Canada hasn’t even risked releasing any evidence months later. The issue seems DOA.
The investigation is progressing at a normal pace. It’s incorrect to suggest it’s DOA. It also had a multibillion-dollar impact on multiple Indian investments, so to suggest it had no consequences is also wrong. (On a fundamental level, the killings Streisand effected the Khalistan cause. I’m of Indian descent and had not heard of Operation Blue Star [1].)
> Canada hasn’t even risked releasing any evidence
If the intel was American SIGINT, Ottawa wouldn’t have the authority to unilaterally release it.
They havent released any details of how they knew, we learned it was US from journalism. If they violated our sovereignty we have a right to know the details. The Indian gov can figure out they were wiretapped already. If ever there was grounds for releasing sensitive Intel this was it.
When the Saudis killed that journalist it was revealed that Turkey had microphones inside their embassy. This is not some huge deal to reveal espionage of other agencies when the stakes are so high.
I’m not sure what sort of evidence you think they’ll suddenly discover 6 months later which justifies not explaining the details which cause them to make the accusation in the first place.
I don’t get how they can’t tell the public what the Indian gov specifically did but it was worth imposing the consequences of making the accusations public?
We do. But not immediately.
> Indian gov can figure out they were wiretapped already
But not how. Given how shadily they’re behaving, I wouldn’t want to declassify sources and methods too hastily either. If the rewards from keeping those methods live outweigh the gains from disclosure, that’s a valid foreign policy call.
> but it was worth imposing the consequences of making the accusations public
From all accounts, it going public was an accident. Ottawa was forced by the media getting a whiff of it. Washington made grunts and groans when necessary.
And I have no idea what Canada's purported "poker hand" was. The government revealed an incident when the media discovered it and it continues at its normal pace behind the scenes. India had an apocalyptic, absurdly over the top fit and Canada yawned. India has literally zero sway over Canada so it was all rather ridiculous.
And this US revelation clearly springs from exactly the same well (via exactly the same intelligence sharing). I mean, when the Canada revelation happened the US leaked that they were investigating something and has repeatedly announced their concern about this. If anything the outsized Indian reaction to Canada was precisely because they thought they could preempt this from the US.
Thank you for saying this. It's nice to know there are still reasonable people here.
This is diplomatic and precedent setting as much as it’s a pursuit of some specific criminal justice.
Obsessing about not disrupting the the economic/diplomatic/immigration status quo, not offending anybody even when they seriously violate your sovereignty, and just generally playing nice guy is not how you deal with this sort of situation.
I think the situation isn't as bad as it seems from the inside.
In defense of Trudeau: ask a number of people outside Canada to name any Canadian Prime Ministers, and I bet most of them will readily be able to name only Trudeau. I just looked at the Wikipedia list and I only recognized four names, one of them because I knew Justin Trudeau's dad had once been Prime Minister, and one of them because Nardwuar embarrassed him once. What I'm saying is, I don't think there's some golden age of Canadian global influence that Justin Trudeau has caused you to fall from, and if that's your measure, he's actually not doing too bad.
Regards,
Justin Trudeau
Extrajudicial killings by governments have happened for time eternal. There is absolutely nothing new or precedent setting about this. The truth is that most of the time governments deal with it quietly and behind the scenes. It's actually incredibly odd for the US to have announced what they have, and it is almost certainly because of the Canada thing.
>a leader who clearly isn’t respected enough
You have partisan glasses on. What do you think any other leader would have done? Would Harper have declared war? Would PP in the future?
Given that India absolutely flipped their shit (they've backtracked on all of it, as an aside...so powerful), clearly Canada's announcement by itself was an enormous action.
But seriously, what do you think the US is going to do? The most powerful nation on the planet is going to...send some diplomatic cables and express their disatisfaction.
If Canada had any sway, they could prod US to delay or suspend military tech transfer to India to compel an investigation. But obviously Canada doesn't have that kind of leverage.
Canada is completing its investigation, at which point they'll name various Indian government agents and charge them with murder. India will declare diplomatic immunity. Do you really think the horrendously corrupt Modi government is going to investigate its own actions in any meaningful or viable way?
And just to be clear, the US announcing what they did is clearly putting its full weight behind Canada's findings.
I think US has the leverage to at least compel Modi to pretend to cooperate, or at least offer up fall guys like they did MBS over Khashoggi, if they were to put full weight behind Canada. Which they haven't, except to affirm Canadian findings, which they pretty much have to unless they want to blow up US/CAN relations. Current rhetorical support is meaningless.