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Montreal: Seated in the refined, bustling atmosphere of Monarque, a premier brasserie in Old Montreal, Stéphane Dion cuts a figure of quiet, calculated experience. A veteran of the Canadian Cabinet and the chief architect of the Clarity Act, Ottawa’s landmark law spelling out the rules for any future bid to break up the country, Dion has spent the last decade navigating the highest corridors of global diplomacy after a long career in Canadian politics.

At 70, Dion is transitioning yet again. Having completed his postings as Canada’s ambassador to Germany and, most recently, to France and Monaco – roles he held while serving as the Prime Minister’s special envoy to the European Union – he ended his government service in mid-December 2025. Now, he is returning to the classroom as the first diplomat-in-residence at the Université de Montréal, where he once taught political science before his 1996 entry into federal politics.

The timing of this conversation is not incidental. Across the planet, Prime Minister Mark Carney is on Indian soil, a trip freighted with the weight of one of the most damaging ruptures in Canada’s recent diplomatic history.

It is a subject Dion has strong views on, and he gets to them quickly.

He says the relationship was in good shape when he visited New Delhi as foreign minister in 2016.

What followed, he argues, was a series of missteps on both sides, beginning with Trudeau’s 2018 trip to India, which the Indian government viewed unfavourably in part because of who accompanied the Prime Minister. “The Indian government had the sense that Prime Minister Trudeau invited too many Sikh people,” Dion says. “And Prime Minister Trudeau was saying, but they are not involved in India, they are involved in Canada.”

This tension escalated into a full-blown crisis following the 2023 assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar and the subsequent announcement by Prime Minister Trudeau in the House of Commons regarding “credible allegations” of Indian government involvement.

It is here that Dion parts ways most sharply with his former leader.

In answer to a question from The Wire whether Trudeau handled relations with India badly, he replies, “I would not say that. I would say that I would have personally preferred that Canada would not say in the House of Commons that we have some information that may be true. I would have waited. And I would say there is an inquiry happening, and I don’t want to interfere in these inquiries or these investigations.”

He is careful to add that his objection is to the approach, not to the seriousness of the underlying concern. 

Canada did have evidence that troubled its government, he notes, and the United States had expressed similar worries. 

Dion also takes issue with how India responded differently to Washington than to Ottawa on the same........

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