Carney Won’t Say If India Still Interfering in Canada

Prime Minister Mark Carney won’t say whether India’s still messing with Canadian democracy.

That’s a problem. Six days after one of his senior officials told journalists that India had stopped interfering in Canada, Carney refused to back up that claim.

He also won’t discipline the official who made the statement.

Speaking from Australia after his first trip to India as PM, Carney dodged the question multiple times. He stuck to talking points about ‘productive discussions’ on security issues and efforts to reduce violent extortion.

But when pressed on whether New Delhi’s still interfering in Canadian elections or going after Sikh separatists on Canadian soil? Radio silence.

His Own Team’s Telling Different Stories

Here’s where it gets messy. Carney’s secretary of state for combating crime, Ruby Sahota, is telling a different story. She’s joined other Liberal MPs in saying India’s absolutely still behind interference activities in Canada.

Meanwhile, India keeps insisting it never engaged in any interference to begin with. So we’ve got Canada’s own officials contradicting each other while India denies everything.

That’s not exactly the united front you’d expect after what’s supposed to be a diplomatic breakthrough. The mixed messaging from Ottawa reveals deep divisions within the Liberal government about how to handle the India file.

Sahota’s position carries particular weight given her role specifically focuses on combating transnational crime. Her contradiction of the senior official’s claims suggests intelligence briefings paint a different picture than what’s being shared publicly.

The unnamed senior official’s statement to journalists last week created immediate confusion within diplomatic circles. That official claimed India had ceased foreign interference activities following recent bilateral discussions. But Carney’s refusal to endorse that assessment leaves everyone guessing about Canada’s actual position.

Thing is, when your own team can’t agree on basic facts, how do you expect anyone else to take you seriously?

The Killing That Wrecked Everything

Carney’s Australia trip followed his visit to India, the first by a Canadian prime minister since June 2023. That’s when everything went sideways between the two countries.

Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Sikh activist and Canadian citizen, was gunned down outside a Surrey, British Columbia gurdwara on June 18, 2023. The RCMP directly linked the killing to agents of the Indian government, creating an unprecedented diplomatic crisis.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s explosive September 2023 statement in Parliament accused India of orchestrating the assassination. He told the House of Commons that Canadian intelligence agencies were “actively pursuing credible allegations of a potential link between agents of the government of India and the killing of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil.”

Honestly? The fallout was immediate and severe.

Both countries expelled diplomats in tit-for-tat moves. Trade talks worth billions of dollars got shelved. Cultural exchanges stopped. The relationship between the world’s largest democracy and one of its closest allies hit a 50-year low.

Now Carney’s trying to patch things up with New Delhi. But his refusal to clearly state whether India has stopped interfering suggests the repair job isn’t as complete as his government wants us to believe.

“The prime minister wouldn’t say whether he agreed that India had stopped such behaviour and said he wouldn’t discipline that official.”

Which, honestly, nobody saw coming after all those promises about transparency and accountability.

Death Threats While Politicians Shake Hands

Actions speak louder than diplomatic statements.

Canadian Sikh activists are still facing death threats, and this happened right during Carney’s India visit. At least 12 Sikh-Canadians received threatening phone calls during the week of Carney’s trip to New Delhi.

The calls followed a familiar pattern identified by RCMP investigators.

Threats delivered in Punjabi warned recipients to stop their activism or face consequences. Some calls referenced specific family members and home addresses, suggesting sophisticated surveillance capabilities.

Moninder Singh, a Surrey-based activist with the advocacy group Sikhs for Justice, received three separate threatening calls between January 15 and 17.

The timing coincided exactly with Carney’s meetings with Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar.

“These threats don’t stop just because politicians shake hands in Delhi,” Singh told reporters. “We’re still living in fear while our prime minister won’t even say if India has stopped targeting us.”

If India really has stopped transnational repression activities, why are Canadian Sikhs still looking over their shoulders? The Royal Canadian Mounted Police documented 47 separate incidents of intimidation targeting Sikh-Canadians between October 2023 and December 2024.

Look, the timing isn’t coincidental.

These fresh threats emerged right as Carney was meeting with Indian officials and announcing new cooperation deals. Intelligence sources suggest the threats serve as a clear message that India’s capacity to reach into Canadian communities remains intact.

So either the threats are coming from somewhere else, or those “productive discussions” weren’t as productive as advertised.

Show Me The Money

While security questions hang in the air, Canada announced $100 million in scholarships for Indian students during Carney’s visit. The funding will support 25,000 Indian students over five years, making it one of the largest international education initiatives in Canadian history.

New education measures are moving forward despite the unresolved interference issues (to put it lightly). The scholarship program launches in September 2024, with the first cohort of 5,000 students eligible for grants worth up to $20,000 each.

Canada also committed $75 million to expand research partnerships between Canadian universities and Indian Institutes of Technology. The deal covers joint projects in artificial intelligence, clean technology, and space research over the next decade.

It’s classic diplomatic theatre. Public handshakes and scholarship announcements while serious security concerns get swept under the rug. Trade numbers tell the story of why both sides want to move past the crisis.

That’s the short version.

Two-way trade between Canada and India reached $8.2 billion in 2023, despite diplomatic tensions. That figure represents a 23% increase from 2022, driven largely by Canadian exports of canola, lumber, and potash to India’s growing economy.

Indian investment in Canada totalled $2.8 billion in 2023, supporting approximately 45,000 Canadian jobs across sectors from information technology to renewable energy. Those economic stakes explain why both governments want to contain the political damage from the interference allegations.

Look, nobody expects a prime minister to air every intelligence detail in public. But Carney’s complete refusal to address whether India has actually changed its behaviour sends a clear message to anyone paying attention.

That’s a lot of money to put on the table while you’re still not sure if the other side has stopped threatening your own citizens.

Not Just An India Problem

This isn’t just about India. Foreign interference has become a major issue for Canada, with multiple countries accused of meddling in our democracy and targeting diaspora communities.

The Hogue Commission investigating foreign interference identified attempts by at least five countries to manipulate Canadian elections and intimidate diaspora groups. China topped the list, but India, Iran, Russia, and Pakistan also engaged in various forms of interference between 2019 and 2023.

Justice Marie-Josée Hogue’s interim report, released in May 2024, found that foreign interference “didn’t affect the overall outcome” of recent federal elections but noted “serious concerns” about targeting of individual candidates and communities.

The commission documented 156 separate incidents of foreign interference during the 2021 federal election alone. These ranged from disinformation campaigns on social media to direct threats against candidates and their families.

And that’s just what they caught.

When the prime minister can’t or won’t clearly state whether a country has stopped interfering after his officials claim it has, that undermines confidence in our entire approach to the problem.

Sahota and other Liberal MPs are essentially contradicting their own government’s messaging. That suggests either poor coordination or genuine disagreement within the party about what’s actually happening.

The National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians identified “serious deficiencies” in Canada’s response to foreign interference in its classified 2024 report. While most details remain secret, leaked portions suggest government agencies struggled to coordinate responses and share intelligence effectively.

So we’ve got multiple countries trying to mess with us, our own agencies can’t seem to talk to each other properly, and the prime minister won’t give straight answers about whether things are getting better or worse.

What This Actually Means For Regular People

The confusion over India’s interference activities has real consequences for Canadian citizens, particularly those in diaspora communities who face ongoing threats and intimidation.

Approximately 1.86 million Canadians identify as having South Asian heritage, making up 5.1% of the country’s population from the 2021 census. Many maintain family, cultural, and business ties to India that can be exploited by foreign interference operations.

The Sikh community, numbering about 771,000 Canadians, faces particular risks due to ongoing tensions over the Khalistan separatist movement. RCMP data shows Sikh-Canadians reported 78% more incidents of intimidation and threats in 2023 compared to 2022.

But the impact extends way beyond targeted communities.

Foreign interference erodes trust in democratic institutions and processes that affect all Canadians. When voters can’t be sure their choices are free from foreign manipulation, it damages the legitimacy of elected governments.

Economic relationships also hang in the balance. Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy, launched in 2022 with $2.3 billion in funding, identified India as a key partner for trade diversification and supply chain security. Continued interference allegations threaten those strategic goals.

The technology sector feels particular pressure. Canadian companies exported $1.2 billion in information and communications technology services to India in 2023. Uncertainty about the security relationship makes it harder for businesses to plan long-term investments and partnerships.

And here’s the thing that really gets people frustrated: if you’re a Canadian Sikh getting threatening phone calls, you don’t care about diplomatic niceties (not a typo). You want to know if your government can actually protect you.

Why The Government Might Not Know Either

Behind Carney’s non-committal responses lies a complex intelligence picture that may not provide clear answers about India’s current activities.

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service budget increased by 31% to $886 million in 2024, partly to address foreign interference threats. But intelligence officials acknowledge significant gaps in monitoring transnational repression activities.

CSIS Director David Vigneault warned in October 2024 that foreign interference operations had become “more sophisticated and harder to detect.” His comments to the Senate National Security Committee suggested traditional intelligence gathering methods struggle to track modern hybrid threats.

The creation of a new National Counter Foreign Interference Office in March 2024 aimed to improve coordination between agencies. The office received $49 million over five years but won’t be fully operational until late 2025.

Meanwhile, the RCMP’s Integrated National Security Enforcement Teams face resource constraints investigating foreign interference cases. The teams, operating in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, and Ottawa, received an additional $87 million in 2024 funding but still report significant backlogs.

These capacity limitations may explain why Carney can’t definitively state whether India has ceased interference activities. Without real-time intelligence capabilities, the government may simply not know what’s currently happening.

Which is pretty concerning when you think about it.

So maybe the prime minister’s dodging questions because he genuinely doesn’t have good answers. That’s almost worse than if he was just being evasive for political reasons.

What Comes Next

Carney’s trip to India was supposed to reset the relationship.

The scholarship announcement and talk of productive security discussions were meant to show progress. But diplomatic normalisation means nothing if Canadian citizens are still being threatened and our democratic processes are still under attack.

The contradiction between what senior officials are saying publicly and what the prime minister’s willing to confirm creates more questions than answers. If India has genuinely stopped interference activities, why won’t Carney say so?

And if they haven’t stopped, what exactly did those ‘productive discussions’ accomplish? The lack of clear answers suggests the security dialogue produced limited concrete commitments from the Indian side.

Parliamentary pressure’s building for clearer government positions. Conservative MP Michael Chong, who was personally targeted by Chinese interference operations, called Carney’s responses “inadequate and confusing” during Question Period on January 22.

NDP leader Jagmeet Singh, himself a target of alleged Indian intimidation efforts, demanded the government “stop playing diplomatic games” and clearly state what intelligence agencies know about ongoing threats.

The Bloc Québécois foreign affairs critic, Stéphane Bergeron, warned that mixed messaging undermines Canada’s credibility with both allies and adversaries in addressing foreign interference.

The next few months will show whether this diplomatic reset’s real or just for show.

Watch what happens to those scholarship programs if more Sikh activists start getting threatened.

Key dates ahead will test the relationship’s stability.

The annual Khalsa Day parade in Toronto on April 27 traditionally sees heightened security concerns. India’s reaction to any pro-Khalistan displays will signal whether diplomatic progress translates to reduced tensions.

Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee plans hearings on the India relationship in March 2024. Carney may face tougher questions from MPs who aren’t satisfied with diplomatic platitudes about “productive discussions.”

What This Means Going Forward

Look, the ultimate test will be whether Canadian citizens can live free from foreign intimidation and whether democratic institutions remain protected from interference.

Until Carney can clearly answer those basic questions, his diplomatic reset with India remains incomplete at best. And incomplete doesn’t cut it when people’s safety is on the line.

The government’s either got to get its story straight or admit it doesn’t know what’s really happening. Because right now, the mixed messages aren’t helping anyone except maybe the people doing the threatening.