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Ottawa, April 11
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has raised the issue of the killing of a Khalistani Sikh separatist on the country’s soil last year and asserted that his government stood up to defend the rights and freedoms of all Canadians.
Trudeau, who was testifying at a high-profile public inquiry looking into foreign interference in Canada’s electoral process on Wednesday, also alleged that the previous government was “cosy” with the Indian government.
He made the remarks when he was asked about what his government did after receiving intelligence information on foreign information during the 2019 and 2021 elections, according to the live-streaming videos being shared by local media.
The ties between India and Canada were strained last year after Trudeau’s allegations in September of a “potential” involvement of Indian agents in Hardeep Singh Nijjar’s killing outside a gurdwara in Surrey city on June 18 last year.
India, which had designated Nijjar as a terrorist in 2020, has strongly rejected Trudeau’s allegations as “absurd” and “motivated”. During his testimony, Trudeau spoke about the role of the National Security and Intelligence Advisor, the manner in which he received intelligence inputs and how he acted on it, including what was done about the inputs regarding the role of Chinese influence vis-a-vis Chinese Canadians.
Speaking about an intelligence report three months after the 2019 elections, Trudeau said, “The principle that anyone who comes to Canada from anywhere in the world has all the rights of a Canadian to be free from extortion, coercion and interference from a country that they left behind, and how we have stood up for Canadians, including in the very serious case that I brought forward to Parliament of the killing of Nijjar, demonstrates our government’s commitment to defending the rights and freedoms of Canadians for which so many people crossed oceans and continents,” he said.
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