Canada India Foundation Members meet with Prime Minister Stephen Harper

Ottawa, November 29

Charter Members of Canada India Foundation capped off a very productive day in Ottawa on November 29 with a meeting with Prime Minister Stephen Harper at his office in Parliament Hill. CIF Chair Barj Dhahan and National Convenor Rahul Shastri were joined by Asha Seth, Ajit Someshwar, V.I. Lakshmanan, Ravi Subramanian, Laj Prasher, Vasu Chanchlani, Ramesh Chotai, Sudhir Handa and Executive Director Kalyan Sundaram met with the Prime Minister who expressed his committment to stronger ties with India and admiration for his counterpart, India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The meeting was preceded by a lunch meeting between CIF and Members of Canada India Interparlimantary Friendship Group, which elected its office bearers at the meeting. MP Patrick Brown  and MP Devinder Shorey were acclaimed as Co-Chairs of the Group representing the House, and Senator Larry Smith and Senator David Smith as Co-Chairs representing the Senate. The following were acclaimed as Vice-Chairs: MP’s Brian Storseth, Kirsty Duncan, Joe Daniel, Parm Gill, Jinny Sims, Andrew Saxton, Kyle Seeback, Rod Bruinooge, Glen Thibeault, Jasbhir Sandhu, Rathika Sithsabaiesan, Lysane Blanchette-Lamonthe, Helene Leblanc and Brad Butt. Minister Bal Gosal, Minister Tim Uppal and Parliamentary Secretary Deepak Obhrai also spoke at the meeting. Rahul Shastri spoke on behalf of CIF and thanked the Friendship Group, especially MP Patrick Brown for coming together to promote stronger Canada-India ties. The group also discussed creation and management of a Parliamentary Internship Program for Canadians of Indian Origin, current status of Free Trade negotiations and upcoming participation by parliamentarians in upcoming events in India.

Earlier in the day, the CIF team called on Indian High Commissioner His Excellency Shashishekhar Gavai and updated him on upcoming CIF events, including the Annual Gala in April 2012  in Toronto and the Canada India Agricultural and Food Processing Forum in September in Vancouver, and invited him to be the honoured guest of CIF at both events.