the war against Russia. Zelensky seemed unfazed by Parliament\u2019s honoring Hunka (he gave a fist pump in support)\u2014even though he is Jewish and lost family in the Holocaust. (It\u2019s unclear how many people in Zelensky\u2019s family were killed. The president has\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0that his great-grandparents were murdered when the Nazis burned down their village, which was common practice during the war.)<\/p>\n But afterward, pretty much everyone else seemed horrified, and on Monday, Rota (like Trudeau, a member of the Liberal Party)\u00a0apologized<\/a>\u00a0to the Jewish community, and on Tuesday, he\u00a0resigned<\/a>.<\/p>\n Trudeau refused to accept blame. Instead, he sought to\u00a0link<\/a>\u00a0the controversy to Russia\u2019s \u201cdisinformation\u201d campaign against Ukraine while acknowledging that the Hunka affair was \u201cdeeply embarrassing\u201d to Parliament\u2014the leader of which is Justin Trudeau. Then, yesterday, he gave a\u00a0short speech<\/a>\u00a0in which he blamed Rota for this \u201chorrendous violation\u201d\u2014which, he noted, hurt Jewish people as well as \u201cPolish people, Roma people, 2SLGTBQIA+ people, disabled people, racialized people.\u201d<\/p>\n That debacle is competing for headline space with Trudeau\u2019s other recent catastrophe: his decision to blame India for an extrajudicial murder on Canadian soil.<\/p>\n That happened earlier in the week, on Monday\u2014the first day of the fall session of the Canadian legislature after a long summer recess. Trudeau\u00a0declared<\/a>\u00a0that \u201cagents of the government of India\u201d were behind the recent murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in a Vancouver suburb.<\/p>\n Nijjar was a Sikh plumber who had been born in India, immigrated to Canada, and ultimately gained Canadian citizenship. He was also a vocal advocate for Sikh autonomy. He had long embraced the\u00a0Khalistan movement<\/a>, which calls for a separate Sikh state in the northern Indian province of Punjab. (The movement spawned a terrorist insurgency in the 1970s that included the 1984\u00a0assassination<\/a>\u00a0of Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi and the 1985\u00a0bombing<\/a>\u00a0of an Air India jet flying from Toronto to London, which killed 329 people\u2014the worst terrorist attack in Canadian history.)<\/p>\n Nijjar was\u00a0suspected<\/a>\u00a0of planning a bombing in Punjab and wanted in India on terrorism charges, and, in fact, Interpol issued a so-called\u00a0red notice<\/a>\u00a0calling for his arrest in November 2014. On June 18 of this year, Nijjar was\u00a0gunned down<\/a>\u00a0outside the Sikh gurdwara, or temple, where he was president. So far, no one has been apprehended for the crime.<\/p>\n Then, on September 18, Trudeau\u00a0announced<\/a>\u00a0he had intelligence showing India was responsible for the murder. This was followed by a diplomatic tit for tat, with Canada\u00a0expelling<\/a>\u00a0an Indian diplomat and India expelling a Canadian diplomat. Canadian authorities cautioned Canadians against traveling to India. India denies its involvement in Nijjar\u2019s death.<\/p>\n There are two big problems with Trudeau\u2019s claim: First, the evidence that the Indian government or its \u201cagents\u201d were involved in the murder appears wobbly. (On Sunday, Canadian Defense Minister Bill Blair\u00a0indicated<\/a>\u00a0the evidence has yet to be confirmed.) Second, even if that evidence is airtight, pretty much everyone agrees that the smart, diplomatically astute thing to do is to speak with Indian prime minister Narendra Modi or his foreign minister behind closed doors to avoid a public spectacle.<\/p>\n That, presumably, is why longtime Canadian allies like the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia have been signaling their displeasure with Trudeau\u2019s tangle with Modi\u2014who the West would like in its camp, especially given the escalating tensions with India\u2019s neighbor China. (Recall that in November 2022, Chinese President Xi Jinping\u00a0publicly rebuked<\/a>\u00a0Trudeau at a G20 summit in Bali.) U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has\u00a0expressed<\/a>\u00a0\u201cconcern\u201d over Nijjar\u2019s killing, but has yet to condemn India for it while encouraging the Canadians to press on with their investigation.<\/p>\n Now, the Americans and Brits and everyone else in the West finds itself in the awkward spot of having to say something indicating concern or dismay about Nijjar\u2019s death while trying to avoid alienating Modi, who\u2014say what you will about India\u2019s nationalist prime minister\u2014has been an important bulwark against Chinese hegemony in South Asia and elsewhere.<\/p>\n We should be clear about what prompted this protracted diplomatic disaster last week: domestic politics. Trudeau\u2019s\u00a0poll numbers<\/a>\u00a0are abysmal, with even young Canadians backing the Conservative Party over Trudeau\u2019s Liberal faction, 32 percent to 24 percent.<\/p>\n When Trudeau was elected in 2015, he was seen as a breath of fresh air, a charismatic departure from the outgoing, stodgy Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper. But then, Trudeau\u2019s government was engulfed by a series of corruption scandals, and then it came out that Trudeau had appeared in\u00a0blackface<\/a>\u00a0at parties several years earlier.<\/p>\n Then the pandemic happened, and Trudeau projected the image of a statesman\u2014but he went too far. He\u00a0shut down<\/a>\u00a0the truckers\u2019 protests. He declared an emergency. He was seen, increasingly, as having a quasi-authoritarian tendency. And he lost the heart of the country.<\/p>\n And it may not be long before the heart of the country ultimately dispenses with Trudeau.<\/p>\n