India accused of being main perpetrator of foreign interference by CSIS

One day after PM Mark Carney shook hands with Indian PM Narendra Modi, a new CSIS report accuses India of foreign interference. Abigail Bimman reports.

A new report from Canada’s spy agency calls India one of the “main perpetrators” of foreign interference and espionage, as Canada and India moved to strengthen ties at this week’s G7 meeting.

The new annually released public report from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) called links between the Government of India and the 2023 murder of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar a “significant escalation in India’s repression efforts against the Khalistan movement and a clear intent to target individuals in North America.”

The report warned that Canada “must remain vigilant about continued foreign interference conducted by the Government of India, not only within ethnic, religious and cultural communities but also in Canada’s political system.”

Prime Minister Mark Carney sat down with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the G7 summit in Kananaskis, Alberta on Tuesday, and announced high commissioners would be restored in both countries. Canada and India both expelled diplomats in the wake of the Nijjar murder in 2023. New Delhi has denied involvement.

“Of course, we’ve had difficult conversations with the Indian government, and that will continue,” said Canada’s Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree in Ottawa, when asked by reporters to square restoring diplomatic ties with the new CSIS report.

“It is absolutely clear that as a government, we condemn any interference by foreign actors in Canada. The RCMP, as you’re aware, is completing its ongoing investigation,” said Anandasangaree.

“I think at some point we do have to get back to having a dialogue, getting our diplomats back to India and vice versa. I don’t believe that the G7 was the proper venue for that,” former CSIS intelligence officer Dan Stanton told CTV News.

Stanton says inviting Modi to the G7 was “premature,” and hopes Canadians are paying attention to the warnings CSIS is putting out about foreign interference.

“I think the messaging the government unintentionally sent out is rather confusing. The one hand, we’re taking transnational repression seriously. At the second hand, we’re inviting people over, putting them on the red carpet and making it look as though all is fine and wonderful,” said Stanton.

“Dialogue is not necessarily bad, but it has to be principled,” said Balpreet Singh of the World Sikh Organization of Canada.

He says announcing the appointment of new high commissioner raises a lot of questions.

“Until there’s accountability and a commitment to actually work with Canadian law enforcement with these ongoing investigations and not to do it anymore, I think any dialogue is premature,” said Singh.

Jody Thomas, former national security advisor to Justin Trudeau, says that until there is some acknowledgement from the Indian government about what happened, there will always be “an element of distrust.”

“I think that the level of trust will take years to rebuild, but it has to start,” Thomas told CTV’s Power Play Tuesday.

She calls the G7 bilateral meeting a “critical step forward” for the relationship between the two countries.

“I think that the expectation that India understands the damage they have done here in Canada is really important,” said Thomas.

The CSIS report also labels China, Russia, Iran and Pakistan as main perpetrators of foreign interference and espionage.