'He's an idiot': Why this ex-Canadian minister says so about Justin Trudeau

Ujjal Dosanjh, a Canadian Sikh who served as a federal Cabinet minister under former Canadian PM Paul Martin, reportedly blames Justin Trudeau for exacerbating the Khalistan movement issue in Canada

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is an "idiot" as far his sociological and political understanding of Canada is concerned, Ujjal Dosanjh, a Canadian Sikh who previously served as the premier of British Columbia and as federal Cabinet minister under Prime Minister Paul Martin, told Donna Kennedy-Glans, herself a former Canadian politician, in a column for Canadian newspaper National Post that explores the growth of the Khalistan separatist movement in Canada.

 

Dosanjh, who lives in Vancouver, in the Canadian Province of British Columbia, claimed during his conversation with Kennedy-Glans that "a silent majority" of Canadian Sikhs "do not want to have anything to do with Khalistan". He added that these members of the Sikh community don't speak out because they are "afraid of violence and violent repercussions".

 

 

While the Khalistan separatist movement has largely been contained within India, its growing presence in Canada has become a significant enough concern for New Delhi that it has repeatedly raised the issue with Ottawa, especially since ties plummeted following Trudeau's allegations in September 2023 that there had been a "potential" involvement of Indian agents in Khalistani separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar's killing on Canadian soil. India has dismissed Trudeau's charges as "absurd" and "motivated". 

 

Why does Ujjal Dosanjh blame Trudeau for Khalistan movement's growth in Canada?

 

The column noted that while Dosanjh did not defend or justify the killing of Nijjar, who was designated a terrorist by India, in June last year, he believes that Trudeau is responsible for what the column describes as the Canadian Sikh population, the largest Sikh diaspora in the world, being "co-opted by the Khalistanis to the point where this obscure separatist movement has become a Canadian problem".

 

According to the column, Dosanjh cited two reasons for blaming Trudeau. First, according to Dosanjh, Trudeau "never really understood" that the "vast majority of Sikhs are quite secular in their outlook", despite the fact that they visit gurdwaras. And the second, claimed Dosanjh, Khalistanis were not a majority within Canada's Sikh diaspora, and nobody spoke against them only "out of fear". 

 

Alleging that Khalistani supporters control many of the gurdwaras in Canada through intimidation, Dosanjh asserted that it was Trudeau's fault "that Canadians now equate Khalistanis with Sikhs, as if we are all Khalistanis if we are Sikhs".

 

'Trudeau, sociologically and politically, is an idiot'

 

According to what Dosanjh told the column's author, he and Trudeau had a "long debate" when Dosanjh was a Canadian Member of Parliament (MP). Explaining that he and Trudeau were both MPs from 2008 to 2011, Dosanjh claimed: "I had a long chat with him (Trudeau) about identity and religion and all that, with all of these Khalistanis sitting around the table." According to Dosanjh, Trudeau agreed with the Khalistani supporters, rather than with him.

 

Stressing on what he described as Trudeau's "most famous" remark on immigrants, which Dosanjh said was "you come here, you can be who you are", he claimed that his argument was that "this extra special emphasis on uniqueness" and "exclusive identities" would become a "deterrent to political, cultural and social integration". Dosanjh added that his argument was that "ultimately, you need shared values". 

 

Against this backdrop, Dosanjh reportedly said: "Trudeau, sociologically and politically, is an idiot." He added: "... And you can actually quote me, I really don't care. Because he's an imbecile in terms of understanding how you build nations, how you build countries."

 

According to the column, Dosanjh was deeply offended by Trudeau's vision of Canada: "a post-national state without a mainstream culture".

 

For his part, Dosanjh insisted that Canada did indeed have a mainstream, explaining that while all Canadians may not sing the same songs and dance the same dances, the country's "mainstream" was defined by its "values, how we treat each other, how we behave politically, how we behave on the street, how we vote, what we take into account when we vote".

 

Dosanjh also insisted that the overwhelming majority of Canada's nearly 800,000 Sikhs do not support the Khalistani movement. "I'd say less than five per cent, less than five per cent," he emphasised, while speaking to the column's author. 

 

What is Ujjal Dosanjh's take on fixing India-Canada ties?

 

Dosanjh also reflected on the ways that Trudeau could deescalate tensions with India, explaining that it was "just a matter of eating a bit of humble pie" on the Canadian Prime Minister's part. According to Dosanjh, Trudeau should say to New Delhi, "... Let's start over again. India is a good friend."

 

Dosanjh added, "That's all you do... That's how diplomacy works."

 

Dosanjh also observed that the United States (US) had dealt with the matter of the alleged foiled murder plot in the US against Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a Khalistani separatist and dual US-Canadian citizen, discreetly, while Canada dealt with Nijjar's killing by having the Prime Minister stand up and make a bold statement in the House of Commons. 

 

According to Dosanjh, Trudeau took this step "because he wanted to look strong, and he wanted to please his Cabinet members and his caucus members, and (reinforce) his own perception that all Sikhs are Khalistanis". Dosanjh added, "... So he (Trudeau) did what he did, and we got off on the wrong foot."

 

According to Dosanjh, if Trudeau had handled the matter differently, "India could have played the big brother and said, 'OK, OK, we'll deal with it'."

 

"They (India) don't want to look weak either, just like Trudeau," added Dosanjh.

 

Who is Ujjal Dosanjh?

 

Dosanjh is a former New Democratic Party (NDP) premier of British Columbia and a former federal Cabinet minister under Prime Minister Paul Martin.

 

A lawyer and a politician, Dosanjh held office from 2000 to 2001 as the 33rd premier of British Columbia. He also served as a Liberal Party of Canada MP from 2004 to 2011. Dosanjh was minister of health from 2004 until 2006.

 

According to the column, Dosanjh has been extremely vocal against the Khalistani movement, especially since 1985, when the bombing of Air India Flight 182 by Khalistanis killed 329 people.

 

Dosanjh, 78, has reportedly faced death threats from Khalistani extremists.