New Delhi: Canada’s spy agency submitted documents to a foreign interference inquiry showing that Indian government, through “proxy agents”, attempted to interfere in 2021 and 2019 federal elections.
The Indian government, as per the unclassified summary written by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) quoted in Canadian media, had “intent to interfere and likely conducted clandestine activities”.
The documents were made public, according to CBC News, on Thursday night. CSIS claimed that India’s foreign interreference were “centred on a small number of electoral districts” as the Indian government felt that “a portion of Indo-Canadian voters were sympathetic to the Khalistani movement or pro-Pakistan political stances”.
Upon its launch in September 2023, the commission stated that its initial focus would be on investigating election interference in Canada by China, Russia, and undisclosed “foreign actors”. It however widened its investigation to include India early this year.
In January this year, the Foreign Interference Commission requested the Canadian government to provide information related to alleged interference by the Indian government in Canadian elections.
As per an unclassified summary about India’s role by CSIS, “A body of intelligence indicates that GoI proxy agents may have attempted to interfere in democratic processes, reportedly including through the clandestine provision of illicit financial support to various Canadian politicians as a means of attempting to secure the election of pro-GoI candidates or gaining influence over candidates who take office.”
It said that the candidates may “never know their campaigns received illicit funds”.
Noting that Indian foreign interreference in Canada is aimed primarily at all levels of government, the target for India were “often members of the Indo-Canadian communities, but prominent non-Indo-Canadians are also subject to the GoI’s FI activities”.
Further, CSIS claimed that “Indian officials in Canada have increasingly relied on Canadian and Canada-based proxies and the contacts in their networks to conduct FI-related activities”.
The Canadian spy agency claimed that this method “obfuscates” any explicit link with Indian governments. “Proxies liaise and work with Indian intelligence officials in India and Canada, taking both explicit and implicit direction from them,” CSIS mentioned.
The motivation for India, assessed CSIS, were two-fold – first is to advance a “positive image” of India, and secondly to “counter and suppress perceived threats to India’s domestic stability emanating from Canada”.
“The GoI does not differentiate between lawful pro-Khalistan political advocacy and the relatively small Canada-based Khalistani violent extremism, it perceives anyone engaged in Khalistani separatism as a seditious threat to India,” said the CSIS summary document to Canada’s Foreign Interference commission.
In September 2023, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau publicly attributed the shooting of a Canadian citizen, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, to India. India indignantly denied the accusation. Both countries expelling a diplomat each. India had also stopped visa services for Canadian nationals, which it resumed after about a month.
New Delhi also asked Canada to cut down its diplomatic presence so that there is parity, which led Ottawa to withdraw over 40 diplomats.
Subsequently, US federal prosecutors announced in November last year that there was a possible link between Nijjar’s killing and the foiling of an alleged plot to kill a Canadian-American Khalistani supporter in New York.
The CSIS documents to the Public Inquiry also included Pakistan’s foreign interference to “primarily to promote political, security and economic stability in Pakistan and to counter India’s growing global influence”.
Describing Pakistan as a “limited foreign interference actor” in 2019 and 2021 elections, the Canadian government apparently conducted a “threat reduction measure” ahead of the last federal elections to “reduce the foreign interference threat posed by the Government of Pakistan,” the CSIS documents said, as reported by CBC News.
“The situation was monitored and assessed to have effectively reduced the threat of interference,” CSIS wrote.
