Canadian Deputy Foreign Minister David Morrison on Tuesday told parliament members that he had confirmed to a reporter in the Washington Post that Home Minister Amit Shah was one of those behind a campaign of intimidation and violence in Canada against Indo-Canadian citizens, viz Khalistan supporters.
“The journalist called me and asked if it was that person. I confirmed it was that person,” Morrison told the committee.
This was reconfirmed by the Canadian National Security Advisor Nathalie Drouin who told the committee that both Morison and she on the afternoon of October 14 had spoken to the Washington Post reporter who was conversant with the background of the story to “explain the links between the Government of India and its activities in Canada.” They did it as a media strategy to get a wider dispersion of Canada’s side of the story internationally.
Canada took the extreme step of going public with its charges which India terms baseless after a scheduled meeting with the Indian National Security Adviser, Ajth Doval, the eighth meeting with him on this matter, was stymied after India on October 13 charged that Canada had not shared any evidence to back its charges.
On October 12, the Druoin, Morrisson and the deputy commissioner of the RCMP travelled to Singapore to meet with Doval and presented him the body of evidence that that Canadians claim pointed firmly to the involvement of Lawrence Bishnoi in what Canadians characterise as a campaign of intimidation, coercion, violence and assassination.
Drouin said they had travelled to meet the NSA after two previous meetings in this regard failed to occur at the lower level. Drouin testified that RCPM team was “scheduled to travel to India to meet with their law enforcement counterparts. Unfortunately India used an administrative technicality to block the meeting from happening.”
She did not give dates for the travel nor the technicality but she said that a meeting scheduled for October 10 between the RCMP and an Indian official met a similar fate. Drouin said that while the “Indian official confirmed a meeting, they never showed up.”
The trip to Singapore was necessitated by that no show, according to Drouin. She explained the agenda was: To signal Canada’s seriousness in getting India’s co-operation in the matter, to make Lawrence Bishnoi cease and desist his activities in Canada, to persuade New Delhi to adopt the same rules of modus operandi that India had adopted with the United States with regard to the Gurpatwant Singh Pannun assassination allegations where New Delhi had set up a high level committee that has been going over the American allegations in some sort of a call and response pattern.
Drouin said Canada also wanted the Indian diplomats and consular officials involved in the matter recalled and wanted New Delhi to announce a high level dialogue with Canada on countering extremism.
According to Drouin in the Singapore meeting with Doval which the Washington Post reported on October 14 as having lasted five hours, Doval “refused to acknowledge any link and denied everything Canada presented.” He also suggested that they “pause the meeting and reconvene on October 14 to further discuss.”
Drouin detailed, without providing the dates, as many as six meetings since August 2023 between the National Security Advisor Ajith Doval and the Canadians that discussed this issue with a view to secure New Delhi’s co-operation: in August and September 2023 in New Delhi, November 2023 in Dubai, December 2023 in Saudi Arabia, January 2024 in London, and March 2024 in Dubai. RCMP made arrests in the Nijjar case in May 2024.
Drouin alleged that the Indian modus operandi was collection of information “through diplomats and consular officials and also other individuals acting as proxy.”
She said that some individuals and business were coerced and threatened and “this information was then shared with other senior levels of the Government of India who then direct the commission of criminal activities against Indo-Canadians through the kinetic use of Lawrence Bishnoi’s organised crime network.” She was referring to “homicide assassination plots and other extreme violence.”
Greg Miller and Gerry Shih of the The Washington Post had reported on October 14 (Canada alleges much wider campaign by Modi government against Sikhs) that “The coercion goes far beyond threatening to deny visas, to include physical threats to them and their families in India,” said a senior Canadian official, who added that “the information is being sent to India at almost the highest level.
Conversations and texts among Indian diplomats include references to “a senior official in India and a senior official in RAW” who have authorized the intelligence-gathering missions and attacks on Sikh separatists, the Canadian official said. Canadian officials identified the senior official in India as Amit Shah, a member of Modi’s inner circle who serves as home affairs minister.”
