Intelligence gained by the “Five Eyes” network led to Canada’s public accusation that the Indian government may have played a role in the assassination of a Sikh separatist activist on Canadian soil, the US Ambassador to Canada said Sunday.
I’m “confirming that there was shared intelligence among Five Eyes partners that helped lead Canada to making the statements that the prime minister made,” US Ambassador to Canada, David Cohen, told CTV’s Question Period with Vassy Kapelos in a Sunday interview.
Five Eyes is an intelligence sharing pact between the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, though the ambassador would not confirm if that shared intelligence came from the US. “I’m not. I wouldn’t in any circumstance,” Cohen said.
Relations between India and Canada plummeted last week after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said authorities had been investigating “credible allegations” that New Delhi was potentially behind the June killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Sikh separatist activist, who was gunned down by two masked men in Surrey, British Columbia.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Relations between India and Canada plummeted last week after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said authorities had been investigating “credible allegations” that New Delhi was potentially behind the June killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Sikh separatist activist, who was gunned down by two masked men in Surrey, British Columbia.
On Sunday, Canadian Defense Minister Bill Blair sought to shift the focus from questions over its intelligence to the criminal investigation of Nijjar’s killing.
In an interview with CBC, Blair said the Five Eyes partnership is “critically important” and that Canada has “very credible intelligence that causes us to be deeply concerned,” but declined to identify the sources of that information.
Nijjar’s name appears on the list of UAPA terrorists and in 2020, the Indian National Investigation Agency accused him of “trying to radicalize the Sikh community across the world in favor of the creation of ‘Khalistan.’”
Several Sikh organizations overseas say the movement is being falsely equated with terrorism by the Indian government, and say they will continue to peacefully advocate for the creation of Khalistan, while bringing to light what they say is years of human rights abuses faced by the community in India.
But in an August update, police released a statement saying they were investigating three suspects and issued a description of a possible getaway vehicle, asking for the public’s help.
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