India has the intent and capability to interfere in Canada’s election in April, is the word from Vanessa Lloyd, deputy chief of Canada’s Security Intelligence Service.
Is this a parting kick from the outgoing Trudeau administration? A reminder to the world that Justin Trudeau intends to leave his imprint on the future trajectory of India-Canada relations long after his departure?
One can speculate but the curious point about this statement from Ottawa is the fact that Lloyd’s boss, the chief of Canadian intelligence, was in Delhi only last week, attending the Raisina Dialogue.
Word is he met NSA Ajit Doval, his counterparts from the other Indian intelligence agencies and members of the security establishment. Did he authorise his deputy to make this statement? Did she clear it with him? Frankly, we don’t know.
Which is why the speculation that this maybe a parting kick from Justin Trudeau, who had triggered the storm in India relations by alleging, in 2023, of the latter’s involvement in the killing of Khalistani sympathiser and separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
India of course denied it and the subsequent enquiry by the Canadian authorities came up with no definitive Indian link. But the bad atmospherics between Delhi and Ottawa affected the broader relationship and although trade and investment continued as before, the people to people relationship took a hit.
India was not the only country on Vanessa Lloyd’s radar. In fact, China took pride of place. Note her comment:
“The People’s Republic of China is highly likely to use AI-enabled tools to attempt to interfere with Canada’s democratic process in the current election,” she said.
China of course denied it but Lloyd explicitly said Beijing would seek to influence the ethnic Chinese diaspora in Canada to vote in a manner consistent with its interests. Canada-China relations are seeing a downturn with both countries engaged in a tariff war on the others imports.
Tune in for more in this commentary on Canada’s charge against India.
