New Delhi: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has called his own security officials “criminals” for leaking top secret information to the domestic media, adding that these officials have “consistently gotten their stories wrong”. He was referring to a report in The Globe and Mail that quoted an unnamed national security official as saying that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi knew of the alleged plot to kill Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
“That is why we had a national inquiry into foreign interference that has highlighted that the criminals leaking information to media outlets are unreliable on top of being criminal,” Trudeau told the media in response to a question, in Brampton Friday.
The Globe and Mail reported Wednesday that Canadian security agencies believed Modi was aware of the alleged operation orchestrated by the Indian government to kill Nijjar, an India-designated terrorist, and commit other violent crimes in Canada.
The source-based story offered no evidence of the claim. The Canadian newspaper also reported that Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval were kept in the loop about the operation allegedly headed by Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
Canadian National Security and Intelligence Advisor Nathalie G. Drouin called the leaks “speculative and inaccurate” in a statement Friday.
“The Government of Canada has not stated, nor is it aware of evidence, linking Prime Minister Modi, Minister Jaishankar, or NSA Doval to the serious criminal activity within Canada. Any suggestion to the contrary is both speculative and inaccurate,” Drouin said.
The Indian Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Wednesday rejected the report by the Canadian newspaper, stating that the “ludicrous statements” in The Globe and Mail “should be dismissed with the contempt they deserve”.
“Smear campaigns like this only further damage our already strained ties,” said Randhir Jaiswal, the MEA spokesperson.
Also read: ‘Speculative, inaccurate’. Canada rejects report linking Modi, Jaishankar & Doval to Nijjar killing
‘Media strategy to discredit India’
Drouin and Canada’s Deputy Foreign Minister David Morrison had in October leaked to The Washington Post intelligence on Canada’s probe into Nijjar’s murder. Morrison even replied in the affirmative to the American newspaper’s question of whether Shah authorised the alleged operation against Sikh separatists in Canada.
Nijjar was killed outside a gurdwara in Surrey, British Columbia in June 2023. Three months later in September, Trudeau publicly alleged links between Indian officials and the murder, a charge that New Delhi rejected as “absurd and motivated”.
Earlier this month, the foreign ministry summoned representatives from the Canadian High Commission in New Delhi and submitted a diplomatic note protesting in the “strongest terms” the “absurd and baseless” references made by senior officials against Shah.
The next day, Jaiswal retorted that the “deliberate leak” of information by senior Canadian officials was a part of its media strategy to “discredit India”, which only confirmed New Delhi’s views about the Trudeau government’s “political agenda”.
“Such irresponsible actions will have serious consequences for bilateral ties,” said the MEA spokesperson on the references to Shah.
Ties between the two countries hit a new low after Ottawa last month asked India to waive immunity for six diplomats, including then High Commissioner Sanjay Kumar Verma, as they were apparently “persons of interest” in the investigation into the Nijjar killing.
India rejected the request, withdrew the diplomats and threw out six Canadian diplomats from New Delhi, including the acting high commissioner and deputy high commissioner.