Trudeau: Invitation should not have gone to Sikh extremist
Posted Feb 22, 2018 05:51:49 AM.
Last Updated Feb 22, 2018 05:55:11 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
NEW DELHI – A man who was convicted of trying to assassinate an Indian cabinet minister in 1986 should not have been invited to receptions held in Delhi, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday.
His comment came after a senior official from Trudeau’s office earlier said an invitation issued to Jaspal Atwal for a reception was a mistake and was rescinded as soon as it was discovered.
But the error wasn’t caught until after Atwal had already attended a reception with Trudeau on Tuesday evening and posed for photos with both Sophie Gregoire Trudeau and Infrastructure Minister Amarjeet Sohi.
Trudeau told reporters in New Delhi prior to a speech at the Canada-India Business Summit where several hundred Canadian and Indian business people were gathered that Atwal should never have been invited.
“This individual should never have been invited to any event on the program, and his invitation has been rescinded,” a spokeswoman with the Prime Minister’s Office said.
“We are in the process of looking into how this occurred.”
The spokeswoman said Atwal is not part of the PM’s official delegation to India, nor was he invited by the Prime Minister’s Office.
