India has ‘intent, capability’ to interfere in Canadian polls, claims country’s spy agency

India, China, Russia and Pakistan could try to interfere in the Canadian general election, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service claimed on Monday.

The snap election is scheduled to take place on April 28.

Vanessa Lloyd, deputy director of operations at the spy service, said during a press conference: “We have also seen that the Government of India has the intent and capability to interfere in Canadian communities and democratic processes to assert its geopolitical influence.”

Canadian and “Canada-based proxies as well as contacts in their networks are increasingly relied on to conduct government of India foreign interference activities,” Lloyd added.

India’s Ministry of External Affairs has not commented on the allegations so far.

Ties between India and Canada have been strained since September 2023 when Justin Trudeau, the prime minister at the time, told his country’s Parliament that Canadian intelligence agencies were actively pursuing “credible allegations” tying agents of the Indian government to the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar near Vancouver.

Nijjar was a supporter of Khalistan, an independent Sikh nation sought by some groups. He was the head of the Khalistan Tiger Force, which is designated a terrorist outfit in India. India rejected Trudeau’s allegations as “absurd and motivated”.

The Canadian official said on Monday that China “will likely continue to target Canadian democratic institutions and civil society to advance...

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