Canadian officials confess to leaking 'intel' against India to Washington Post

Nathalie Drouin, Justin Trudeau's national-security and intelligence adviser, told a parliamentary panel on Tuesday that she did not require the Prime Minister's authorisation for the leak. 

In Short

• Trudeau's intel adviser says she did not require authorisation for leak
• Says leak was part of a strategy to influence US media narrative
• Development comes amid row over Hardeep Nijjar murder probe

Two senior officials of the Justin Trudeau-led government have confessed to leaking intelligence and sensitive information against India to the Washington Post even before the Canadian police publicly alleged that their probe into the murder of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar revealed links between agents of the Indian government and "homicides and violent acts" in Canada.

Nathalie Drouin, Trudeau’s national security and intelligence adviser, told a parliamentary panel on Tuesday that a top ranking official in the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government was behind the plots to attack Sikh separatists in Canada, according to a report in The Globe and Mail.

She also said that she did not require Trudeau's authorisation for leaking the information and insisted that no "classified intelligence" was provided to the Washington Post the day before India withdrew six of its diplomats on Thanksgiving Day.

The intelligence adviser said the leak was "part of a communications strategy" that she and Deputy Foreign Minister David Morrison came up with to ensure that the American media outlet got Canada's version of the ongoing diplomatic row. She added that the communications strategy was overseen by Trudeau's office.

"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.

Diplomatic ties between the two nations nosedived after New Delhi expelled six Canadian diplomats on October 14 in a tit-for-tat move after Ottawa, earlier that day, named India’s High Commissioner and a few other diplomats as 'persons of interest' in the Nijjar murder probe.

Canada's move came just hours after top RCMP officials publicly made the big allegations against India at a press conference.

Meanwhile, in a report published on October 13, the Washington Post said that India's National Security Adviser Ajit Doval held a secret meeting with his Canadian counterpart in Singapore.

During the meeting, Canadian officials revealed alleged evidence showing that India had enlisted networks of the Bishnoi gang to not only kill Nijjar but also carry out attacks against Sikh separatists in Canada, the newspaper added.

Speaking about the alleged meeting, Drouin said that it took place on September 12 and was attended by herself, Morrison and Deputy RCMP Commissioner Mark Flynn.

She claimed that they offered a "number of ways" to resolve the ongoing row, but Doval “refused to acknowledge any links and denied everything we presented”.

“Serious crimes committed in Canada include homicides, assassination plots and perpetuated extortion and other extreme violence. Given how alarming the evidence was, we knew we had to act and to act quickly," the intelligence adviser was quoted as saying.

The parliamentary panel, however, came down heavily on Drouin and Morrison about why Trudeau, his cabinet ministers and the RCMP did not share the information with the public and instead chose to give it to a newspaper.

Conservative public safety critic Raquel Dancho, who grilled the two government officials, said their move was "quite unfair to the Canadian public", adding that "details were released in advance to the Washington Post but not provided to Canada".

On his part, RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme reiterated Drouin's claim that the leaked information was not classified, adding that it was not revealed to the public since it could affect the ongoing police investigations.

This new twist amid the escalating diplomatic row comes as the Indian government has repeatedly charged Canada for making baseless accusations without providing any evidence.

Long before the ongoing row began in September 2023 when Trudeau claimed that Canadian security agencies had credible allegations linking Indian government agents to Nijjar's killing, New Delhi had labelled the Khalistani sympathiser a terrorist, linking him to various violent activities, including a 2007 movie theatre bombing in Punjab and the 2009 murder of Sikh politician Rulda Singh.

But Canada refused to take action against him and also failed to curtail other pro-Khalistan elements, who have continued to organise so-called Khalistan referendums.