House committee to summon RCMP, ministers over allegations of Indian interference

By David Baxter, The Canadian Press on October 18, 2024.

OTTAWA – The head of the RCMP and Canada’s ministers of foreign affairs and public safety will be summoned to testify at a House of Commons committee about the bombshell allegations made this week about Indian state-sponsored interference in Canada.

The national security committee agreed to call RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme along with Mélanie Joly and Dominic LeBlanc in a special meeting this morning.

NDP MP Alistair MacGregor put forward the motion days after Canada expelled six Indian diplomats amid allegations they worked with criminal organizations to target Sikh separatists in Canada.

India has denied the allegations and expelled six Canadian diplomats from New Delhi.

MPs are also debating a second motion calling for all party leaders to apply for a top-secret security clearance and demand Prime Minister Justin Trudeau release the names of parliamentarians listed in top-secret documents as being engaged in or at-risk of foreign interference.

At the foreign interference inquiry this week Trudeau said Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre refused to get clearance so he could see the names of Conservatives from those documents while Poilievre accused Trudeau of lying and demanded he make all the names public.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 18, 2024.

8
-7