Trudeau on Nijjar killing: ‘Could have made G20 Summit uncomfortable’ | 5 claims

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Wednesday claimed he only went public with the Hardeep Singh Nijjar’s murder allegation involving India’s government after a lengthy behind-the-scenes effort to address the matter diplomatically was rejected by Indian officials.
Testifying before the public inquiry into foreign interference in federal electoral processes and democratic institutions, Justin Trudeau said Canadian officials had first sought cooperation with the Indian government “in a responsible way” that doesn’t “blow up the relationship between Canada and India”, especially given India was about to host a Group of 20 leaders summit at the time.
“We had the opportunity of making it a very uncomfortable summit for India if we went public with these allegations ahead of time,” Justin Trudeau said, recalling the discussions in August 2023.
“We chose not to. We chose to continue to work behind the scenes to try to get India to cooperate with us,” the Canadian Prime Minister said.
Justin Trudeau said the Canadian government was seeking India’s help to find out if the alleged interference and violence was done either by a rogue element or directed by someone higher up in the government.
Trudeau had no definite answer when asked if the alleged interference was a rogue element or authorized by the responsible members of the Government of India.
Justin Trudeau acknowledged that he had only intelligence and no “hard evidentiary proof” when he alleged the involvement of Indian government agents in the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar last year.
“India had indeed done it, and we had reasons to believe that they had,” Trudeau said, adding that his government’s immediate approach was to engage with the government of India to work on this together to make sure that there was accountability.”
The MEA on Thursday said what it has heard only “confirms” New Delhi’s consistent stand that Canada has “presented us no evidence” in support of the serious allegations Ottawa chose to level against India and Indian diplomats.
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) issued a statement in the early hours on Thursday in response to media queries related to Trudeau’s deposition, some of whose details came out in media reports.
“What we have heard today only confirms what we have been saying consistently all along – Canada has presented us no evidence whatsoever in support of the serious allegations that it has chosen to level against India and Indian diplomats,” MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in a statement.
The ministry further said, “The responsibility for the damage that this cavalier behaviour has caused to India-Canada relations lies with Prime Minister Trudeau alone.”