On 31st January, it was revealed that the Canadian Security Intelligence Service’s unclassified document to the Canadian government marked India as a “foreign interference (FI)” threat. As per the report, India “could potentially” meddle with Canadian elections. The report mainly highlighted China’s role in interfering with Canada’s general elections and has around three pages on India. The report was published in February 2023 and has been declassified recently.
The report mentions, “India engages in Foreign Interference activities.” Interestingly, most of the parts of the three pages were redacted. Canadian media house Global News accessed the declassified documents where a single sentence claimed India engaged in FI activities. Furthermore, it talked about the need for “clearly articulated strategies” and pointed out that awareness and briefing of the officials was the most important part of those “strategies.
This is the first time Canada has accused India of meddling with elections. Apart from China, Russia is also being seen as a significant threat to democratic elections in Canada.
The declassified document was released on 24th February 2023. It was titled ” Briefing to the Minister of Democratic Institutions on Foreign Interference” and named China” by far the most significant threat.” The report was unclassified as a response to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s orders to initiate an inquiry into foreign interference as an attempt to influence the results of Canadian elections after media reports flagged possible Chinese interference. The report advised the Canadian government to “do more to protect Canada’s robust democratic institutions and processes.”
The report stated about China, “We know that the People’s Republic of China sought to clandestinely and deceptively influence the 2019 and 2021 federal elections.”
Citing the report, Global News said that FI is different from traditional diplomatic relations between the two countries as the former used secrecy and deception to influence the narrative among the voters and policymakers.
A committee inquiring into foreign interference in Canadian elections has already stated that it will investigate India’s role in meddling with elections. It requested information and documents related to the alleged FI in elections.
Canada-India diplomatic ties have soured in recent months
The diplomatic relations between India and Canada have been sour for a long time. Canada threw the possibilities of improving the ties into the trashbin when it accused India of being involved in the murder of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar who was killed in June 2023. PM Justin Trudeau accused India while stating in Canadian parliament. Soon after, Canada expelled India’s top diplomat in response to the allegations raised by the PM.
India reacted quickly and stated that the Indian government was not involved in any murder on Canadian soil and expelled the top Canadian diplomats from India. India ordered multiple Canadian diplomats to leave the country in the coming weeks. Furthermore, visa services were terminated for some time and trade between the two nations was also affected. Interestingly, India has been asking Canada to provide concrete evidence of India’s involvement in Nijjar’s murder, but Canada has failed to do so. On the other hand, Canada has been a haven for Khalistani terrorists, gangsters and criminals. India has requested the tradition of multiple such criminals from Canada on several occasions, but no response came from Canada.
Such actions and statements by Canada are only putting deeper dents on India-Canada diplomatic relations. Interestingly, Canada has a habit of interfering in India’s affairs, which were prominently visible during farmers’ protests. When India expelled multiple diplomats of Canada in October last month, it was explicitly mentioned that Canadian diplomats often cause nuisance and interfere in India’s affairs.