were-sorry-india

Ezra LevantRebel Commander

We’re sorry India — please don’t think all Canadians are like Justin Trudeau and his family and friends. We’re not.

For example, thousands of Canadians visit the beautiful Taj Mahal every year — and none of us demand that 35,000 pilgrims be forced to wait outside, in the heat, for sixty minutes while we take our photos there, just to have a better picture, like Trudeau and his family did.

We’re sorry India — please don’t think that’s how most Canadians are. We actually try to be polite.

We’re interested in Indian culture and food and music and people — we have many great Indians in Canada, as I’m sure you know. Not all Canadians put on bindis and wear Indian clothing when we go to an Indian restaurant, and say "namaste" all the time. When most Canadians meet Indian people, we can stay calm. We don’t have to pretend we’re at a costume party, or that Indians are a curiosity in a museum.

But most of all, please don’t think that Canadians support terrorism. Like you, we were shocked to learn that Justin Trudeau invited a convicted terrorist to dinner. A man who was found guilty of attempted murder against an Indian cabinet minister.

The Trudeaus have known Atwal for a long time — Justin Trudeau even met with Atwal back in Canada. For Trudeau to work with a convicted terrorist is inexcusable — and we have no excuses, other than to say that’s not who Canadians are. We’re peacekeepers, not terrorist supporters. We don’t support breaking up your country.

We love India — we are both Commonwealth countries that have achieved great things since our independence. We’re both democracies. We could do a lot more business with each other — we’d love to sell you our oil, so you don’t have to buy it from OPEC. We’d love to sell you more food. Unfortunately, Trudeau didn’t invite our energy minister or our agriculture minister on his junket — I guess there wasn’t room for both them and Jaspal Atwal.

Please don’t think we’re all like Trudeau. Our last prime minister, Stephen Harper, deeply respected India and became good friends with prime ministers Modi and Singh. And please don’t think that Indo-Canadians support terrorism. A very small minority might — but not most Canadians.

So, we’re sorry India.