Trudeau Aides Spoke To US Paper Before “Bishnoi Gang Links” Claim: Report

Senior aides of Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, including his national security advisor Nathalie Drouin, shared confidential information about India – and claimed Delhi ‘interference’ in Ottawa’s affairs – to a United States newspaper, a Canadian publication reported Tuesday.

The information was provided days before Canadian federal police alleged – as Mr Trudeau has in the past, but without concrete evidence – that “agents” of the Indian government work with criminal gangs to “target South Asians… specifically pro-Khalistani elements” in that country.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police Commissioner Mike Duhene and his deputy, Brigitte Gauvin, told reporters they believed Indian government “agents” had ties with the Lawrence Bishnoi gang, and were involved in the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Canadian citizen, in Vancouver in June last year, as well as case of “extortion, intimidation, and coercion”.

India had strongly rejected what it called “preposterous imputations” and underlined that since allegations were first made – by Mr Trudeau in September last year – the Canadian government “has not shared a shred of evidence with the Government of India, despite many requests…”

That sentiment was underlined last week after Mr Trudeau told a Commission of Inquiry he had only intel-based speculation and no “proof” when he linked “agents” of Delhi to Nijjar’s killing.

Canada Officials, US Paper Met?

Canada newspaper The Globe and Mail said its sources had spoken of Ms Drouin and David Morrison, the Deputy Minister of Global Affairs, briefing the Washington Post on various aspects of India’s ‘interference’, including involvement in the September 2023 killing of another Sikh leader, Sukhdool Gill, a gangster from Punjab’s Moga linked to the Khalistani terror movement.

Gill was killed two days after Mr Trudeau first accused India in the Nijjar killing.

Spokespersons for Ms Drouin and Mr Morrison have claimed no information was shared, but spoke of an unsealed United States indictment from November 2023. According to The Globe and Mail, this, however, did not name Gill or the other Canadian targeted for assassination.

The Post, sources told the Canadian publication, was instructed not to report anything till Mr Duheme and Ms Gauvin held that press conference. The Post eventually did so citing ‘Canadian officials’ who claimed to have linked Gill’s murder to India, although the federal police did not.

In their presser Mr Duheme and Ms Gauvin claimed to have evidence – none was presented citing ongoing investigation – that some Indian diplomatic staff work with organised crime elements to “collect – through questionable and illegal means – information on Canadian citizens… (that is fed to criminal organisations) that would then take violent actions…”

Hours after the police officers’ press conference Mr Trudeau spoke to reporters and doubled down on charges against the Indian government. His government also named High Commissioner Sanjay Verma as one of the six ‘persons of interest’ in this affair, triggering further fury from Delhi, which retaliated by ejecting Canada’s High Commissioner and five of his staff.

On the expulsions (the second tit-for-tat round), Delhi said, “Sanjay Verma is India’s senior-most serving diplomat”, and slammed a “strategy of smearing India for political gains”.

Canadian authorities investigating Nijjar’s killing have arrested four people so far, and Mr Duheme said last week that 30 other, including those they claimed were linked to the Indian government, had been charged with other crimes, such as extortion.

Mr Trudeau’s allegations coincide with sliding support and tanking popularity; this month he survived a second parliamentary confidence vote in as many weeks before the 2025 election.

Ties between Ottawa and Delhi have plummeted since Mr Trudeau’s allegations broke, with his critics in India accusing him of pandering to Khalistani terrorist vote banks in that country.

The United States – which is conducting an inquiry about an ex-Indian spy linked to a murder-for-hire attempt targeting Gurpatwant Pannun, whom India considers a Khalistani terrorist – has called for Delhi-Ottawa cooperation, stating the charges need to be viewed seriously.

Nijjar – the mastermind behind banned terror outfit Khalistan Tiger Force – was on Delhi’s list of ‘most wanted’ terrorists for multiple crimes, including the murder of Hindu priest in Punjab. Anti-terror agency NIA had offered a Rs 10 lakh reward for information leading to his capture.

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