Nothing to link PM, EAM, NSA to Nijjar plot: Canada

Canada’s National Security and Intelligence Advisor has said that Ottawa is not aware of any link between India’s Prime Minister and criminal activity in the country, denying a story in Canadian media, and also, for the first time in months, dialling down the intensity of accusations aimed at India and arising from the killing of a Canada-based pro-Khalistan separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in 2023.

In a statement issued on Thursday evening, NSIA Nathalie G Drouin said, “The Government of Canada has not stated, nor is it aware of evidence, linking Prime Minister [Narendra] Modi, [External Affairs] Minister [S] Jaishankar, or NSA [Ajit] Doval to the serious criminal activity within Canada.”

She added: “Any suggestion to the contrary is both speculative and inaccurate.”

Interestingly, on October 29, in a hearing of the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security in Ottawa , Drouin admitted that she was one of the Canadian officials who leaked information to The Washington Post on the matter. The Post reported, citing unnamed officials a week before her admission, that Ottawa believed that India’s home minister Amit Shah and an official of its Research & Analysis Wing were aware of the plot to kill Nijjar.

The other official who leaked information, David Morrison , a deputy minister in the Justin Trudeau government, also named Shah in the hearing, following which India registered its protest on the “absurd and baseless” allegations against the home minister.

Drouin’s latest statement was in response to an article that appeared in the daily Globe and Mail on Tuesday, which cited an unnamed senior national security official in this regard.The statement was issued by the Privy Council Office. Drouin is also Deputy Clerk of the Privy Council, which is akin to India’s Cabinet Secretariat.

Read more: India slams Canadian media report over killing of Hardeep Nijjar: ‘Ludicrous, smear campaign’

Drouin’s clarification came a day after India trashed as a “smear campaign” the Globe and Mail report claiming Modi was aware of the alleged plot to kill Khalistani separatist Nijjar.

External affairs ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said they do not normally comment on media reports but such “ludicrous statements” made to a newspaper purportedly by a Canadian government source should be dismissed with the “contempt they deserve”. He added smear campaigns like this only further damage already strained ties.

India-Canada ties worsened in October after Canada linked diplomats,including high commissioner Sanjay Verma to the murder. India rejected the allegations and recalled Verma even as the Canadian government said the Indian diplomats were expelled. India expelled six Canadian diplomats, including acting high commissioner Stewart Wheeler, following Canada’s allegations.

Those allegations were preceded by Global Affairs Canada sending a communique to New Delhi seeking waivers on diplomatic immunity of six Indian officials stationed in Canada, as they were “persons of interest” in cases related to violent criminal activity.

Nijjar was killed on June 18 last year in Surrey, British Columbia.

Trudeau’s allegations in September last year linking Indian government agents with Nijjar’s murder sparked tensions between India and Canada. Canadian foreign minister Mélanie Joly said all options were on the table even as India has maintained Canada has not shared any shred of evidence to support the allegations.

Following the withdrawal of the diplomats, in October, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police or RCMP leveled charges alleging a connection between violent criminal activity in the country with New Delhi.

That was alluded to in Drouin’s statement on Thursday, which 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.”