Prime Minister Justin Trudeau delivers a statement in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Monday, Sept. 18, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick
OTTAWA – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Canadian intelligence services are investigating “credible” information about “a potential link” between the government of India and the murder of British Columbia Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
Nijjar was shot outside his gurdwara in Surrey, B.C., on June 18.
Members of the Sikh community in Canada accused the Indian government of being behind the murder and attempting to silence voices advocating for part of Punjab state to become an independent Sikh nation, but police denied having any evidence of that.
Trudeau told the House of Commons this afternoon that Canadian security agencies have spent the last several weeks “actively pursuing credible allegations” that agents of the government of India were responsible for Nijjar’s death.
Trudeau says he raised the issue directly with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi earlier this month.
He says any involvement of a foreign government in the murder of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil “is an unacceptable violation of our sovereignty.”
Relations between Canada and India have been tense for months. In the last few weeks, Canada put trade talks with India on hiatus and cancelled a trade mission to the country that was planned for this fall.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2023.
