Justin Trudeau says Canada shared evidence of Indian involvement but got no response, dials British PM

While his ministers underlined how their investigators are collaborating with Five Eyes (an intelligence sharing alliance comprising US, UK, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand) Trudeau reached out to the British premier Sir Keith Starmer to discuss developments with India.

The Indian government strongly refuted the claims. “The Government of India strongly rejects these preposterous imputations and ascribes them to the political agenda of the Trudeau Government, centred around vote bank politics,” said a statement from the MEA.

Canada’s Acting High Commissioner to India Stewart Ross Wheeler outside the MEA in New Delhi, Monday. (PTI)

Reiterating what RCMP commissioner had said earlier in the day, Trudeau alleged, “They have clear and compelling evidence that agents of the Government of India have engaged in and continue to engage in activities that pose a significant threat to public safety. This includes clandestine information-gathering techniques, coercive behaviour targeting South Asian Canadians and involvement in a dozen threating and violating acts including murder. This is unacceptable.”

He said, “Canada-India has a long history rooted in people-to-people ties, business and trade. But we cannot abide by what we are seeing right now. Canada fully respects the sovereignty and territorial integrity of India and we expect the Indian government to do the same for Canada.”

Trudeau alleged that when intelligence suggested India’s possible involvement in Hardeep Singh Nijjar’s killing on Canadian soil last summer, his first approach to the Indian government was to request cooperation in addressing the issue.

“The Indian government had made a fundamental error in thinking that they could engage in supporting criminal activities against Canadians here on Canadian soil, be it murder or extortion. This is absolutely unacceptable,” Trudeau said.

He added, “When I spoke to PM Modi at the end of last week, I highlighted how incredibly important meeting between our national security advisors in Singapore this weekend was going to be. He was aware of that meeting and I pressed upon him that the meeting needs to be taken very very seriously.”

Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mélanie Joly said they did not want a diplomatic confrontation with India, considering the deep people-to-people ties between the two countries but India must cooperate in the investigation.

Earlier she had issued a statement claiming that Canada expelled six diplomats after it asked India to waive their diplomatic and consular immunities and co-operate with the police investigation.

To a question on ongoing investigations by the US in a related incident, Joly said, “There is a difference between the US investigation and ours . Firstly, a person (Nijjar) died here. Second, there are sitting diplomats involved in the incident and thirdly, the violence actually increased after last year . “

She added that the similarity between the US and Canada is that in both cases it’s difficult to get cooperation from India.

When asked whether Canada would heed NDP’s call for sanctions against India, Joly said they will continue to urge India to cooperate in the investigation and engage with Five Eyes partners. “Everything is on the table ”

Minister of Public Safety, Democratic Institutions and Intergovernmental Affairs, Dominic LeBlanc. said he spoke to the US attorney general and discussed what the RCMP was doing . “He discussed the importance of FBI and RCMP sharing all information. The work with Five Eyes and British Home Secretary is to ensure that the police are sharing information .”