India-Canada Tensions: Kanishka Bombing – When Trudeau's Father Turned a Blind Eye to Terror

As the diplomatic tensions between India and Canada continue to escalate, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Wednesday, while testifying at Foreign Interference Commission, admitted that he "did not have evidence" to support the accusations of Indian government agents' involvement in the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar. He also stated that India committed a "massive mistake and violated the country's sovereignty". "India was holding G20 in September and everyone was in Delhi for the summit...We had the opportunity to make it an uncomfortable summit for India if we went public with the allegations..but we worked behind the scenes to get India to cooperate...Their ask was what evidence do you have...We said its within your agencies you should be engaging...But by that time we had intelligence not hard evidence or proof...We asked them to get together and asked them to cooperate with us..." Trudeau said. Responding to a question on what led to his announcements in September 2023, Trudeau said: "I was apprised by intelligence services that there was credible intelligence that Indian govt agents were involved in Nijjar's killing... We had asked intelligence agencies to look into this...The initial assessment was gang-related criminal-related...No immediate international nexus...After hearing from South Asian community and members of parliament that the killing was likely connected to Indian govt...We asked intelligence agencies to look into it." "In July and August I was briefed that Indian government agents were involved in the killing of a Canadian on Canadian soil...We had to take this extremely seriously...The violation of international rule of law...in a fellow democracy...was a massive mistake if India had done it and we had reasons to believe India did it," the Canadian PM added. He further said that Canada had reached out to India in August and informed them that they must work on the matter together. "Let's do it responsibly in a way that India and Canada relations are not blown up." Talking about his conversation with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Trudeau said: "I had a conversation with PM Modi at G20 in Delhi where I sat down and shared about India's involvement. He responded that there are people in Canada that have outspoken against the Indian govt and he would like to see arrested... I explained that freedom of speech is a fundamental right in Canada..." "It was clear that the Indian government's approach was to criticise us and the integrity of our democracy," he added.