Public inquiry into foreign interference in Canada begins, Sikh separatist participates

Public inquiry into foreign interference in Canada begins, Sikh separatist participates

New Delhi: The public inquiry into foreign interference in federal elections of Canada started Wednesday, with a panel of activists representing various communities including the Sikhs participating in the hearings.

Jaskaran Sandhu, a board member of the World Sikh Organisation and founder of the pro-separatist Baaz media outlet, spoke in front of the inquiry headed by commissioner justice Marie-Josée Hogue, from the Court of Appeal of Quebec.

Justice Hogue was appointed as commissioner into the public inquiry in September 2023.

The original mandate was to study Chinese and Russian interference in the 2019 and 2021 federal elections. It was later expanded to include India in January, with multiple Sikh organisations based out of Canada granted party status to the inquiry – allowing them to participate in the proceedings.

On foreign interference allegedly faced by the Sikhs in Canada from the Indian government, Sandhu said, “the Sikh community has been facing transnational repression in clear terms since the 1980s. R&AW [Research and Analysis Wing] and IB [Intelligence Bureau] agents — the external and internal agencies of India have written books about this.”

“Of how in the 1980s and onwards they have infiltrated Sikh institutions and bodies including gurdwaras, how they have threatened and coerced actors within our community including in spaces like ethnic media and how they have worked to not only infiltrate but destabilise and undermine the ability of the community to mobilise,” he added.

Sandhu further alleged that India’s attempts of interfering with the Sikh diaspora has “evolved” over time. The Indian consulates act as a “hub for espionage and foreign interference and transnational repression targeting the Sikh community,” he claimed.

Sandhu asserted that Indian consulates would target any members of the diaspora in foreign countries who speak out against India and that large numbers of staff members in these consulates are from intelligence agencies.

It should be noted that Sandhu’s media organisation Baaz had claimed that an Indian diplomat posted at the High Commission of India at Ottawa as a “counterintelligence agent”, as reported by ThePrint earlier.

As reported by ThePrint, it is normal that an officer from the Ministry of Home Affairs is posted in embassies abroad to handle passport and visa-related matters and is done with the knowledge of the host nation.

The naming of a diplomat as an intelligence agent has dangerous implications. For example in 1979 based on false reports of seizure of the ‘Sacred Mosque’ in Mecca, a mob of 10,000 Pakistanis set the US embassy in Islamabad on fire.

Furthermore, posters in Canada showing two Indian diplomats were circulated as the “faces” of Hardeep Singh Nijjar’s killers — highlighting the scope for violence against Indian officials that led to the temporary suspension of visa services in Canada in late 2023.

Sandhu dubbed the killing of Nijjar — a designated terrorist in India — as the “cost of foreign interference” in Canada. Nijjar, was gunned down by unknown assailants outside a gurdwara in Surrey, British Columbia in June 2023.

On 18 September, the Canadian prime minister claimed that Ottawa has “credible allegations” linking officials of the Indian government to Nijjar’s killing. In response, India called the allegations “absurd and motivated”.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) maintained that India is willing to cooperate with Ottawa if credible evidence is shared. MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal Thursday said that no such information has been shared till date during a regular press briefing

(Edited by Tony Rai)