New Delhi: In a significant development that can impact already sour India-Canada relations, a Canadian Parliamentary Report said that India has emerged as the “second-most significant foreign interference threat” to Canada’s democratic institutions and processes.
The report suggests that India’s foreign interference efforts have “expanded beyond countering pro-Khalistan elements” in Canada. In the 92-page report, ‘India’ has been mentioned 44 times. This comes at a times when New Delhi and Ottawa are witnessing strained relationship.
The report said that in its 2019 review of the Government Response to Foreign Interference, the Committee noted that the most significant perpetrators of foreign interference in Canada were the “People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the Russian Federation, with the PRC representing the greatest foreign interference threat”.
“The Committee also noted that other states, including India, ***, Pakistan and Iran engaged in foreign interference activities. The Committee found that these activities posed a significant risk to national security, principally by undermining Canada’s fundamental institutions and eroding the rights and freedoms of people in Canada,” the report further said.
The report stated that “India emerged as the second-most significant foreign interference threat to
Canada’s democratic institutions and processes”. It added that while India’s “foreign interference efforts have” slowly increased and hence 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”.
This, the report said, included “through the targeting of Canadian politicians, ethnic media and Indo-Canadian ethnocultural communities. The Committee notes that Pakistan also targeted democratic institutions and processes in the early phase of the period under review.”
This comes a day after Canadian PM Justin Trudeau congratulated Narendra Modi for NDA’s majority in the Lok Sabha Elections and mentioned “human rights and rule of law” in his message, that was posted from the official handle of the Canadian PM and not from Justin Trudeau’s X account.
