“We’re confident that that activity is not continuing,” the official said.
Canada can't stop foreign interference if it doesn't engage India, minister says
MUMBAI, INDIA — Confronting concerns over India’s ties to violence on Canada’s streets and attempts to meddle in its elections can only be done through direct engagement, says Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand.
Anand, who is in Mumbai as Canada seeks to deepen its trading relationship with the country of 1.4 billion people, faced a barrage of questions on Saturday over comments a senior government official made to media before the trip downplaying India’s alleged role in ongoing acts of extortion and homicides.
“How are we going to actually address effectively issues of transnational repression and foreign interference? It’s to be at the table and to have that conversation, to say to countries around the world that these are serious issues for the Government of Canada, and we would like to know how you are going to address them,” she said.
At one point, she pushed back on journalists’ questions, saying “the upshot of many of the questions here is that we should not be here because of public safety concerns.”
“I would flip that. I would say to you, in order to be an effective minister, an advocate and government, you have to be at the table.”
The minister, who was repeatedly being asked to say whether or not she believed that violence linked to Indian government agents had ceased or was still ongoing, refused to provide a definitive answer.
Instead, she reiterated the steps Canada has taken to address those concerns, whether listing the Bishnoi Gang as a terrorist entity and having ordered senior Indian diplomats to leave the country in 2024, when the RCMP issued a rare public warning that it uncovered evidence potentially linking diplomats to violent crimes, such as homicides and extortions.
“No country has a pass when it comes to Canadian public safety and security,” Anand said.
The minister also pointed to how, during the government briefing when the senior official made the comments regarding security with India, the official emphasized the “guardrails” the country has in place.
“The guardrails are the key aspect of Canadian foreign policy that I am focusing on.”
During that briefing, provided to reporters on a not-for-attribution basis to outline the goals and agenda for Prime Minister Mark Carney’s trip to India, Australia and Japan, officials were asked about ongoing security concerns regarding India, specifically its alleged ties to homicides and extortions.
“If we believed that the government of India was actively interfering in the Canadian democratic process, we probably wouldn’t be taking this trip,” the official added.
Relations between Canada and India plummeted when, in 2023, former prime minister Justin Trudeau told the House of Commons that Canadian security agencies were investigating “credible allegations of a potential link” between Indian government agents and the shooting of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a prominent pro-Khalistan Sikh activist gunned down outside of a temple in Surrey, B.C.
India has denied the allegations. Four Indian nationals have since been charged in Nijjar’s death.
The 2025 final report from the Foreign Interference Commission named India the “second most active country engaging in electoral foreign interference in Canada.”
But speaking on the sidelines of an announcement on university partnerships in Mumbai, High Commissioner of India to Canada Dinesh Patnaik flatly rejected the assertion that India meddles in Canada’s affairs.
“We don’t do that in any country,” he told reporters on Friday.
Asked specifically about the comments made by the government official, Patnaik dismissed India’s involvement in any violence in the first place,
“It’s not a question of, it is no longer happening. It never happened.”
Patnaik said recent meetings between India and Canada’s national security and intelligence advisor earlier this month and back in November “has been able to clear a lot of the things that were perceived before.”
“There is a perception that India is taking action in Canada, which never was. India never did,” he said.
He then added: “And so today, if somebody is saying the right thing, take it as it is.”
Advocates of Canada’s Sikh community, meanwhile, have warned that Carney’s trip to India to drum up new investments and diversify its market access sends the wrong signal to community members and, in particular, pro-Khalistan activists who remain in fear.
Sukh Dhaliwal, the Liberal MP who represents the riding where Nijjar was killed, denounced the comments made by the senior official about India’s alleged ties to violence, going so far as to say the government ought to examine their suitability for role.
“I understand and appreciate deeply in my conversations with the Sikh caucus that the sentiments that the Sikh community in Canada are feeling are very serious, and I too, have concerns and will continue to raise those concerns at the table in my conversations with Indian diplomats,” Anand said on Saturday.
As domestic security tensions continue to hover around Carney’s trip, the prime minister was set on Saturday to deliver a speech regarding the Canada-India business relationship at an event hosted by the Canada-India Growth and Investment Forum.
National Post
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