Canadian PM Justin Trudeau admits revealing allegations against India to 'deter actions' | Key points from his interview
Ottawa (Canada), December 13: Amidst the ongoing tension between India and Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has stated that he revealed allegations against India regarding the killing of Hardeep Nijjar to impose a "chill on India" based on the reported situation in India, as per CTV News based in Canada. Trudeau made these remarks during an end-of-year interview with the Canadian media on Monday.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau mentioned that he went public with the announcement on September 18 because he anticipated that the information might eventually be leaked through the media. He emphasised that his intention was to assure Canadians that the government was addressing the situation.
"Many Canadians were concerned about their vulnerability," Trudeau remarked in the interview this week, citing concerns raised by the Sikh community in B.C. shortly after Hardeep Nijjar's killing.
"We believed that despite the discreet diplomatic efforts and measures implemented by our security services to safeguard the community, there was a need for additional deterrence, possibly by publicly and emphatically stating that we are aware, or have credible reasons to believe, that the Indian government was involved," he explained.
"This was to deter them from continuing or contemplating any such actions," he added.
India's Ministry of External Affairs promptly dismissed the allegations made by the Canadian Prime Minister, terming them as baseless and driven by "ulterior motives".
According to CTV News, Justin Trudeau also accused the Indian government of launching a misinformation campaign against Canada after he had publicly stated the allegations.
"They opted to counter and undermine us with a deluge of misinformation and disinformation through their media, which was almost laughable," Trudeau commented.
"It might have been humorous if it didn't have actual consequences on people's lives and the relations between our two nations, which have deep ties at a people-to-people level and are reliant on the connections between us," he added.
In his year-end interview, Justin Trudeau asserted that the message he conveyed in the House of Commons that day aimed to provide an added "level of deterrence" for the safety of Canadians.
"We were aware that this would lead to challenging discussions, but we also believed that this was a crucial moment for India to showcase its global leadership at the G20," Trudeau noted.
"We thought we could leverage this as an opportunity to collaborate constructively," he added.
When asked if he deemed those talks constructive, Trudeau was straightforward: "No," reported CTV News.
Trudeau also mentioned that Canada had cautioned India that the information they possessed would eventually surface, and while Ottawa managed to maintain a diplomatic dialogue leading up to the G20 summit, it had limited control beyond that.
Trudeau admitted that he wasn't certain if the information would leak, come out during the public inquiry into foreign interference, or due to a threshold where Canada had a responsibility to protect its citizens by going public.
Trudeau's announcement on September 18 prompted immediate demands for evidence, not only from India, but also from Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, urging Trudeau to disclose the truth.
India's Ministry of External Affairs, which recently initiated an inquiry into information shared by the US concerning organised crime connections and trafficking in the context of an alleged murder attempt on a US national, maintains that Canada presented no evidence to support its allegations. Thus, the question of equal treatment for both countries does not arise.
- ANI
