A senior Canadian official issued a statement saying clearly that there is no evidence to link Indian Prime Minister Modi and other top Indian officials to criminal activities in Canada.
The statement issued by the National Security and Intelligence Advisor to the Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Nathalie G. Drouin said, “On October 14th, because of a significant and ongoing threat to public safety, the RCMP and officials took the extraordinary step of making public accusations of serious criminal activity in Canada perpetrated by agents of the Government of India. The Government of Canada has not stated, nor is it aware of evidence, linking Prime Minister Modi, Minister Jaishankar, or NSA Doval to the serious criminal activity within Canada. Any suggestion to the contrary is both speculative and inaccurate.”
Drouin statement came after an article was published in the Globe and Mail that said Canada’s security agencies believed that Modi, Jaishankar and Doval knew about a campaign of violence and intimidation targeting Sikh separatists in Canada.
“While Canada does not have direct evidence that Mr. Modi knew, the official said, the assessment is that it would be unthinkable that three senior political figures in India would not have discussed the targeted killings with Mr. Modi before proceeding,” the news report in Globe and Mail said.
In response to the report in Globe and Mail, India external Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said such “ludicrous statements” should be dismissed with the contempt they deserve. “We do not normally comment on media reports. However, such ludicrous statements made to a newspaper purportedly by a Canadian government source should be dismissed with the contempt they deserve,” he said.
Responding to a question about the federal government’s statement, PM Trudeau said in Brampton the next day that those leaking “top secret information to the media” were criminals as well as “unreliable.”
Trudeau said, “We have seen unfortunately criminals leaking top secret information to media have consistently gotten those stories wrong. That’s why We had a National Enquiry into foreign interference that highlighted criminals leaking information to media outlets are unreliable on top of being criminals. In terms of the issue my primary job is to keep Canadians safe. Everything we have done is to emphasize keeping Canadians safe and ensuring we have the rule of law.”
India and Canada remain embroiled in a tense geopolitical standoff over Nijjar’s killing, with Ottawa accusing Indian government agents of involvement. New Delhi has strongly denied the claims, labelling them as “absurd” and “motivated,” attributing the tensions to Canadian “vote-bank politics.”
Six Indian diplomats were expelled from Canada last month over allegations they used their position to collect information on Canadians in the pro-Khalistan movement and then passed it on to criminal gangs who targeted the individuals directly.
