Deputy Clerk of the Privy Council Office and National Security and Intelligence Advisor to the Prime Minister, Nathalie Drouin, waits to appear as witnesses to the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security (SECU) studying electoral interference and criminal activities in Canada by agents of the Government of India in the Parliamentary Precinct of Ottawa, on Oct. 29.Spencer Colby/The Canadian Press
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s national-security and intelligence adviser has confirmed she leaked sensitive information about the Indian government’s alleged role in murder, extortion and coercion to The Washington Post that was not shared with the Canadian public.
The leak from Nathalie Drouin and David Morrison, deputy minister of foreign affairs, accused India’s powerful Home Affairs Minister Amit Shah of directing the violent operations from New Delhi.
Who is Amit Shah, the Indian minister accused of plots against Sikhs in Canada?
Ms. Drouin told the Commons public safety committee on Tuesday that she did not require Mr. Trudeau’s authorization for the leak and insisted no classified intelligence was provided to the U.S. publication the day before Ottawa expelled six Indian diplomats on Thanksgiving Day.
The information given to The Washington Post included identifying not only Mr. Shah but also linking India to the slaying of Sikh activist Sukhdool Singh Gill, who was shot in Winnipeg on Sept. 20, 2023.
Mr. Gill was killed two days after Mr. Trudeau announced in the House of Commons that India was behind the June, 2023, gangland slaying of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey, B.C.
No charges have been laid in the death of Mr. Gill.
RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme said on Oct. 14 that evidence shows India was involved in the killing of three people, but he only identified the slaying of Mr. Nijjar. At his news conference, Commissioner Duheme said eight people have been charged with murder and 22 with extortion. Four Indian nationals have been charged in the killing of Mr. Nijjar outside a Sikh temple.
Ms. Drouin said the leak to The Washington Post was part of a communications strategy that she and Mr. Morrison came up with to ensure a major U.S. publication got Canada’s side of its continuing foreign-interference dispute with India.
The communications strategy was seen by the Prime Minister’s Office, Ms. Drouin said.
“We provided non-classified information on the actions we had taken to co-operate with India and explain how the evidence showed links to the government of India conducting illegal activities against Canadians, including threats to their lives,” Ms. Drouin said.
She said she provided a similar briefing to federal opposition leaders as she did with the Post.
Conservative public safety critic Raquel Dancho grilled the two senior bureaucrats about why the Prime Minister, his Foreign Affairs and Public Safety ministers, and the RCMP didn’t share this information with the public when the six Indian diplomats were expelled.
“In fact, Canadians wouldn’t know unless they were able to read The Washington Post. I just find that quite unfair to the Canadian public that details were released in advance to The Washington Post but not provided to Canada,” she said.
Ms. Dancho pressed Ms. Drouin and Mr. Morrison to explain why Canadians also had to learn from the Post about allegations that India’s Home Affairs Minister had a role in murders and extortion in Canada.
“The journalist called me and asked if it was that person and I confirmed it was that person,” Mr. Morrison said.
In response to questions from Ms. Dancho, the RCMP Commissioner said he didn’t tell the public about what The Washington Post reported because the information could affect continuing criminal investigations.
“It is information as part of an investigation that normally we like to keep within but sometimes we do release some information,” Commissioner Duheme said. “I didn’t think at that point that it was relevant, that specific information, and again I wasn’t part of the conversation with The Washington Post.”
He was careful to say the intelligence offered to the Post was not considered classified under the definition of national security.
Ms. Drouin also detailed Ottawa’s back-channel efforts to persuade India that Canadian authorities had credible evidence against their diplomats and criminal proxies.
As The Globe reported, the RCMP went to the government in late August to ask for an all-out effort to convince India to end its hostile foreign-interference campaign. The Mounties were concerned that 13 Canadians were in imminent danger and the scale of India’s activities could not be stopped solely by law enforcement.
“Serious crimes committed in Canada include homicides, assassination plots and perpetuated extortion and other extreme violence,” Ms. Drouin said. “Given how alarming the evidence was, we knew we had to act and to act quickly.”
Ms. Drouin said the RCMP asked to travel to New Delhi on Oct. 8 to present evidence but India “used an administrative technicality to block this meeting.” The RCMP then travelled to Washington on Oct. 10, but “while an India officer confirmed the meeting they never showed up.”
A meeting was eventually set up on Oct. 12 in Singapore at which Ms. Drouin, Mr. Morrison and Deputy RCMP Commissioner Mark Flynn presented evidence to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s national-security adviser, Ajit Doval, a former spymaster in India’s intelligence service.
Ms. Drouin said the Canadians offered a number of ways to resolve the serious dispute that ruptured bilateral relations.
India could waive diplomatic immunity so the RCMP could question the six diplomats or India could voluntarily withdraw the six diplomats and India could expand its Enquiries Committee investigation to Canada. India set up that committee to investigate U.S. allegations of New Delhi’s involvement in a murder-for-hire plot against prominent U.S.-Canadian Khalistan activist Gurpatwant Pannun in New York last year.
Another proposal was for both countries to set up a high-level committee to work together to end foreign interference. The Canadians also asked that New Delhi direct Indian crime lord Lawrence Bishnoi, who runs a criminal syndicate from his prison cell, to order his associates in Canada to cease and desist.
During the meeting, Ms. Drouin said Mr. Doval “refused to acknowledge any links and denied everything we presented.”
Nonetheless, a further conversation was set for Oct. 14 and “they agreed to keep the meeting confidential as suggested by my counterpart,” she said.
Instead, India went public on Sunday, Oct. 13, accusing Canada of spreading a false narrative and failing to show them evidence of India’s involvement in violent crimes.
“By going public, the government of India clearly signalled that they were not going to be accountable or take the necessary actions we needed to ensure public safety,” Ms. Drouin said. “It then became clear to the RCMP that we had to take the unilateral option, meaning [expel] the diplomats and issue a public statement.”
Mr. Pannun, the legal counsel for Sikhs For Justice who the U.S. Justice Department alleges was an Indian government target last year, accused India’s Homes Affairs Minister Mr. Shah of weaponizing India’s security services.
“The assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar on Canadian soil is not just an isolated crime,” he said. “Violent actions by Shah reflect a mindset which is a threat to the sovereignty and security of Canada and the United States. The Modi-Shah regime has declared war on dissent, and the international community must take a stand against India’s violent transnational repression.”