Nijjar murder row: Canada says its inquiry commission did not acquit India on links to Nijjar killing

A banner with the image of Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Canada on Thursday (January 30, 2025) rejected a news report, which claimed that an inquiry commission had found “no foreign link” in the killing of Khalistani activist Harjit Singh Nijjar, calling the reports incorrect. The inquiry commission, referred to as the ‘Public Inquiry into Foreign Interference (PIFI) in Federal Electoral Processes and Democratic Institutions’, headed by a judge, Marie-Josée Hogue, was set up in September 2023, and was meant to look into allegations by the Justin Trudeau government of “disinformation” and “misinformation” by foreign powers that had in some way affected the outcome of Canada’s electoral processes. 

In the final report published on January 28, 2025, Ms. Hogue has said that she had investigated attempted interference by several countries, including China, Russia, Iran, India, and Pakistan, and had claimed Indian diplomats and “proxy agents” were spreading disinformation, and funding Canadian politicians.

The report says that “India may have attempted to clandestinely provide financial support to preferred candidates during the 2021 election without the candidates’ knowledge”. India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) had issued a statement rejecting the report on January 28 itself.

However, on page 6 of her report, Ms. Hogue’s summation included language that apparently led to confusion over the findings. 

“Disinformation is also used as a retaliatory tactic, to punish decisions that run contrary to a state’s interests,” the report says, adding, “This may have been the case with a disinformation campaign that followed the [Canadian] Prime Minister’s announcement regarding suspected Indian involvement in the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar (though again no definitive link to a foreign state could be proven).” 

Canadian officials said the phrase “no definitive link to a foreign state” referred to the disinformation following the Nijjar killing in June 2023, and not to the investigation into the killing itself, which is taking place in Canadian criminal courts. 

“PIFI was not mandated to investigate the murder of Harjit Singh Nijjar.  The statement in question simply reflects that, ultimately, it is up to the courts to decide accountability with respect to this complex matter, which remains under investigation,” the Canadian High Commission said in a statement to The Hindu in response to the report. 

However, a report issued in Ottawa by the Press Trust of India, which was carried in The Hindu’s online section, said that the Commission had in fact referred to the killing of Nijjar “contradicting Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s allegations that accused the involvement of Indian agents in the killing”.

A reading of the full report, however, includes several strong alleged findings critical of India. “India is the second most active country engaging in electoral foreign interference in Canada (after China),” the Hogue Commission’s final report says in a section on ‘Foreign Threats’ (page 40), which explained the background to India’s perception that Canada has not taken India’s national security concerns on Khalistani separatism “sufficiently seriously”. 

“India focuses its foreign interference activities on the Indo-Canadian community and on prominent non-Indo-Canadians to achieve its objectives. This interference has targeted all levels of government. Like the PRC [People’s Republic of China], India conducts foreign interference through diplomatic officials in Canada and through proxies,” the report says, also accusing Indian “proxy agents” of providing “illicit financial support” to various Canadian politicians. The report says the intelligence received did not necessarily find the politicians “were aware of the interference attempts, or that the attempts necessarily succeeded”.

In its statement this week, the MEA had said that “it is in fact Canada which has been consistently interfering in India’s internal affairs”. 

“This has also created an environment for illegal migration and organized criminal activities. We reject the report’s insinuations on India and expect that the support system enabling illegal migration will not be further countenanced,” the MEA said.