Dustin Volz
WASHINGTON—Canadian intelligence agencies intercepted communications among Indian diplomats indicating that New Delhi was involved in the killing of a Sikh separatist leader in British Columbia earlier this year, a Western official familiar with the matter said.
Those intercepts, combined with a stream of intelligence shared by the U.S., led Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau, to publicly accuse India of playing a role in the shooting of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who was gunned down in the parking lot of a Sikh temple.
U.S. officials are reluctant to talk about the alleged assassination plot at the same time the Biden administration is eager to forge closer ties with India to counter China, though President Biden’s national-security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said last week the accusation was a “matter of concern.” U.S. spy agencies recently provided briefings to the congressional intelligence committees about the assassination plot, according to congressional aides.
While Canada generated the most in-depth intelligence about the assassination plot on its own, U.S. spy agencies shared intelligence that helped firm up and contextualize Ottawa’s conclusion that India was responsible, according to the Western official.
The specific U.S.-produced intelligence was given to Ottawa after the alleged assassination occurred, the official said, and while considered helpful it was Canada’s interception of electronic communications among Indian diplomats that chiefly drove its conclusion and public accusation.
The New York Times earlier reported on the U.S.’s role in supporting Canada’s assessment of India’s involvement and the intelligence developed internally by Canada.The U.S. ambassador to Canada, David Cohen, told Canada’s CTV News in an interview broadcast on Sunday that shared intelligence among the Five Eyes intelligence network “helped lead Canada to making the statement that the prime minister made” in the legislature, alleging an Indian government role in Nijjar’s death. Cohen didn’t elaborate on which country provided the intelligence and what it contained.
“There was a lot of communication between Canada and the United States about this,” the ambassador said, adding U.S. officials have asked India to cooperate in Canada’s investigation. “If the allegations prove to be true, it is potentially a very serious breach of the rules-based international order.”
A spokeswoman for Trudeau declined to comment. A spokesman for Canada’s public-safety minister didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Trudeau last week declined to elaborate on what evidence authorities have, and didn’t answer a question on whether he would share what security officials know. Last Monday, he told lawmakers in a rare national-security address in Canada’s Parliament that authorities were pursuing “credible allegations” of Indian government involvement in the fatal shooting of a Canadian Sikh leader. Nijjar, 45 years old, was killed in June in the parking lot of a Surrey, British Columbia, Sikh temple, where he served as president. Police say witnesses have told them two masked suspects fled in a getaway car.
Canada also expelled a diplomat from India, who Canada’s foreign minister said was the Canadian head of India’s foreign-spy agency, the Research and Analysis Wing.
The Indian government has called Canada’s allegation “absurd and motivated.” It said that “such unsubstantiated allegations seek to shift the focus from Khalistani terrorists and extremists, who have been provided shelter in Canada and continue to threaten India’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.” India expelled a Canadian diplomat, and called on Canada to share what evidence it has.
Trudeau said officials have shared the allegations with their Indian counterparts—including directly with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Group of 20 leaders’ summit in New Delhi this month—“and we hope that they engage with us so that we can get to the bottom of this very serious matter.”
It isn’t unusual for the U.S. to furnish tightly guarded intelligence to close allies, including Canada. Both are part of the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing partnership of English-speaking countries that also includes the U.K., Australia and New Zealand. On a routine, continuing basis, Five Eyes nations share some of the most secretive intelligence with one another that is sometimes considered off-limits to other important Western allies, such as Germany.
The intelligence delivered to Ottawa wasn’t a routine summary of intelligence but a tailored package of insight developed after the assassination, the official said. U.S. officials informed spy agencies in Canada that they didn’t appear to have intelligence about plans concerning the assassination before it occurred, the official said, but would have done so if they had such material in their possession.
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