Didn’t have ‘hard proof’ of India role, admits Justin Trudeau

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Wednesday acknowledged that he had only intelligence and “no hard evidentiary proof” when he alleged the involvement of Indian Government agents in the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Nijjar last year.

Testifying before the public inquiry into foreign interference in federal electoral processes and democratic institutions, Trudeau claimed the Indian diplomats were collecting information on Canadians who were in disagreement with the Narendra Modi government and passing it to the highest levels within the Indian government and criminal organisations like the Lawrence Bishnoi gang.

“I was briefed on the fact that there was intelligence from Canada, and possibly from Five Eyes allies that made it fairly clear, incredibly clear, that India was involved in this... Agents of the Government of India were involved in the killing of a Canadian on Canadian soil,” he said.

He said it was something that his government had to take extremely seriously. “India had indeed done it, and we had reasons to believe that they had,” Trudeau said, adding his government’s immediate approach was to engage with the government of India to work on this together to make sure that there was accountability.

Recalling the G20 summit hosted by India in September last year, he said it was a big moment for India, and Canada “had the opportunity of making it a very uncomfortable summit” for India if it went public with these allegations. “We chose not to. We chose to continue to work behind the scenes to try and get India to cooperate with us,” he said.