India second-biggest foreign threat to Canadian democracy: report

A parliamentary committee report in Canada has described India as the second-biggest foreign threat to the country’s democracy. The revelations of the report added to the negative state of the bilateral relation between the two countries which have been caught in a diplomatic spat since the June 2023 killing of a pro-Khalistan ideologue in Surrey, British Columbia. 

“India emerged as the second-most significant foreign interference threat to Canada’s democratic institutions and processes,” said the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians report.

The report stated that alleged interference by India has “slowly increased” but at the same time the operation has become expanded. “It became clear during the period of this review that its efforts had extended beyond countering what it perceived as pro-Khalistani efforts in Canada to include interfering in Canadian democratic processes and institutions, including through the targeting of Canadian politicians, ethnic media and Indo-Canadian ethnocultural communities,” the report said, while describing China as the topmost foreign threat to Canada’s democracy. 

While such threat assessment is part of the Canadian government’s practices, in recent years the focus has increasingly shifted to China and India. Canada’s suspicion of aggressive Indian activities targeting the pro-Khalistan figures is one of the reasons that has heightened Ottawa’s concerns about India.

India and Canada have been in a heated diplomatic exchange since the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar on June 18, 2023, when the pro-Khalistan preacher was murdered by unknown assailants in Surrey. 

Subsequently, in September, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that Nijjar was murdered by “agents of the Government of India”. Following this, India had stopped issuing visas to Canadian citizens. Earlier this year, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service had pointed fingers at foreign countries including India for being involved in the election process of Canada. The External Affairs Ministry had denied that allegation.