‘Complete u-turn’: Sikh advocates accuse Ottawa of letting India off the hook in Nijjar murder

Following a gang bust, the RCMP says there is no connection between the Indian government and the killing of a Canadian Sikh activist. Andrew Johnson reports.

SURREY, B.C. - Members of Canada’s Sikh community say they are encouraged by major arrests related to the killing of Surrey, B.C. Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar, but believe Ottawa is backing away from earlier allegations the Indian government was involved.

“We’re on the right track law-enforcement wise,” said Moninder Singh, spokesperson for the Sikh Federation of Canada. “But politically, it feels like we’re courting India at the risk of violating the human rights of Canadians.”

Singh’s comments come after law enforcement officials announced nearly two dozen arrests as part of Operation Hardball, an investigation targeting India-based organized crime groups operating in Canada and the United States. Investigators said Indian gangster Lawrence Bishnoi and his associate, Goldy Brar have been charged with ordering Nijjar’s murder.

Nijjar was a prominent Sikh activist India had labelled a terrorist. He was shot and killed outside Surrey’s Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara in June 2023.

Later that year, then-prime minister Justin Trudeau sparked a rift between Canada and India when he said: “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.”

Singh said many in the Sikh community are now struggling to reconcile Trudeau’s stance after the RCMP said yesterday, that no link was found between India and Bishnoi’s alleged involvement in Nijjar’s death.

“We had all this evidence and all these statements from elected officials that were all kind of saying that this is what’s happening,” Singh said. “And now we’re kind of seeing the complete U-turn, which is that it’s these two gangsters that carried out this assassination.”

Prime Minister Mark Carney has worked to improve relations with India, culminating in a March trip to Mumbai and New Delhi that concluded with a meeting between Carney and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the signing of a series of trade agreements.

Carney has not repeated Trudeau’s claims of Indian involvement in Nijjar’s murder. In March, he told The Globe And Mail he did not want to prejudice an ongoing criminal investigation.

Carney’s change in tone

Singh says the change in tone regarding India has not gone unnoticed in his community.

“So we had all this evidence and all these statements from Canadian officials, elected officials that were all kind of saying that this is what’s happening,” Singh told CTV News.

“Now we’re kind of seeing the complete U-turn, which is that it’s these two gangsters that carried out this assassination and Mr. Carney’s government in the last year courting Mr. Modi and the Indian side, basically for trade and economic relationships.”

Gurpatwant Pannun, general counsel for Sikhs for Justice, agrees and questions who supplied Bishnoi with information about Nijjar’s whereabouts, before he allegedly ordered the killing from an Indian jail.

“The answer is very simple,” Pannun said. “America knows it, Canada knows it.”

In addition to Trudeau’s 2023 allegation, the RCMP in 2024 alleged Indian diplomats and consular officials were involved in criminal activity in Canada, including homicides and extortion targeting members of the South Asian community.

Meanwhile, despite the arrests related to Operation Hardball, alleged extortion-related violence continues in Canada.