A Canadian Sikh advocacy organization is calling out the federal government for failing to take steps to protect its community or investigate “electoral interference, and violent criminal activities carried out by agents of the Government of India.”

Sikh Federation Canada, an advocacy group representing a network of Sikh community groups, is calling on the federal government to address anti-Sikh hate and establish a public inquiry into the assassination of a prominent Canadian-Sikh leader on Canadian soil.

“When we talk about accountability, we know that there was the assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar and we know that there were well over a dozen individuals and activists in the community that have received duties to warn,” Sikh Federation legal counsel Prabjot Singh told PressProgress.

“The two things that are paramount and most important for the community in this moment and on this issue is public accountability and transparency.”

Last year, the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security (SECU) launched a study into foreign interference in Canada by the Government of India, with a number of key individuals testifying before the committee, including Prabjot Singh and Moninder Singh of Sikh Federation Canada.

New, from me: Canadian Sikh groups point out Conservative Party’s reluctance to ask questions about foreign interference by Indiahttps://t.co/JR5i19PVfx

— Rumneek (@rumneeek) November 1, 2024

The study began in October 2024, after RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme warned Canadians about a number of crimes connected to the government of India, including “homicides, extortions and other criminal acts of violence.”

At the time, more than a dozen individuals in Canada were warned about potential threats at the hands of the government of India.

The work of the committee was cut short with the prorogation of Parliament on January 6, 2025, and the dissolution of Parliament on March 23, 2025.

With the study on pause ever since, Singh says the federal government has taken little action at the same time as the government moves to rebuild ties with India.

“For that study to essentially now just evaporate as though it never happened is a problem,” Singh said. “Somebody like myself, like Moninder Singh and other Sikh activists who [testified] for that committee were doing so after putting themselves at great risk and publicly speaking about these issues.”

Singh says he wants to see the study immediately “resurrected” by parliament so it can be “subject to debate about what we know publicly about India’s activities and what went wrong within government, within our agencies, that it wasn’t stopped.”

Singh says there needs to be accountability and transparency about Indian foreign interference in Canada, and for the Canadian public to receive details about violence against Sikhs – including about Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who was killed on Canadian soil.

“The only way to get to the other side of this is through public accountability of the Indian government officials who orchestrated and ordered the violence,” Singh said, adding that there needs to be a “transparent reckoning with the reality and the details and the facts of what occurred, what Canadian agencies and officials knew, and why they failed to act or failed to stop this violence from occurring in Canada.”

The last session of the standing committee was held over a year ago, on December 6, 2024, when Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown alleged during testimony that the Indian government exerted influence over his 2022 Conservative leadership campaign.

Brampton mayor testifies that India exerted influence over his 2022 Conservative Leadership campaign

“I’m used to (India) being aggressive in stating their their position.”

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— PressProgress (@pressprogress.ca) December 6, 2024 at 10:21 AM

According to Brown’s testimony, India’s consul general often took issue with positions taken by Brown and even with language used in reference to the Sikh community in Canada.

However, since those revelations came to light, no action has been taken by the Canadian government to question the actions of India in relation to foreign interference and transnational repression.

According to a clerk for the SECU, “the study is ended and would need to be started by adoption of a motion by the Committee to take up the subject again.”

The current chair of the SECU, Jean-Yves Duclos, the Liberal MP for Québec Centre, did not respond to multiple requests for comment from *PressProgress. *

In October, Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand signalled the Carney government wants to restart relations with the Modi government, saying during a state visit to India: “Now we’re moving forward from September-October 2023.”

In September 2023, then prime minister Justin Trudeau told the House of Commons that the Government of Canada had learned of “credible allegations” about India’s involvement in the killing of Nijjar earlier that year.

In the fall of 2024, both countries expelled top diplomats. New ones were appointed this past August following a reset in Canadian-Indian relations.

In a gesture to restart their relationship, earlier this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was invited by Mark Carney to the G7 Summit in Kananaskis, Alberta.

Singh says the Canadian government’s attempt to normalize its relationship with India is making it clear to Sikh Canadians where the Carney government’s priorities lie.

“The way that the government is going about this normalization process with India without any public accountability, without any transparency, is sending a really clear message to the community that our safety, our security, and our rights are for sale.”

During the 2025 foreign interference inquiry, Singh said documents were made available to counsel participating in the commission, yet documents relating to India were often redacted.

For example, the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP) released multiple reports in 2019, “meant to actually assess the threat to foreign interference and Canada’s response.”

“When you look at the documents, there’s a case study on Russian foreign interference and Canada’s response, Chinese foreign interference and Canada’s response, and then there’s this third case study that’s completely redacted,” Singh said.

The report was later leaked to a reporter, who revealed that the third country that was redacted was in fact India.

“Not only was there this massive failure by the government at that time in stopping Indian intelligence networks operating, proliferating in the country and targeting the community, but then there was an active coverup immediately after to try and erase the fact that this happened in the first place, and that’s a report from 2019.”

However, Singh says there still hasn’t been a comprehensive investigation into the violence or other allegations that surfaced during the foreign interference commission’s 2025 report that raised concerns about transnational repression by the government of India.

According to a recent survey conducted by Sikh Federation, “Sikhs across Canada are calling on the government to uphold the universal principles of justice, accountability, and human rights.”

The survey of nearly 2,000 Sikhs, conducted in-person at Gurdwaras and Sikh institutions across the country, provides a comprehensive look at concerns of Canadian Sikhs, who feel that issues impacting their community are not a priority for policy makers.

“An overwhelming majority of the community was unequivocally clear that human rights and the rule of law need to be prioritized over economic interests and trade ties,” Singh said.

“Now, during this normalization period, for there to be no explicit mention of that, no talk about public accountability, no indications of any kind that the individuals who actually pulled the strings and called the shots are going to be held accountable is incredibly concerning and really frustrating, to be honest.”

Singh says the Sikh community feels “frustration” with “speaking into the void” with no action from elected officials, something that is creating a “trust deficit with the government.”

“[It’s] treated as though this is just an issue impacting our community or a small segment of our community and not being treated as a ‘Canadian issue’, not being treated as a massive threat and attack on Canada’s institutions, on communities in Canada, on the Charter rights of people in Canada.”

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