New Delhi: The World Sikh Organisation in Canada says it has roped in Daniel Stanton, a former Canadian intelligence officer, for a “fireside chat” during an event Monday to discuss “Indian Transnational Repression”.
“Join us for an exclusive evening with Dan Stanton, a distinguished former CSIS Intelligence Officer. On December 16th, from 6:30 to 8:30 PM, we’ll gather at the Espresso Café in Surrey for a fireside chat. Stanton, an expert on Canadian intelligence and its agencies, has been a go-to source for media and government officials alike on foreign interference and Indian transnational repression,” read posts by WSO about the event.
Stanton, a former officer with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service for over three decades, has since become the director of the national security program at University of Ottawa’s Professional Development Institute.
While posters for the event prominently feature Stanton, it is unclear whether his attendance is confirmed. ThePrint reached Stanton for comment but had not received a response by the time of publication. This report will be updated if a response is received.
A non-profit formed in Canada and the US after Operation Bluestar (1984), the World Sikh Organisation (WSO) and its leaders have in the past praised terrorists behind the bombing of Air India Flight 182, also known as the Kanishka bombing.
The Air India bombing on 23 June 1985, was the world’s deadliest act of aviation terrorism before the 9/11 attacks in 2001. A total of 329 passengers were killed on the flight in an attack planned and carried out by terrorists during the height of Sikh extremism in India.
One of the founders of WSO, Daljit Singh Sandhu once praised Inderjit Singh Reyat, who later pleaded guilty for manslaughter, the only individual convicted for the Kanishka bombing.
According to a CBC report, Sandhu attempted to play down his ties with Reyat, but their archives show that as far back as 1991, he was defending the alleged bomb-maker as “innocent” in the Kanishka case. The report added that Sandhu has in the past praised killers of former Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, and endorsed their actions, despite his public position that does not support violence.
During the foundation of WSO in 1984, at Madison Square Garden, Ajaib Singh Bagri, one of the accused in the Air India Flight 182 bombing, who was later cleared by the Canadian courts, is reported to have declared that “we will not rest” unless 50,000 Hindus are killed.
Reyat served 30 years behind bars and was released only in 2017, after having spent nearly a year in a halfway house.
The WSO has also in the past claimed that there was no bomb on Air India Flight 182, and that the plane was destroyed as a result of a “cargo door” falling off according to media reports.
Furthermore, the John Major commission, which was set up in 2006 to look into the bombing and investigate lapses on the part of intelligence and the police, found a number of issues in the run-up to the bombing. Its 2010 report pointed to a “cascading series of errors” despite existing intelligence of a planned attack on Flight 182.
Indian Intelligence Bureau had on 1 June 1985 requested extra security measures for Air India flights over the possible terrorist attack, the commission found.
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