Carney government says India threat is over — Sikh activists say not so fast

A senior canadian river functionary says the Carney authorities believes that republic of india has ceased its attempts at transnational repression in Canada.

The functionary was giving a background briefing to reporters on Wednesday in advance of the prime minister's departure for his latest trade mission that includes stops in New Delhi and Mumbai.

Officials routinely provide these briefings on the condition that they not be named.

"I think we could say we're confident that that activity is not continuing," the official said.

"If we believed that the government of India was actively interfering in the Canadian democratic process, we probably would not be taking this trip."

The official said the federal government has "no tolerance for foreign interference" and that it has "mechanisms to detect and disrupt threats as we see them."

But Sikh activists in Canada are pointing to signs of a continuing threat to their safety, even as the federal government tries to move on.

There are also indications that Canadian law enforcement agencies may be less convinced than the government that the threat of political violence has gone away.

Sikh groups have now issued an ultimatum to federal politicians to pay more heed to their concerns or face a boycott and a ban on entering gurdwaras and attending Sikh events organized by them.

Prime Minister Mark Carney is hoping to make progress in restoring normal ties with India, following a major rupture that emerged from the 2023 assassination of Canadian Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey, B.C.

Indian High Commissioner Dinesh Patnaik says that India has entered into an "unprecedented" security dialogue with Canada.

"If we find out that agents of the government, or rogue agents or Indian people are associated with what has happened with Mr. Nijjar, we ourselves will take action along with the Canadians."

Police have said that much of the criminal violence and extortion in Canada's South Asian community is gang-related, and doesn't necessarily have a political dimension.

On Sunday night, as both Canadian and Indian officials prepared for Carney's visit, Vancouver police visited Sikh activist Moninder Singh at his home in Surrey and presented him with a duty to warn letter — his fourth.

Singh was a close collaborator of Nijjar, whose murder Canada pinned on an Indian government conspiracy.

B.C. Law requires police to notify a person if they learn through intelligence efforts of a credible threat to life.

The Vancouver detective explains that the information about the threat came through a confidential informant.

"I was told to make sure it's extended to you, your wife and your two children," he told Singh, who expressed dismay at the news that his family is included in the threat.

The detective said that most duty to warn letters issued by his anti-gang unit go to people who are engaged in criminality. "It kills me to know that you're in this position," he said to Singh.

That visit is not the only indication that Canadian police continue to believe that people considered enemies by the government of India may be in danger in Canada.

Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, leader of the worldwide referendum campaign Sikhs For Justice, was the target of 2023 a murder-for-hire plot detected and dismantled by U.S. Federal agents.

A request to the RCMP about the list did not receive a response in time for publication of this article.

Pannun said the list demonstrates that India has not given up on its attempts to surveil Canadian Sikhs, and accused the Carney government of not doing enough about it.

"In a democratic country, the government is for people and by people," he said. "But the Carney government is sending the message that the government is for India and is being run by India."

This coalition of Sikh groups including the gurdwara councils of B.C., Ontario and Quebec has written to 20 MPs and the leaders of the three major federalist parties demanding a greater focus on transnational threats.

Who was Hardeep Singh Nijjar, the man India is accused of killing?

The letter calls for full disclosure of evidence and a public inquiry into the circumstances surrounding Nijjar's assassination.

It gives Sikh MPs a deadline of Friday morning to commit to call for disclosure of all intelligence on transnational pressure campaigns, the continuation of a parliamentary study into Indian government interference and a public inquiry into the Nijjar murder plot.

It warns that if they don't support those measures, they will be barred from speaking at gurdwaras and from community events that the gurdwaras control.

The gurdwara councils had hesitated to take such a measure, said Singh, "but we have nothing to lose at this point."

If the Indian government had really changed its ways, "we would have seen some results on the streets of Canada," he said.

Vincent Rigby, a former national security adviser to the prime minister who is now at McGill University, says the India trip should balance Canada's need to find new trading partners with the risks that Indian interference in Canada may not really be over.

"I think this is pragmatic diplomacy at its best.… I'm simply saying do not treat the security issues as a footnote," he said.

"You cannot turn a blind eye to the concerns from the Sikh community that they are potentially being targeted by the Indian government."

Rigby expressed some skepticism that the Modi government has truly turned the page on trying to influence events and intimidate perceived enemies in Canada. 

"The Indian playbook is the Indian playbook and the national security concerns are not going to disappear overnight," he said.

"Extrajudicial killings, transnational repression, things like that. Foreign electoral interference is part of it as well."

Senior Reporter

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