Two senior officials of Trudeau govt admit to leaking intel on India to Washington Post

Two senior officials in Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government recently admitted to leaking confidential information against India to the Washington Post much before public allegations made by Canadian police that 'agents of the Indian government' were involved in the murder of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

Nathalie Drouin, Trudeau’s national security and intelligence adviser and Deputy Foreign Minister David Morrison confessed in front of a parliamentary panel on Oct 30 during a session of the Foreign Interference Commission.

Drouin stated that a top-ranking official in the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government was behind the plot to attack the Sikh separatist in Canada, according to a report in The Globe and Mail.

They said the information was shared as part of a strategy to ensure Canada’s perspective was accurately represented in international media.

The information was leaked just hours after top Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officials publicly made the big allegations against India at a press conference.

Drouin further clarified that she did not require Trudeau's authorization for leaking the information and insisted that no "classified intelligence" was provided to the Washington Post the day before India withdrew six diplomats on Thanksgiving Day.

"We provided non-classified information on the actions we had taken to co-operate with India and explained how the evidence showed links to the government of India conducting illegal activities against Canadians, including threats to their lives," the adviser was quoted as saying.

Drouin stated that the step was necessary to counter potential misinformation and clarify Canada's position on the matter.

She emphasized that the information released did not include classified details but was aligned with what had been communicated to opposition leaders in Canada.

This confession has attracted backlash from opposition Conservative Party members, who criticized the decision to leak information. Conservative MP Raquel Dancho expressed concern over the fairness of providing sensitive details to a US newspaper while withholding them from Canadians.

India-Canada's strained diplomatic ties further nosedived after the allegations led to New Delhi expelling six Canadian diplomats on Oct 14.

This was an apparent tit-for-tat move by India after Canada, a day before, named India’s High Commissioner and a few other diplomats as 'persons of interest' in the Nijjar murder probe.

The Washington Post on Oct 13 reported that India's National Security Adviser Ajit Doval held a secret meeting with his Canadian counterpart in Singapore.

Last year, PM Trudeau accused India of being behind Nijjar's killing, leading to a diplomatic standoff between the two nations. Indian officials have consistently denied these allegations.

Nijjar, 45, was killed on June 18 last year in the parking lot of the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara in Surrey, British Columbia. He was shot by two masked gunmen shortly after leaving the temple, with reports indicating he was hit by 34 bullets.

In May 2024, the RCMP arrested three Indian nationals — Karan Brar, Kamalpreet Singh, and Karanpreet Singh — in connection with Nijjar's killing.

They were charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder. The investigation is ongoing, with authorities looking for possible connections between the suspects and the Indian government.