Canada’s top officials say they leaked info on Indian ‘interference’, Amit Shah to US daily

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s national security and intelligence adviser has acknowledged leaking sensitive information to The Washington Post regarding the Indian government’s alleged involvement in hostile activities on the Canadian soil. The information — leaked by Nathalie Drouin and David Morrison, deputy minister of foreign affairs — implicated India’s Home Affairs Minister Amit Shah as allegedly directing such actions from New Delhi.

Testifying before the Commons public safety committee, Drouin stated that she did not need Trudeau’s authorization to leak the information. She also clarified that no classified intelligence was shared with The Washington Post, which published the details a day before India recalled  six Indian diplomats over Thanksgiving even as Canada claimed to have expelled them.

The Globe and Mail reported that the leaked information not only pointed to Shah but also connected India to the killing of Sikh activist Sukhdool Singh Gill, who was shot in Winnipeg on Sept. 20, 2023. This incident occurred two days after Trudeau’s statement in the House of Commons alleging India’s involvement in the June 2023 gangland murder of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey, B.C. While no charges have been filed in Gill’s case, RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme noted on October 14 that evidence implicates India in several killings, although only Nijjar’s name was specified.

Drouin stated that the decision to leak information to The Washington Post was part of a strategy she and Morrison devised to ensure a major US outlet reported on Canada’s stance in its escalating foreign-interference dispute with India. The strategy, she added, was seen by the Prime Minister’s Office.

“We provided non-classified information on our actions and the evidence linking the Indian government to illegal activities targeting Canadians, including life-threatening threats,” Drouin testified, adding that similar briefings were shared with Canadian opposition leaders.

When Conservative public safety critic Raquel Dancho asked why information was shared with The Washington Post before being made available to the Canadian public. “Canadians wouldn’t know unless they were able to read The Washington Post. I find it unfair that details were released to them but not provided to Canadians,” she said.

When Dancho further asked  on why Canadians first learned from the U.S. publication of allegations against India’s Home Affairs Minister concerning hostile activities in Canada, Morrison explained that he confirmed Shah’s name when The Washington Post journalist  mentioned it.

Commissioner Duheme said he did not release the information publicly, as it could interfere with ongoing investigations. “It’s investigative material we typically keep internal,” he remarked, noting the intelligence shared with The Washington Post was not deemed classified under Canada’s national security standards.

Earlier this month, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) had lashed out at Canada’s “preposterous imputations” on the involvement of Indian diplomats in the Nijjar case, warning that India “reserves the right to take further steps in response”.

India had also ordered the expulsion of six Canadian diplomats, while also announcing its decision to withdraw the Indian High Commissioner to Canada and “other targeted diplomats”, citing security concerns after Ottawa identified them as “persons of interest” in its investigation into Nijjar’s killing.

External Affairs minister S Jaishankar on Saturday had said that “On our side we have reasoned with the Canadian system saying ‘look don’t go down this extremist path.” In Pune, Jaishankar had said, “We completely reject the manner in which the Canadian government targeted our High Commissioner and diplomats…There are a small minority of people there, who have made themselves into what appears to be a bigger political voice…Today they are saying things about us, but if you look at who first raised the presence of organised crime in Canada. We were telling them and they were not listening…On our side we have reasoned with the Canadian system saying ‘look don’t go down this extremist path’”.

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