Did India back Poilievre for CPC Leader after Brown criticized Modi?
The Government of India has been accused of killing people on Canadian soil. CSIS says they also interfered with the Conservative Leadership
Canada is currently undergoing a series of political paroxysms - an inquiry into foreign interference, as well as a dealing with the fact that the India’s far-right Nationalist government has been accused of killing people on Canadian soil.
On September 18, 2023 Prime Minister Justin Trudeau levelled the accusation in the House of Commons,
Trudeau made an unprecedented declaration in the House of Commons, accusing agents of the Indian government of helping to kill Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who was shot dead outside a Sikh temple in Surrey, B.C., on June 18.
"Canadian security agencies have been actively pursuing credible allegations of a potential link between agents of the government of India and the killing of a Canadian citizen, Hardeep Singh Nijjar," Trudeau said Monday.
The statement is brief:
Over the past number of weeks, Canadian security agencies have been actively pursuing credible allegations of a potential link between agents of the Government of India and the killing of a Canadian citizen, Hardeep Singh Nijjar. Canada is a rule-of-law country. The protection of our citizens and the defence of our sovereignty are fundamental. Our top priorities have therefore been, one, that our law enforcement and security agencies ensure the continued safety of all Canadians, and two, that all steps be taken to hold perpetrators of this murder to account.
Canada has declared its deep concerns to the top intelligence and security officials of the Indian government. Last week, at the G20, I brought them personally and directly to Prime Minister Modi in no uncertain terms. Any involvement of a foreign government in the killing of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil is an unacceptable violation of our sovereignty. It is contrary to the fundamental roles by which free, open and democratic societies conduct themselves.
As one would expect, we have been working closely and coordinating with our most important allies on this very serious matter. In the strongest possible terms, I continue to urge the Government of India to co-operate with Canada to get to the bottom of this matter. I also expect it to reiterate that its position on extrajudicial operations in another country is clearly and unequivocally in line with international law.
I know that many Canadians, particularly members of the Indo-Canadian community, are feeling angry or perhaps frightened right now. Let us not allow this to change us. Let us remain calm and steadfast in our commitment to our democratic principles and our adherence to the rule of law. This is who we are and what we do as Canadians.
Which was greeted with derision from some in the press, and disinterest by the opposition Conservatives. Poilievre dismissed the charges and brought up Chinese interference instead.
When asked if India should face sanctions, Poilievre said he would need to see more evidence.
"I do find it interesting that [Trudeau] knew about vast foreign interference by Beijing for many years, at the same time as Beijing kept two Canadian citizens hostage, and he said nothing and he did nothing," Poilievre added.
“Just very interesting that was the approach he took."
There has been a lot of heat and not much light when it comes to Chinese election interference. There’s no question it was attempted, but it’s impact is not as clear.
However, linking the “two Michaels” with the idea that China favoured the Liberals ignores that they were taken captive by China in an act of retaliation for Canada arresting an Huawei executive for extradition on to the U.S. on charges of violating sanctions by selling equipment to Iran.
It’s odd, too, because for whatever reason Poilievre as Leader of the Opposition refuses to get a national security clearance, so that he cannot get briefings above a certain level of security.
While the revelations sparked headlines around the world, the Conservatives asked no questions about it in question period that week. You can click through the questions here. These are the topics that people asked about, in the order they were asked in QP on September 19, 20, 21, the three days after the Prime Minister made the disclosure to the House of Commons.
Poilievre told CP24 that “[Justin Trudeau]’s got an embarrassing dispute now that he's losing with India.”
The Canadian conservative media responded with derision that happened to line up with political messaging in Modi’s India.
The attitude changed - somewhat - when the U.S. revealed an indictment that showed that India planned to kill three people on Canadian soil.
The indictment says Gupta told the police informant in an audio call that they had "four jobs" to finish before June 29 — one in New York and "three in Canada."
In fact, the Canadian killing allegedly came up multiple times.
Days before the Nijjar shooting, Gupta allegedly mentioned a "big target" in Canada during one phone call; he also allegedly sent a text message mentioning the need for a good team in Canada.
After Nijjar's shooting, he mentioned in a phone call that a different hitman had handled it: "We didn't give to [the undercover officer] this job, so some other guy did this job ... in Canada."
CBC News has reported that Canadian authorities amassed both human and signals intelligence before Prime Minister Justin Trudeau dropped the bombshell allegation in the House of Commons in September that the Indian government was connected to Nijjar's killing.
Former CSIS officials said that Trudeau had been vindicated.
Yet another bombshell followed in December - CSIS was suggesting that India and China had not only interfered with public elections but with selecting their favoured choice for leader, and presumably future Prime Minister.
Andrew Coyne wrote about it here.
It wasn’t clear who it could be. The two main candidates were Patrick Brown, former Ontario PC Leader, and Pierre Poilievre. Of the two, Brown had a much closer relationship with Modi - Brown knew him personally and had visited India many times.
Brown welcomed Modi to Ontario, as detailed in this PC Ontario press release, where Brown is quoted as saying “It was a great opportunity to catch up with my good friend and ‘brother’ Narendra Modi”
“In my multitude of meetings with Modi, I have always been impressed by his intellect, sincerity, and humility. PM Modi has brought a sense of optimism to the country of India, and has contributed to widespread economic development in India and the province of Gujarat,” concluded Leader Patrick Brown.
However, Brown later became Mayor of Brampton, which has an extremely high Sikh population.
In 2020, Brown criticized Modi - something that Tarek Fatah termed “an attack”, because Brown suggested that India’s laws were Islamophobic. The story was also picked up by the New Delhi Times.
In 2002 when he was Chief Minister of Gujarat, he was accused of “allowing” anti-Muslim riots that killed over 1,000 people.That led to him being denied a visa by the US - which had to be reversed once he was elected Prime Minister of India in 2014.
This post from December last year, at Baaz News, says they spoke to representatives from Brown’s campaign, and confirmed that Indian Government officials approached Conservative MPs asking them to pull their support for Brown in favour of Pierre Poilievre.
“We have granted anonymity to the sources in this article as they are still involved with government bodies or the CPC and fear retribution or are worried about becoming targets for Indian transnational repression.
Indian Foreign Interference Against the Patrick Brown Leadership Campaign
“The MP shared with Brown and other members of his team that Indian officials in Canada told them that Patrick Brown had recently taken policy positions contrary to Indian interests, that he must be defeated in the leadership race, and that the MP should retract their support for him,” a senior source, who was privy to conversations between the MP and the Brown campaign team, shared with Baaz.
The revelations concerning Indian foreign interference were separately corroborated by others with a similar recollection of conversations over the course of what would become a contentious leadership race.
“We knew that local pro-Modi organizations alongside Indian government actors were mobilizing against the Brown campaign as they were concerned with the strong support we had from both the Sikh and Muslim communities,” another member of the Brown campaign team told Baaz, “the MP’s startling experience of foreign interference only confirmed what we understood was happening on the ground.”
Patrick Brown was disqualified from the CPC leadership race in July 2022, two months before the vote, over allegations concerning campaign financing rules..
… Sam Cooper [reported] in The Bureau that according to Canada’s intelligence agency, CSIS, “Government of India agents appear to have interfered in the Conservative’s 2022 leadership race by purchasing memberships for one candidate while undermining another, and also boasted of funding ‘a number of politicians at all levels of government.’”
… It has become apparent that the candidate India was attempting to undermine was Patrick Brown.
Cooper said the CSIS document said the Indian Consulate blocked one leadership candidate from attending community events the Consulate was hosting.
Baaz said “the Brown campaign has confirmed with Baaz that it was Patrick Brown who was told by Indian Consulate agents not to attend Indian community events in 2022, as well as those put on by the Consulate itself, including an annual India Republic Day event.
The Baaz article goes on to write:
Pro-India Actors Supported Poilievre’s Leadership Campaign
The Pierre Poilievre leadership campaign participated in a meet and greet with Poilievre at Brampton’s Pearson Convention Centre in March 2022, in which the Canada India Foundation’s (CIF) chair, Ritesh Malik, was to host as MC.
Malik was eventually replaced as protestors planned to demonstrate at the campaign event over concerns about the CIF’s connections to far-right Hindu Nationalist actors and its history of lobbying Canadian officials in support of the Indian government.
The CIF was featured in a National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM) and the World Sikh Organization of Canada (WSO) report concerning the “RSS Network in Canada”, an in-depth report looking at Indian state interference in Canada through Hindu Nationalist bodies affiliated with the militant RSS and its political arm, the BJP.
The CIF denied any allegations of being connected to the Indian government when asked by CTV News about its history of inviting controversial Hindu Nationalist and BJP government speakers with violent anti-minority pasts.
Poilievre also received blessings for his CPC leadership bid during a home visit in April 2022, hosted by Aditya Tawatia. Tawatia is the Convener BC Chapter for the controversial Canada-India Global Forum (CIGF).
CSIS recently visited CIGF president, Dr. Shivendra Dwivedi, on two separate occasions to discuss concerns about foreign interference from India in Canada through BJP-friendly organizations like the CIGF.
"Dr. Dwivedi does not hide the fact that it was the BJP that founded his association in 2013, which was then called Overseas Friends of BJP Canada. The primary aim of his organization was to promote and help bring the BJP to power in India," the Journal de Montreal states in an article about the CSIS foreign interference visits.
Baaz’ reporting has faced some remarkable attempts to erase them. When they published an article about personnel changes related to Indian security services operating out of consulates, there were attemps to make fake copyright claims to take the article down, as well as attempts to de-index the article from Google search, so it couldn’t be found.
These articles were published on Baaz last December.
Where’s the right-wing outrage about this election interference?
It’s the old story of the dog that didn’t bark. Sherlock Holmes “refers to ‘the curious incident of the dog in the night-time’, namely that a watchdog did not bark during the theft of a racehorse from a stable, suggesting that the dog probably knew the thief...”
BRICS
For decades, we have been talking about the benefits of global trade, but we should be very conscious that the BRICS nations - Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa are seeking to challenge and change the world order through a variety of means - political, economic, financial. Of these, one of the most important, and most underestimated, is BRICS’ attempt to forge a new common currency that would compete with or supplant the U.S. dollar as the global reserve currency.
The more alarming and is the shows of military power, sabre-rattling and intimidation and outright invasions, accompanied by social media and propaganda campaigns.
As Canadians, we should recognize that we are in a second “Cold War” and act accordingly. We need to stand on guard, and we also need to stake out, defend and deliver on the values of peace order and good government.
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Conservatives of a feather flock together.
"linking the “two Michaels” with the idea that China favoured the Liberals ignores that they were taken captive by China in an act of retaliation for Canada arresting an Huawei executive for extradition on to the U.S. on charges of violating sanctions by selling equipment to Iran... CSIS was suggesting that India and China had not only interfered with public elections but with selecting their favoured choice for leader, and presumably future Prime Minister"??
Why would China care who governs Canada barely half of Canadians do? And why would China publicly break its first foreign relations rule of non-interference in other countries? That would do massive damage to China, for what benefit, exactly?
"As Canadians, we should recognize that we are in a second “Cold War” and act accordingly. We need to stand on guard, and we also need to stake out, defend and deliver on the values of peace order and good government”. You Canadians and your American handlers started and maintain this Cold War and can just as easily end it. China's doing fine anyway, in case your haven't noticed.