Prime Minister Trudeau’s former chief advisor said India’s government wanted to embarrass Trudeau during his infamous trip to India to benefit the Conservatives, according to John Ivison’s new book “Trudeau: The Education of a Prime Minister.”
Butts resigned earlier this year in the wake of the SNC-Lavalin scandal but is now back with Trudeau as an election advisor.
In Ivison’s book, former Trudeau advisor Gerald Butts boldly accuses the Indian government of setting up Trudeau to fail during his 2018 visit to India.
“We walked into a buzzsaw — Modi and his government were out to screw us and were throwing tacks under our tires to help Canadian conservatives, who did a good job of embarrassing us,” Butts said.
Butts’ accusations came immediately after Trudeau’s behaviour in India started making headlines around the world. Butts went on to say that the Indian government took measures to highlight Trudeau’s negative experiences.
To claim that India purposefully embarrassed the Prime Minister to benefit the opposition is a serious accusation.
Critics argue Trudeau’s state visit to India was a huge embarrassment to Canada.
The trip featured Trudeau wearing flashy and expensive costumes in various settings — spectacles which were mocked by Indians and Canadians alike.
The total cost to the taxpayers for Trudeau’s adventure was $1.5 million, a price tag inflated with many questionable spending decisions, including $17,000 to bring Canadian celebrity chef Vikram Vij to cook Indian-inspired food for Indian diplomats.
The biggest controversy created by Trudeau’s trip, as first reported by True North’s Candice Malcolm, was the presence of convicted terrorist Jaspal Atwal in the Canadian delegation.
In 1986 Atwal, a Sikh extremist, attempted to assassinate a visiting Indian government official on Vancouver Island. He was sentenced to 20 years.
The invite to Atwal by the Canadian government offended the Indian government, who has accused Canada of being complicit with the Khalistan extremist movement.
Canada-India relations still appear to be suffering from the backlash of Trudeau’s trip eighteen months after the fact.
