On the eve of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s official visit to Mumbai and New Delhi, a senior official said the government believed India was no longer plotting attacks on Canadians.
The official’s comments, at a press background briefing, were the first to suggest India had halted the clandestine operations that Canada has linked to a murder and other violence.
“We have a very robust diplomatic engagement, including between national security advisers, and I think we can say we’re confident that that activity is not continuing or we would not be having this type of discussion,” he said.
Pressed by reporters to clarify the comment, the official declined to elaborate, but added, “I really don’t think we’d be taking this trip if we thought these kind of activities would continue.”
The official spoke on the condition he would not be identified.
Canadian national security agencies believe India began a campaign in 2022 to kill activists in North America who support Khalistan, an independent state in the Sikh-majority Punjab.
Among those allegedly targeted was Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who was gunned down in June 2023 as he was leaving the Surrey, B.C., temple where he served as president.
The RCMP believes the Indian government tapped gang leader Lawrence Bishnoi to arrange the murder. An Indian intelligence officer was also implicated in a plot to kill another Canadian in the U.S.
More than a dozen other Canadians were warned by police that their lives were at risk, and the RCMP similarly linked those plots to the government of India.
As the RCMP investigations progressed, Commissioner Mike Duheme announced that India’s government was behind a broad array of violence, often targeting pro-Khalistan activists.
Canada subsequently expelled six Indian diplomats. But since taking office, Carney has restored, and deepened, ties with India, which he is courting for a trade deal to offset a tariff-obsessed White House.
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At the same time, the Lawrence Bishnoi gang, which India has allegedly cooperated with to target political opponents in Canada, has been blamed for the extortion crisis in cities with large South Asian populations.
But at a briefing on Wednesday in advance of Carney’s arrival in India on Feb. 27, the senior government official seemed to suggest that New Delhi’s targeting of Canadians had stopped.
It was unclear whether the official who spoke about Carney’s visit had access to the intelligence to support his statements, which come as Ottawa is seeking to expand exports to India.
The World Sikh Organization of Canada called his view “utterly false.”
“It does not align with what Sikh Canadians are experiencing on the ground and what we are seeing firsthand,” said WSO President Danish Singh.
Only last weekend, Vancouver police warned Canadian Sikh activist Moninder Singh about an imminent threat to himself, his wife and their children. It is the fourth such warning he has received since 2022.
“The WSO is aware of incidents in the past six months of individuals being surveilled, harassed and intimidated by agents of the government of India,” the national Sikh group said in the statement.
“The Carney government has failed to hold India accountable or to create any meaningful safeguards to ensure that Sikh Canadians are protected from foreign interference and transnational repression.”
“Declaring the problem resolved does not make it so.”
The senior official would not answer when asked when India had seemingly stopped its transnational repression and foreign interference campaign in Canada.
“We have a mature, robust discussion with the government of Indian on these issues. And we have robust safeguards in place to avoid foreign interference,” the official told reporters.
“I can’t give you a specific date of which individuals changed views. We’ve got a systematic engagement with the government in India, at senior officials level, at the ministerial level, at the leader level.”
“And these issues have been raised regularly. And we are confident that we have the basis for further productive discussion.”
Stewart.Bell@globalnews.ca
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