A panel of Canadian bureaucrats, convened by the Foreign Interference Commission, concluded on Wednesday that there was no evidence of India attempting to interfere in the 2021 elections in Canada. This conclusion comes in the wake of recent revelations from unclassified documents by the Canada Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), which had raised concerns about potential meddling by foreign actors in Canadian elections.
The CSIS report alleged that both India and Pakistan made attempts to influence the Canadian elections in 2019 and 2021. However, the panel of Canadian bureaucrats stated that they had not been briefed on any such attempts by India to sway the elections.
During their investigation, the panel received briefings from the SITE Task Force regarding the capabilities and potential tools used by foreign actors. However, they found no evidence during the 2021 election campaign suggesting that the Government of India had utilized these tools to interfere in the Canadian elections.
In response to the CSIS report, India vehemently denied the allegations of interference in Canadian elections. Randhir Jaiswal, spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), rejected the claims, emphasizing that it is not India's policy to interfere in the democratic processes of other nations. Instead, he accused Canada of meddling in India's internal affairs.
Tensions between India and Canada have been heightened since last year, following Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's assertion of the potential involvement of Indian government agents in the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar. India rebuffed Trudeau's claims as baseless and motivated, accusing Canada of providing a platform for Khalistani elements targeting India.
Furthermore, the Foreign Interference Commission also examined intelligence findings from February 2023, which indicated that China had interfered in Canadian elections in 2019 and 2021. The interference was described as strategic, and aimed at supporting candidates perceived as favorable or neutral to the People's Republic of China (PRC).
