Canada loudly accused India of an assassination plot without evidence. The U.S. brought loads of evidence … and made the accusation quietly
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It was only three months ago that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau delivered one of the most serious allegations a Canadian government has ever levelled against an ostensible ally – and then proceeded to not provide any evidence to this effect whatsoever.
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On Sept. 18, Trudeau opened a sitting of the House of Commons by issuing a surprising announcement that the Indian government was responsible for the June shooting death of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Sikh separatist figure based in B.C.
As Indo-Canadian relations immediately descended into a swamp of mutual recrimination and tit-for-tat diplomat ejections, Trudeau didn’t back up his claims with video, phone transcripts, a description of the alleged plot or even an official confirmation from his own intelligence agencies.
All the public got was a line that investigators were “actively pursuing credible allegations of a potential link.” And when India balked at the charge, Trudeau could only respond that they should treat this issue “with the utmost seriousness.”
But just this week, the U.S. did what Canada couldn’t: It provided a detailed summary of an alleged conspiracy to assassinate Sikh extremists based in North America, as well as the evidence purporting to tie it to the Government of India.
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And in a notable departure from Canada’s strategy, the Americans mostly let the evidence speak for itself – rather than frontload the whole saga with a public, top-level accusation of Indian treachery.
The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden has almost entirely avoided public comment on the issue, although Biden is said to have privately raised the allegation with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in September.
Details of the U.S. case were revealed Wednesday in an unsealed indictment against 52-year-old Indian national Nikhil Gupta, whom prosecutors accuse of orchestrating a “murder for hire” plot for the Indian government.
“In or about May 2023, (an Indian government employee) recruited Gupta to orchestrate the assassination of the Victim in the United States,” reads a Wednesday statement from the U.S. Department of Justice.
The “Victim” is Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, an attorney based in New York State with a long history of calls for the creation of Khalistan, a Sikh nation that would be carved out of the Indian state of Punjab.
Pannun is considered a terrorist by the Indian government, and has occasionally made headlines in Canada for orchestrating non-official Khalistan referenda in B.C. In September, he was officially condemned by members of the federal cabinet after he released a video telling Hindus to “leave Canada.”
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The assassination plot failed, though, after Gupta allegedly tried to hire a contract killer to do the deed – and unwittingly made contact with an undercover police officer posing as a hitman.
“Gupta contacted an individual whom Gupta believed to be a criminal associate, but who was in fact a confidential source working with U.S. law enforcement,” said the Department of Justice.
The indictment also contains key details about the killing of Nijjar.
Investigators purport to have emails and phone conversations sent between Gupta and his Indian government handler, who is identified in the documents as CC-1.
After Nijjar’s killing, the handler reportedly sent images of Nijjar’s corpse to Gupta, which he appears to have then forwarded to his fake hitman. According to documents, Gupta said in a clandestinely recorded call that Pannun was one just one target among many, and “we have so many targets.”
Gupta was arrested a mere 10 days later on an international warrant, shortly after he had arrived in the Czech Republic.
The charges have not been tried before a court, but the indictment is based on a ream of video, text, and audio intercepts.
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The document includes details about how Indian officials allegedly arranged wire payments for the murders, and even includes a photo taken by the undercover officer, purportedly at the exact moment he receives the cash from Gupta.
Gupta had met the fake hitman through a suspected criminal contact who turned out to be a police informant. And it was this informant who appears to have recorded the most damning conversation with Gupta.
During a discussion about the killing of Nijjar, Gupta reportedly said “we didn’t give (the U.S. hitman) this job, so some other guy did this job.”
What the indictment doesn’t contain is anything linking the alleged plot to the top levels of the Indian government. The only Indian official involved is CC-1, who is identified only as a “Senior Field Officer” who once mentioned being a member of India’s Central Reserve Police Force.
This distinction – and the sheer volume of evidence in the indictment – might be why India has been much friendlier with the U.S. allegation than it was with Canada’s.
Trudeau’s accusation of an Indian murder plot prompted outright denials from New Delhi, counter-accusations that Canada was a hotbed for Sikh terrorism, a significant fraying of Canada’s diplomatic relationship with India – as well as a wave of anti-Trudeau coverage on Indian media.
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But against the U.S. allegation, India’s foreign ministry said it had set up a committee to probe the matter directly, calling it “a matter of concern” and “against government policy.”
IN OTHER NEWS
Two of the Trudeau government’s favourite issues – reconciliation and carbon pricing – will soon be facing off in court. The Chiefs of Ontario and the Attawapiskat First Nation are suing the federal government over allegations that their carbon pricing scheme is “discriminatory and anti-reconciliatory.” The federal carbon tax functions by dinging you at the gas pump, and then refunding most of that money via regular CRA rebates. But the Chiefs of Ontario note that on-reserve First Nations don’t pay income taxes for any income earned on reserve – thus, they’re paying the carbon tax but not getting the rebates. This would be easy to fix with a carbon tax carve-out for anyone flashing a status card at the gas station – but the Liberals are somewhat constrained by their promise to never, ever approve any additional carbon tax carveouts following that one they just greenlit for Atlantic Canada.
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It was over the summer that Google first announced the seismic news that it planned to bar all Canadian news content from its search engine as a direct response to the Trudeau government’s Online News Act. The act barred internet giants such as Google from circulating Canadian news links on their platforms unless they figured out a way to compensate the creators of said links (such as yours truly). To this came the somewhat predictable reaction that Google and Facebook would simply stop dealing in Canadian news links. But a compromise position was reached this week; Google won’t shut off the news taps, and in exchange they’ll only have to hand over about $100 million a year instead of the $175 million that was expected under the Online News Act’s original formula.
If you’re reading this near Oshawa, Ont. and you see a kangaroo out the window, it’s not your imagination. One of the marsupials escaped from Oshawa Zoo handlers on Friday morning and remains at large as of press time.
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