Trudeau Accuses Political Foes of Engaging in Foreign Interference

Facing a revolt in his own party, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau attacked both the Conservative opposition and India’s government, which he said had made “a horrific mistake” in the killing of a Sikh activist.

As Prime Minister Justin Trudeau comes under increasing fire for his handling of foreign meddling in Canada, he went on the attack on Wednesday, criticizing both the country’s main opposition party and Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India.

Mr. Trudeau, seeking to turn the tables on an issue on which he has been on the defensive, said on Wednesday that he had the names of Conservative politicians “who are engaged, or at high risk of, or for whom there is clear intelligence around foreign interference.”

He then accused the Conservative leader, Pierre Poilievre, of failing to respond appropriately to the matter by declining to get security clearance so that he could be informed of the names of his party members under suspicion.

Under questioning later in the day, Mr. Trudeau acknowledged that he also had the names of members of his Liberal Party and of other parties who may have been compromised by foreign interference.

A lawyer representing the Conservatives accused the prime minister of “grandstanding” by singling out Conservatives.

Mr. Trudeau made the comments in Ottawa during a daylong appearance before a federal inquiry into interference by foreign powers into Canadian affairs.

Mr. Trudeau also told the inquiry that Canada had repeatedly reached out to the Indian government for its assistance into the investigation of the killing of a Sikh-Canadian “in a responsible way that doesn’t come and blow up the relationship" between the two nations.

But, he added, his overtures had been consistently rebuffed.

Mr. Trudeau said that he first talked in person to Mr. Modi about the killing more than a year ago.

But he said the Indian government had only grown more hawkish despite what Canada said on Monday was evidence implicating Mr. Modi’s government in killings and extortion inside Canada targeting Sikh activists.

“This was a situation in which we had clear and certainly now even clearer indications that India had violated Canada’s sovereignty, and the response was to double down and attack Canada further,” Mr. Trudeau said. The Indian government had made “a horrific mistake,” Mr. Trudeau added, “in thinking that they could interfere as aggressively as they did.”

The Indian government has vehemently denied Canada’s accusations. Mr. Modi’s government has accused Canada of harboring Sikh separatists who promote violence in their campaign to establish a Sikh enclave in India.

Mr. Trudeau spoke a day after his top aides testified before the inquiry and came under intense questioning.

Last spring, a special parliamentary committee released an intelligence report implicating current and former members of Parliament from different parties in foreign interference.

Individuals were named in an unredacted version, which some party leaders chose to read after getting security clearance. Mr. Poilievre declined, saying that would then bind him to secrecy regarding the report.

Mr. Trudeau had long opposed measures to combat foreign meddling, downplaying its threat and opposing the creation of the inquiry where he testified.

But on Wednesday, in a shift, Mr. Trudeau emphasized the threats of foreign interference in his testimony.

He said that Canada was facing increasing attempts by hostile nations to interfere in its domestic affairs, even as he rejected accusations that his government has not done enough to thwart such meddling.

“There is no question that foreign interference and in general threats geopolitically have increased significantly around the world over the past number of years,” he said. “We need only to look at the headlines this week to see the extent of interference activities and the impact they have on Canadians.”

Tensions between Canada and India erupted last year when Mr. Trudeau accused the Indian government of orchestrating the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a prominent Canadian Sikh leader in Vancouver and supporter of a separate Sikh homeland in India. The Indian government had designated Mr. Nijjar and other secessionist leaders as terrorists.

Mr. Trudeau spoke at the inquiry as he confronts serious challenges at home and abroad. While Canada’s diplomatic relations with India remain frozen, a movement to oust the deeply unpopular Mr. Trudeau gained momentum within his own Liberal Party.

On Tuesday, two lawmakers from his party indicated publicly that Mr. Trudeau should step down to make way for a new leader before the next general election, which must be held by next fall. Polls show that the Conservatives now enjoy a double-digit lead over Mr. Trudeau’s party.

Mr. Trudeau’s attacks Wednesday underscored how the issue of foreign interference has become intimately linked with electoral politics in Canada.

Large and well-organized Chinese and Indian diasporas in Toronto and Vancouver are some of the most coveted voters by Canada’s political parties — and the targets of China and India, the two nations most actively involved in meddling in Canada, according to intelligence reports.

Intelligence reports have shown that Beijing and its proxies have tended to support Liberal candidates and sought to undermine Conservatives, who have taken a hard line against China on human rights and other issues.

In the past, including before the inquiry last April, Mr. Trudeau had sought to minimize cases of meddling by China when the episodes may have helped Liberal candidates.

But as attention over foreign interference has shifted to India, it has given Mr. Trudeau an opening to use the issue of meddling to attack the Conservatives.

In Canada’s complicated diaspora politics, the Indian-Canadian community has become increasingly split with the rise of Mr. Modi’s Hindu nationalism. Mr. Trudeau’s government has included many Sikh-Canadians at the highest levels.

For their part, the Conservatives have long had friendly relations with Mr. Modi’s government. According to the intelligence report that Mr. Poilievre, the Conservative leader, declined to read in its unredacted form, India has interfered “in a Conservative Party of Canada leadership race.”