Trudeau calls officials ‘criminals’ over fake intel of Modi link in Nijjar plot

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sharply condemned his own national security officials, calling them “criminals” for leaking top-secret information to the media which he said has “consistently gotten their stories wrong.”

Trudeau made the stern remarks after a Canadian newspaper report linking top Indian leaders to the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar put further strain on already fraught India-Canada ties.

“We have seen, unfortunately, that criminals leaking top-secret information to the media have consistently gotten those stories wrong,” he said at a press conference in Brampton on Friday.

“That’s why we had a national enquiry into foreign interference, which has highlighted that criminals leaking information to media outlets are unreliable on top of being criminals,” he stated.

Earlier this week, a prominent Canadian media outlet quoted an unnamed national security official as saying that Prime Minister Narendra Modi knew of the alleged plot to murder Nijjar.

The report also claimed that External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval were in the loop about the operation allegedly headed by Union Home Minister Amit Shah. However, the source-based story provided no evidence to support these claims.

The Canadian government, however, refuted the allegations on Thursday. In a statement, Trudeau’s intelligence adviser, Nathalie Drouin, said, “The Government of Canada has not stated, nor is it aware of the evidence, linking Prime Minister Modi, Minister Jaishankar, or NSA Doval to the serious criminal activity within Canada. Any suggestion to the contrary is both speculative and inaccurate.”

Following the publication of the media report, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) dismissed the claims as “ludicrous,” with MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal calling the allegations “smear campaigns” that should be “dismissed with the contempt they deserve.”

Diplomatic ties between the two nations have been fraught since Trudeau accused Indian agents of involvement in Nijjar’s killing in June 2023. New Delhi has denied the accusations, calling them “absurd” and politically motivated. India has also long accused Canada of providing a safe haven for individuals involved in terrorism and criminal activities targeting Indian interests.

The tensions escalated last month when the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) linked Indian agents to criminal activities, including murder, extortion, and intimidation, on Canadian soil. Both nations responded by expelling senior diplomats.