ottawa –
Deputy Foreign Minister David Morrison confirmed reports that Canada claims that Indian ministers and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s aides ordered intelligence operations against Canadians.
The Washington Post first reported that Canadian authorities claim that Indian Interior Minister Amit Shah is behind a campaign of violence and intimidation targeting Sikh separatists in Canada.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison told MPs at the National Security Committee on Tuesday that he was the one who confirmed Mr Shah’s name to the newspaper.
Mr Morrison told the committee: “A journalist called me and asked if it was that person. I confirmed it was that person.”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said a year ago that Canada has credible evidence that Indian government officials were involved in the June 2023 murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in British Columbia. .
On October 14, Canada arrested the Indian High Commissioner and five other diplomats as key figures in multiple incidents of coercion, intimidation and violence aimed at quelling the movement for an independent Sikh state known as Khalistan. He was expelled for being.
Nathalie Drouhin, Deputy Secretary of the Privy Council Secretariat and National Security and Intelligence Adviser to the Prime Minister, Tuesday, October 29, 2024, in Ottawa. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Spencer Colby
Nathalie Drouin, the prime minister’s national security adviser, told the committee on Tuesday that Canada has no evidence that the Indian government initially collected information about Indian and Canadian nationals in Canada through diplomatic channels or agents. He said there was.
The information was then passed on to the New Delhi government, which is said to be working with a criminal network affiliated with Lawrence Bishnoi, she said.
Bishnoi is currently in prison in India, but Drouin said his vast criminal network is linked to murders, assassination plots, coercion and other violent crimes in Canada.
Before the RCMP went public with its suspicions that an Indian diplomat was a person of interest in a criminal investigation, Drouin said there were efforts to work with the Indian government to ensure accountability.
Drouin said he had held talks with Prime Minister Modi’s National Security Adviser Ajit Doval in Singapore two days ago.
Drouin said the decision to go public was made when it became clear that the Indian government would not cooperate with Canada on the proposed accountability measures.
This included asking India to waive diplomatic immunity for senior officials, including the high commissioner in Ottawa. Drouin said he thinks that is unlikely.
RCMP said they took the unusual step of speaking publicly about the ongoing investigation because of the threat to public safety.
The Indian government denied the allegations and instead expelled six Canadian diplomats.
Liberal MP Iqwinder Gahir said the evidence heard by the committee on Tuesday confirmed “whispers” that have existed in the Sikh community for years, and that the situation was like something out of a Bollywood movie.
Drouin and Morrison were called as witnesses before the committee, along with RCMP Commissioner Mike Duhem, CSIS Director Daniel Rogers, and Deputy Minister of Public Safety Tricia Guedes.
Public Security Minister Dominique Leblanc and Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly are both expected to attend future meetings as the investigation continues.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 29, 2024.
