Canada blocks Australia news outlet airing Jaishankar press conference, India says shows ‘hypocrisy towards free speech’

Hours after The Australia Today aired Jaishankar’s joint press conference with Wong in Canberra, where he voiced concern over the political space being granted to Khalistan extremists in Canada and noted that India had raised the matter with Australia, several users in Canada complained of the news outlet being blocked and questioned the timing.

In New Delhi, responding to a question on the blocking of The Australia Today, Randhir Jaiswal, spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs, said, “We understand that the social media handles and pages of this particular outlet, which is an important diaspora outlet, have been blocked and are not available for viewers in Canada. This happened just an hour or a few hours after this particular handle carried the press conference of S Jaishankar along with Penny Wong, and the outlet also had several articles on the (Australia) visit of the External Affairs Minister, as also an interview of him. We were surprised. It looks strange to us.”

“But, nonetheless, what I will say is that these are actions which yet again highlight the hypocrisy of Canada towards freedom of speech,” Jaiswal said, also enumerating the three points made by Jaishankar in his response to a question on India-Canada ties.

In Canberra, Jaishankar, in remarks on the Canadian allegations against India over the killing of Khalistan separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, had reiterated that Canada made the allegations without providing specifics and that it was unacceptable for India that its diplomats were put under surveillance.

“Let me make three comments. One, Canada has developed a pattern of making allegations without providing specifics. Secondly, when we look at Canada, for us the fact that they are putting our diplomats under surveillance is something which is unacceptable. Third, the incidents (attack on the Hindu temple), and do look at the videos. I think they will tell you in a way in political space today which has been given to extremist forces there,” he said, standing next to Wong.

Jaishankar also said India believes in freedom and it should not be misused, and that India had brought this up with the Australian side.

Jaiswal said, “So you can draw your conclusions from that, why The Australia Today channel was blocked by Canada.”

The website of The Australia Today says it is “dedicated to news, analysis and opinions from Australia focused on multicultural communities and the Indian subcontinent”.

Jaiswal also confirmed the cancellation of some of the scheduled consular camps in Canada since security agencies there had conveyed their inability to provide minimum security protection to the community camp organisers.

“You would have seen the message posted by our consulate in Toronto that they have had to cancel the consular camp that they were planning to organise over the weekend because they did not get adequate security or security assurance from the government,” he said in response to a question.

“We have a large diaspora in Canada. Many of these people, especially around the months of November and December, need documentation for the continuation of their pensions and several other activities here in India. So this consulate camp that we do is helpful to the community, to both people of Indian nationality and people who are of Indian origin but Canadian nationals today,” he said.

“In other parts of Canada, Vancouver, for example, the consular camps will be conducted. These consular camps are conducted at the request of the community organisations. So where the community organisation is comfortable, we will go ahead with these consular camps,” he said.

On Thursday morning, the Consulate General of India in Toronto said it was cancelling some of its scheduled consular camps after the Canadian security authorities conveyed their inability to provide minimum security protection to its organisers.

The announcement came days after an incident of violent disruption by flag-wielding Khalistan separatists at a consular event co-organised by the Hindu Sabha temple in Brampton and the Indian Consulate.

“In view of the security agencies conveying their inability to provide minimum security protection to the community camp organisers, the Consulate has decided to cancel some of the scheduled consular camps,” the Consulate General of India said in a post on X.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had condemned the Brampton incident and said there were “cowardly attempts” to “intimidate” Indian diplomats.