A parliamentary committee is meeting on Friday to weigh a request to study new allegations of Indian foreign interference in Canada that led to the expulsion of diplomats by both countries in tat-for-tat-moves.
The standing committee on public safety and national security agreed to a request from members to hold the emergency meeting on the recent developments related to new revelations from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police regarding Indian government agents.
The RCMP said on Monday that it has significant amount of information on criminal activity allegedly orchestrated by agents of the Indian government.
The evidence points to “violent extremism” in both countries, links tying Indian government agents to homicides and violent acts, use of organized crime targeting the South Asian community in Canada, and interference in democratic processes, according to the RCMP.
NDP MP Alistair MacGregor moved the motion for the committee to start the probe, which would include at least six meetings.
“For the RCMP, indeed, for any police force that is conducting an active investigation to come out with such explosive revelations, I think underscores just how serious this is,” he said on Friday.
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The motion proposed inviting senior officials like Foreign Minister Melanie Joly, Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc, RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme, National Security and Intelligence Advisor Nathalie Drouin.
The committee is also proposing to hear from experts from Canada’s South Asian community, Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown, any former leadership candidates of the 2022 Conservative Party leadership race and national security subject matter experts.
Relations between India and Canada have soured since 2023 when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canadian intelligence agencies had credible evidence linking agents of the Indian government to the assassination of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey, B.C.
India has long denied any involvement in Nijjar’s killing and accused Trudeau on Monday of pursuing a “political agenda.”
Global News has learned agents working out of India’s high commission in Ottawa and consulates in Vancouver and Toronto were behind dozens of violent crimes across Canada that targeted opponents of the Narendra Modi government.
According to senior sources familiar with the matter, supporters of the Khalistan movement, which seeks independence for India’s Sikh-majority Punjab region, as well as rivals of the Modi government, were targeted.
— with files from Global News and Reuters
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