Canada’s leadership says working with Five Eyes partners on Nijjar investigation

With India-Canada relations at their lowest ebb, the top Canadian leadership has said it will continue working with the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance on the investigation into the killing of pro-Khalistan separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar and other crimes allegedly linked to the Indian government.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, foreign minister Mélanie Joly and public safety minister Dominic LeBlanc all referred to ongoing cooperation with the Five Eyes – which also includes Australia, New Zealand, the UK and the US – during a joint news conference shortly after both sides expelled six diplomats each in the latest row over the killing of Nijjar.

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Joly indicated all options, including sanctions, were on the table in Canada’s efforts to get India to cooperate in the investigation into the murder of Nijjar, already declared a terrorist by India when he was gunned down outside a gurdwara in Surrey in June 2023.

On Tuesday, people familiar with the matter said Canada hasn’t provided any evidence to back assertions by Trudeau and law enforcement officials regarding alleged links between Indian officials and the killing of Nijjar and other criminal activity, including extortion and coercion.

India has dismissed as “preposterous” Canada’s move to designate six officials, including high commissioner Sanjay Verma, as “persons of interest” in the investigation into Nijjar’s killing and expelled six Canadian diplomats, including acting envoy Stewart Wheeler. The Indian side also announced it was withdrawing the six diplomats and officials named by Canada, though the foreign ministry in Ottawa said notices were issued for their expulsion.

“From the beginning as of last summer, we have worked closely with our Five Eyes partners, particularly with the US, where they have gone through similar pattern of behaviour from India in regard to an attempted extrajudicial killing. And we will continue to work with our allies as we stand up together for the rule of law,” Trudeau said at the news conference.

Asked by a reporter if Canada will consider possible sanctions against India, Joly replied: “We will continue to engage with our Five Eyes partners, we will continue to engage with all the G7 partners, and everything is on the table.”

Leblanc said he had briefed US Attorney General Merrick Garland and US homeland security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Monday about the actions being taken by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).

“He (Garland) and I discussed the importance of the FBI and the RCMP continuing to share information as these various criminal cases continue. There’s a great deal of information shared between the Five Eyes partners as Melanie [Joly] and the Prime Minister said,” he said.

People familiar with the matter said on condition of anonymity that there has been considerable information-sharing between the Five Eyes partners on this issue since last year. HT had reported earlier that several Canadian officials – including former Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS) chief David Vigneault,

National Security Advisor Nathalie G Drouin, Weldon Epp, the assistant deputy minister at Global Affairs Canada handling the Indo-Pacific region – have quietly met Indian security officials and diplomats this year to discuss the Nijjar killing.

These meetings were held in Canada or third countries and some officials such as Vigneault and Epp made unannounced visits to New Delhi for talks. The people cited above said Canada’s deputy minister of foreign affairs David Morrison too had made an unannounced visit to India in recent weeks.

Morrison was present with Drouin and RCMP deputy commissioner Mark Flynn for a meeting with Indian counterparts in Singapore on Saturday, Canadian officials have said. Trudeau said he discussed this meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi when they spoke on the margins of the Asean Summit in Laos last week. Trudeau had described the encounter as a “brief exchange”, though the Indian side said there were no substantive discussions.

“When I spoke with Prime Minister Modi at the end of last week, I highlighted how incredibly important the meeting between our NSAs in Singapore this weekend was going to be. He told me he was aware of that meeting. I impressed upon him that it needed to be taken very, very seriously,” Trudeau told the news conference.

Trudeau reiterated the RCMP’s accusation that Indian diplomats were allegedly collecting information on the Indian community that was passed on to organised crime groups, which then allegedly used the information for a range of criminal actions, including extortion and murder.

He contended that Canada has always apprised the Indian side about its investigation, but the “response of the Indian government has been to deny, to obfuscate, to attack me personally and the integrity of the government of Canada and its officials and its police agencies”.