RCMP made India allegations public to disrupt criminal activities, Trudeau tells inquiry
RCMP says Indian government agents were involved in crimes in Canada, drawing angry denials from India
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the decision to publicize the allegation that agents of the Indian government have played a role in "widespread violence" in Canada was made to disrupt such activities.
"The decision by the RCMP to go forward with that announcement was entirely anchored in public safety and a goal of disrupting the chain of activities that was resulting in drive-by shootings, home invasions and violent extortion and even murder in and across Canada," Trudeau told the foreign interference inquiry on Wednesday.
The RCMP said Monday they have obtained evidence linking agents of the Indian government to homicides and other acts of violence in Canada, including coercion and extortion.
The national police force said it also has evidence indicating Indian diplomats and consular officials based in Canada leveraged their official positions to engage in clandestine activities, such as collecting information for the government of India, either directly or through their proxies.
Trudeau told the commission that the information collected was then passed on to the "highest levels of the Indian government" and funnelled to "criminal organizations."
In response to the RCMP allegations, the federal government announced that it's expelling six Indian diplomats. India has denied the allegations and quickly retaliated by ordering six Canadian diplomats to leave the country.
Trudeau told the foreign interference commission that it would have been preferable to question the diplomats, but they refused to waive diplomatic immunity.
"That's not surprising ... Canada wouldn't waive diplomatic immunity in many cases either. But therefore, we had to ask them to leave the country," he said.
Trudeau said that the Mounties probably would have preferred to keep the accusations out of the public eye, as there are currently cases before the courts. He said the threat to public safety was so high that the allegations needed to be put forward.
"If the RCMP had its druthers, it wouldn't have revealed any of this. It's just that it hit the threshold before it came out naturally in court through our judicial process," the prime minister told the commission.
"But the threat to public safety and the need to disrupt preemptively, even before the court cases were fully adjudicated, [informed] the RCMP's decision to go public with this."
Despite the diplomatic expulsions, sources have told CBC News that the support network for India's clandestine operations remains largely in place in Canada, although they think it's likely that some members of that network will now depart voluntarily — and quietly — rather than risk arrest.
The RCMP's claims have heightened tensions in an already charged bilateral relationship, which deteriorated last year when Trudeau announced Canada had evidence linking Indian agents to the killing of Canadian Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar. New Delhi has denied the allegation.
During his testimony Wednesday, Trudeau offered more insight into the decision to make the allegations related to Nijjar's death public.
The prime minister said the government decided not to make the allegations public before India hosted the G20 last September.
"We had the opportunity of making it a very uncomfortable summit for India if we went forward with these allegations ahead of time. We chose not to. We chose to continue to work behind the scenes to try to get India to cooperate with us," Trudeau said.
"Their ask of us was: 'How much do you know? Give us the evidence you have on this.' Our response was, 'Well, this is within your security agencies. You should be looking at how much they know.'"
Trudeau said the back-and-forth came to a head during a conversation he had with India Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the summit.
"I sat down and shared that we knew that they were involved and expressed a real concern around it. [Modi] responded with the usual response from him, which is that we have people who are outspoken against the Indian government in Canada that he would like to see arrested," he said.
Trudeau made the allegations public in the House of Commons after he had returned from the G20 last year.
The foreign interference commission is currently looking at the ability of institutions to detect and fend off the attempts of hostile states to meddle in Canadian affairs.
This is Trudeau's second time testifying before the inquiry. He previously appeared in April during its initial phase, which looked at allegations of foreign meddling in the last two general elections.
The inquiry plans five days of policy consultation sessions beginning next Monday to help develop recommendations, with a final report due by the end of the year.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
With files from Evan Dyer and The Canadian Press