Explained: This article explains the political background, key decisions, and possible outcomes related to Explained : No time for truth in this reset with India and Its Impact and why it matters right now.
Prime Minister Mark Carney after his meeting with Indian counterpart Narendra Modi in New Delhi, Monday.Manish Swarup/The Associated Press
Mark Carney left on a trip to India last Thursday but there has simply been no time to field reporters’ queries.
The Prime Minister cancelled the press conference scheduled for Monday, when embarrassing questions were to be posed, because his meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi ran long and his flight to Australia couldn’t be delayed and well, there was no time.
Oh no! Just when the PM was going to be asked if India is still involved in foreign interference in Canada, in the midst of a trip where he’s supposed to be patching up strained relations.
Actually, the cancellation of the press conference has been predictable since last Wednesday, when a government official made a comment that raked up the interference issue again. And, as it turned out, Mr. Carney was able to clear Indian airspace before being drawn on questions that might tick off Mr. Modi.
That’s diplomacy. It’s reasonable for Mr. Carney to try to reset relations with India and launch trade talks. It’s a tumultuous world. And Mr. Carney didn’t say much about foreign interference when he visited the People’s Republic of China, either.
Prime Minister Mark Carney and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi talk about renewing ties between the two countries after years of strained relations.
The Canadian Press
But let’s not pretend there isn’t a whack of accountability still due.
The foreign-interference issue is still touchy because the Indian government denies it all, treating the allegations as impudent insults.
In 2023, then-prime minister Justin Trudeau alleged that agents of India were involved in the killing of Canadian-Sikh Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey, B.C. The RCMP held a press conference in 2024 to say that agents of the Indian government were involved in a broader series of crimes in Canada.
On Monday, The Globe and Mail reported that Canadian national-security officials had been presented with evidence that indicated Indian consular officials in Vancouver provided information to assist in Mr. Nijjar’s assassination, according to two sources.
Information about Mr. Nijjar was allegedly passed on to Vikash Yadav, the Indian intelligence officer named in a U.S. indictment over a foiled plot to kill an American-Sikh activist, and it was then provided to a criminal gang that shared it with the four accused gunmen.
Evidence links Indian officials at Vancouver consulate to killing of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar
The whole issue of Indian foreign interference was chucked back into the headlines last week when the government official who briefed reporters on the trip said the Prime Minister wouldn’t be going if the government thought India was still involved in foreign interference in Canada.
That teed up an obvious question for the Prime Minister of Canada: Has India really stopped all its foreign-interference activities?
It would be tricky for Mr. Carney to answer without stirring up conflict with the Indian government, (a) security services probably won’t guarantee all interference has stopped and (b) asserting that it has stopped suggests that it happened in the first place. And India insists it never happened.
So, Mr. Carney ran out of time.
Instead, Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand told reporters that she would not have chosen the words the official used last week. She also wouldn’t choose any words that might inform Canadians now.
India dismisses allegation of link between Indian consulate and Nijjar assassination
As it happens, at least one Liberal MP wanted more distance from the official’s assertion that it is all in the past.
Liberal MP Ruby Sahota, the secretary of state for combatting crime and the MP for Brampton North Caledon, a riding with a sizable Canadian-Sikh community, issued a statement that said “attempting to minimize these threats risks eroding public confidence and overlooks the ongoing efforts to protect communities targeted by intimidation and violence.”
Quite so! The allegations of transnational repression aren’t just spy-versus-spy stuff in a foreign land. They are concerns that affect the safety of Canadian citizens, and not just activists for a separate Sikh state of Khalistan to be carved out of India. Perhaps Mr. Carney will talk about that when he is in Australia.
In the meantime, there is time to consider the extent of the reset. India welcomes the reconciliation but still accuses Canada of lying.
India’s High Commissioner to Canada, Dinesh Patnaik, told reporters that there was no question about whether Indian interference is still happening.
“It never happened,” he said. “It’s a problem Canada has to resolve itself.”
Presumably, it’s up to the Prime Minister to resolve that problem.
Perhaps Mr. Carney has some ideas, and he might have shared them with reporters at a press conference. But there was just no time.