The Member of Parliament blamed for inviting a controversial guest to a meet-and-greet with the prime minister is blaming his inexperienced office staff.
Liberal MP Randeep Sarai says he didn't personally invite Jaspal Atwal on the trip to India.
The representative of Surrey Centre told the Surrey Now-Leader that he passed on a list of names of those who expressed interest in going. He said neither he nor his young staffer recognized Atwal's name. Sarai acknowledged that his office should have done a better job of vetting the guest list before the trip.
Atwal served prison time following a conviction for trying to assassinate an Indian cabinet minister during a visit to Vancouver Island in 1986. He was a member of International Sikh Youth Federation at the time, a group the Canadian government has since labelled a terrorist organization.
Critics spoke out about the decision to invite Atwal to events after photos surfaced of the attempted assassin posing with Sophie Gregoir Trudeau. Atwal had also received an invitation from Canada's high commissioner to India to attend a dinner with Justin Trudeau, but the invitation was rescinded before the event.
Former B.C. premier Ujjal Dosanjh said last month that he was "flabbergasted" that Atwal was invited at all.
"I was shocked at the incompetence it must have taken for the PMO or the RCMP or the High Commission to actually accomplish this—that you have a convicted attempted assassin…who is now hobnobbing with the elite of Canadian politics," he told CTV News at the time.
He said Atwal's presence was not only a security concern but marred Trudeau's attempts to address Indian leaders' concerns about the rise of Sikh separatist ideology in Canada.
