Trudeau's top advisor accused Indian PM of trying to 'screw' Liberals during 2018 trip: book excerpt

OTTAWA , Ont.— Justin Trudeau’s longtime adviser Gerald Butts accused India’s government of trying to “screw” the Liberals to help his Canadian Conservative rivals during the prime minister’s controversy-ridden trip to India.

Trudeau’s visit to India in early 2018 was widely panned because of his dressing in traditional garb; the invitation of a convicted attempted murderer to high-level receptions and the lack of official duties among other issues.

“‘We walked into a buzzsaw — (Narendra) 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 is quoted as saying in a new book by National Post political columnist, John Ivison, Trudeau: The Education of a Prime Minister, scheduled to be released next week.

Butts was principal secretary to Trudeau at the time although he resigned his position earlier this year in the wake of the SNC-Lavalin controversy. However, he has returned to the fold and will work on the Liberals’ re-election campaign.

The book sheds light on how senior Liberals viewed and framed the prime minister’s trip. At least as far as polling was concerned, the eight-day journey seemed to mark the end of a Liberal honeymoon period with the Canadian public.

Butts’s comments speculating about Prime Minister Modi’s motives are coming to light before a federal election in October, at a time when any hint of foreign interference in Canadian politics is liable to become a headline.

The book details some of the controversial aspects of the trip — which cost more than $1.5 million — including flying in a Vancouver chef to cook Indian food in India.

Most controversial was the accidental invitation to high-level receptions of a convicted attempted murderer, Jaspal Atwal. Atwal’s ability to travel to India at all appeared to have required intervention from the Indian government, and Trudeau’s security adviser Daniel Jean told reporters that, as Ivison puts it, “elements within the Indian intelligence service may have been happy to see Atwal embarrass Trudeau for being soft on Sikh separatism.”

Butts went on to say that Modi’s intentions weren’t the “core issue” with why the trip was so awfully received at home, though. It was the photographs of Trudeau and his family in traditional garb that seemed to resonate badly with voters.

“The picture will overwhelm words,” said Butts. Senior Liberals, Ivison writes, were quick to lay blame on Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, saying it was her idea to order costumes and have the family wear them.

Conservative leader Andrew Scheer’s office would not offer any comment about the details on Wednesday beyond pointing to one of Scheer’s tweets. Tagging the Indian leader and quoting Butts, the tweet said: “There Trudeau goes again, blaming others for his own mistakes and poor judgment. This time it’s @NarendraModi. Trudeau’s failed leadership is no one’s fault but his own.”

Despite Scheer being otherwise silent, a Conservative source said, “We will certainly be saying more about this in coming days.”

Guy Caron, foreign affairs critic for the NDP, cautioned in an emailed statement that Butts’s comments weren’t great for diplomacy. “These comments might explain why the PM’s trip to India was a fiasco from the beginning,” he said. “It’s not appropriate for the Prime Minister’s former Principal Secretary to be making such comments while both governments are still in place. This does not help our diplomatic relationships.”

The prime minister’s office had no comment to make.

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