Hardeep Singh Nijjar: Arrests in case raise Canadian national security concerns

On the national security angle here, Mercedes, how significant are the security implications? Of today’s arrests, Well, Farah, they’re tremendously significant on a number of levels. First of all, it raises the question of how these individuals had been in Canada, we’re hearing for three to five years potentially without being detected. Who were they? Why were they connected to the Indian government as as is being alleged they may have been. Who recruited them? That’s going to be a huge question because if that person is a diplomat who was working for the Indian government, if they were in fact acting on behalf of the Indian government, they could have diplomatic immunity. Beyond that, there’s questions about the foreign student program. Now, if these individuals were able to come in on foreign student visas without being detected, there will be questions about what the security around that program looks like and whether or not it’s vetting people carefully enough. And of course, then there’s the question of how many other plots there might be against other Canadian citizens, and whether the RCMPNCC have enough resources to foil those plots. Mercedes now, politically, does this validate what the government’s long claimed? And how is it going to impact Canada’s relationship with India going forward? I think there’s more to be seen publicly from the government on exactly what evidence they have. But as you heard from Jeff, our sources are certainly indicating that they believe there may have been a significant link to the Indian government. I expect that you may see some of that trial, but there’s also that key point that the RCMP say there are still ongoing police investigations. That means there are other people who they are still looking at and they may not want to show their hand on that just yet, But the fact that the Indian government was trying to have Mr. Najar sent back to India. For years. And then that he became targeted will be significant. The Indian government is not likely to be happy about any of these allegations. And they’ve made it clear before. They are willing to make it very difficult for Canadians to get visas to go to India. And of course they have significant economic pull. And then there’s a geostrategic implications about what it will mean for Canada’s role in the Indo Pacific. Mercedes Stephenson in Ottawa. Thank you Mercedes.