Justin Trudeau says he had intelligence but no hard proof while going public with Nijjar allegations

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told an inquiry commission on Wednesday that he had intelligence but no “hard evidentiary proof” when he first went public with allegations that Indian government agents may have been involved in killing Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in June last year, The Indian Express reported.

India’s foreign ministry said in the early hours of Thursday that Trudeau’s statement confirmed New Delhi’s position that Ottawa had not presented any evidence to back its claims.

Nijjar was killed by masked gunmen near Vancouver in June last year. In September, Trudeau told Canada’s House of Commons that his country had credible evidence that Indian government agents may have been involved in the killing.

On Wednesday, while testifying before a commission on foreign interference in democratic processes, Trudeau said that he was briefed that there was intelligence from Canada and possibly from the Five Eyes network that Indian agents may have been linked to the killing. Five Eyes is an intelligence sharing network that comprises Canada, the United States, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.

Trudeau told the commission that his government’s immediate response was to engage with the Indian government about Canada’s concerns, The Indian Express reported. He said that India responded by asking Canada to provide evidence for its allegations.

“Our response was, well, it’s within your security agencies,” the Canadian prime minister said. “[India said] tell us what you know, show us the evidence. And at that point, it was primarily intelligence, not hard evidentiary proof. So we said, well, let’s work together and look into your security services and maybe we can get that done.”

Referring to the G20 Summit that India hosted in September 2023, Trudeau said Canada “had the opportunity of making it a very uncomfortable summit” for New Delhi if it were to make the allegations public at that time. “We chose not to,” he told the commission. “We chose to continue to work behind the scenes to try and get India to cooperate with us.”

The Canadian prime minister said after the summit, he met Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and expressed his concern about the matter. “He responded with the usual response from him, which is that we have people who are outspoken against the Indian government living in Canada that he would like to see arrested,” he claimed.

Trudeau said he tried to explain to Modi that freedom of speech was a fundamental principle in Canada, but that his government was willing to look into concerns about terrorism.

The Canadian prime minister said that the Indian government “made a horrific mistake in thinking that they could interfere as aggressively as they did in the safety and sovereignty of Canada”.

The Canadian prime minister’s comments came days after an escalation in diplomatic tensions between the two countries, resulting in the expulsion of diplomats from both sides.

Responding to Trudeau’s latest remarks, India’s Ministry of External Affairs said: “What we have heard today only confirms what we have been saying consistently all along – Canada has presented us (India) no evidence whatsoever in support of the serious allegations that it has chosen to level against India and Indian diplomats.”

It added: “The responsibility for the damage that this cavalier behaviour has caused to India-Canada relations lies with Prime Minister Trudeau alone.”

Appreciate India’s cooperation, says US

With respect to an alleged assassination plot against another Sikh separatist, Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, the United States said on Wednesday that it appreciated India’s cooperation with the investigation.

The United States Department of Justice has accused an Indian official of directing a failed plot to kill Pannun, who is considered a designated terrorist in India. On Tuesday, an investigative committee from India was in Washington DC to look into the allegations.

US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said India informed American officials that the individual named in the Justice Department indictment was no longer an employee of the Indian government.

“We are satisfied with the cooperation,” Miller said. “It continues to be an ongoing process. We continue to work with them on that, but we do appreciate the cooperation and we appreciate them updating us on their investigation as we update them on ours.”