Ottawa: A Canada Commission report has said that “no definitive link” with a “foreign state” in the killing of Canadian Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar was “proven”, smashing Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s allegations that accused the involvement of Indian agents in the killing.
In September 2023, Trudeau said Canada had credible evidence that agents of the Indian government were involved in the murder of Nijjar in British Columbia in June 2023.
The report titled “Public Inquiry Into Foreign Interference in Federal Electoral Processes and Democratic Institutions’ was released on Tuesday.
A public inquiry on foreign interference in Canada has found “no definitive link to a foreign state” in the killing of pro-Khalistan activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, of which Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had openly accused India.
Sour since Trudeau’s 2018 India tour, diplomatic ties between Canada and India worsened after the prime minister’s announcement on India’s suspected involvement in the killing of Nijjar. The report, however, blamed India for running a “disinformation campaign” following the allegations.
“Disinformation is also used as a retaliatory tactic, to punish decisions that run contrary to a state’s interests. This may have been the case with a disinformation campaign that followed the Prime Minister’s announcement regarding suspected Indian involvement in the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar (though again no definitive link to a foreign state could be proven),” the report stated.
On Monday (January 28), India rejected Canada’s allegations of interference in the country’s federal elections in the same report of the Public Inquiry into Foreign Interference. The Ministry of External Affairs rejected insinuations that “the government of India was suspected of using proxy agents to provide clandestine financial support to candidates from three political parties in a federal election”.
