CTV Question Period with Vassy Kapelos Podcast · CTV News

CTV QP Podcast #504: Canada looks to reset relationship with India

October 19, 2025·46 min·3 clips

Derek Burney says Canada should not follow the U.S. “on everything with China.”

1. CTV Question Period with Vassy Kapelos centers on Canada’s effort to reset relations with India while widening trade ties with China and the United States. 2. Vassy Kapelos hosts the episode, Dinesh Patnaik appears as India’s new High Commissioner to Canada, and Gary Anandasangaree joins as Public Safety Minister. 3. The episode asks whether Ottawa can repair security disputes with India and still build trade leverage with Asia. 4. Kapelos opens with the 2023–2024 breakdown in Canada-India relations, including Justin Trudeau’s accusation about the murder of a Sikh activist in British Columbia and the RCMP’s later statement about more than a dozen threatening and violent acts. 5. Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand’s trip to New Delhi and Mumbai is presented as the latest step, alongside the restoration of high commissioners and a joint statement on cooperation. 6. Patnaik says he would not be in Canada today if not for Donald Trump’s trade war, but adds that “you cannot keep two large countries apart for long.” 7. He says the relationship cannot be “destroyed by a single man,” and he points to democracy, freedom of the press, rule of law, pluralism, and open economies as common ground. 8. Patnaik says the bilateral relationship is “good” and “can be better,” citing the return of high commissioners, meetings between ministers, and a structured program of future talks. 9. On the RCMP allegations, Patnaik calls them “preposterous and absurd” and says India is waiting for evidence rather than press statements. 10. He says security officials are already talking, including dialogue between the RCMP and India’s NIA and meetings between the two countries’ national security advisors. 11. Patnaik says India is also focused on the safety of Indians and South Asians in Canada, citing a restaurant in Vancouver that was attacked for a third time and saying people in both countries must feel safe. 12. He says India never conducts “extraterritorial action” and rejects the idea that the allegations have been proven. 13. On trade, Patnaik says India will buy from “anywhere” that can supply a 1.4 billion-person market, and he says Canada is not yet a reliable supplier. 14. He links reliability to energy, food, potash, and pandemic-era supply chains, saying political factors should not interrupt economic activity. 15. Patnaik says a Canada-India free trade deal is still possible, but that Canada paused the talks and would need to signal a restart. 16. The panel with Derek Burney, Guy Saint-Jacques, and Stuart Beck shifts to Asia strategy, with Burney saying Canada should seek markets in Japan, Korea, India, China, and Indonesia. 17. Saint-Jacques says Mark Carney is well perceived in Beijing, notes more than $55 billion in Canadian exports to China last year including gold, and says there is room for gradual rapprochement. 18. Beck says security and intelligence issues around India will keep resurfacing, but he argues the trade relationship is strong and should continue with more consistency. 19. The tone is a policy-heavy interview and roundtable, with pointed questioning, detailed diplomatic responses, and a trade-and-security frame throughout. 20. Viewers interested in Canada’s foreign policy and Indo-Pacific trade should listen; viewers wanting light political chatter probably should skip it.

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