Perhaps the most surprising part of the announcement of the joint Operation Hard Ball last week was how much the RCMP’s description of the actors involved in the killing of a Canadian Sikh activist differed from what it said only a short while ago.
“I firmly state that nothing has come out today to link the Indian government” to the operation, RCMP Deputy Commissioner Lisa Moreland told CBC’s Power & Politics.
“There’s no evidence to suggest through this organized crime investigation and the charges and the indictment laid forward that Indian officials were charged or involved.”
That statement appeared at odds not only with statements by former prime minister Justin Trudeau, but also with information previously communicated by the RCMP itself.
A co-ordinated crackdown against three organized gangs based in India led to 37 people being charged across the U.S., Canada and Europe. Power & Politics talks to RCMP Deputy Commissioner Lisa Moreland about the charges officially laid in the assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
It was RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme who told the country on Oct. 14, 2024, that danger posed by the Indian government’s alleged campaign in Canada was so grave that the force had no choice but to set aside normal procedure and disclose information about an ongoing investigation.
“We feel it is necessary to do so at this time due to the significant threat to public safety in our country,” he said.
Unambiguously laying blame
The statements at the time were unambiguous in accusing India.
Duheme said agents of the Indian government were waging a “widespread” campaign of violence in Canada.
“Evidence also shows that a wide variety of entities in Canada and abroad have been used by agents of the government of India to collect information,” Duheme said.
Federal prosecutors in Los Angeles on Tuesday announced criminal charges against the prominent leader and eight associates of the Bishnoi gang, tying them to the 2023 assassination of a Sikh separatist leader in Surrey, B.C.
The RCMP also issued a written statement explaining that the force “felt it was imperative to confront the government of India and inform the public about some very serious findings.”
It listed at the time what it called “four very serious issues”:
- Violent extremism impacting both countries.
- Links tying agents of the government of India to homicides and violent acts.
- The use of organized crime to create a perception of an unsafe environment targeting the South Asian community in Canada.
- Interference into democratic processes.
A statement the same day from Trudeau said “the RCMP has clear and compelling evidence that agents of the government of India have engaged in, and continue to engage in, activities that pose a significant threat to public safety … including murder.”
Duheme also told Power and Politics, the same program where Moreland made her remarks last week, that “we do have strong evidence — not intelligence, but evidence — that this goes all the way up to the highest level.”
He said some of that evidence “will eventually come out through the judicial process.”
David Morrison, the current senior diplomatic and international affairs adviser to Prime Minister Mark Carney, even identified the official giving the orders as Home Minister Amit Shah, often seen as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s right-hand man.
RCMP responds to discrepancy
Asked about the contrast between what Duheme and other officials said in 2024 and what Moreland said last week, the RCMP did not directly address Moreland’s “no evidence” claims, but rather emphasized the lack of charges.
“As stated by both the FBI and the RCMP, no charges have been laid against any government official from India in relation to this transnational organized crime investigation,” said the statement.
It said that Operation Hard Ball was ongoing and would not comment further, though it noted that the Hardeep Singh Nijjar homicide file “remains the subject of a separate and ongoing investigation led by the RCMP integrated homicide investigation team.”
But the Nijjar assassination is also very much part of Operation Hard Ball. It charged gang leader Lawrence Bishnoi and associate Satinderjeet (Goldy Brar) Singh with orchestrating the killing.
Four Indian nationals are currently awaiting trial related to Nijjar’s 2023 killing in Surrey, B.C. None of the allegations have been proven in court.
The Indian government and media seized on Moreland’s comments to suggest that Canada was backing away from its previous allegations.
The headline of India’s NDTV read: “No Evidence Linking Indian Officials To Nijjar Killing: Canada.”
Indian government takes note
“We have noted the remarks made by the deputy commissioner of RCMP,” said External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal.
“These remarks are consistent with the recently unsealed U.S. indictment, which attributes responsibility to the members of the Lawrence Bishnoi organized crime group,” and not to the government of India.
However, Jaiswal did not mention a previous U.S. indictment in the murder-for-hire plot to kill a close associate of Nijjar in New York, which clearly alleged the Indian government was the intellectual author of the conspiracies both against Canadian American Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, and against Nijjar.
That case ended earlier this year in a guilty plea. The government of India has already acknowledged the involvement of a government intelligence agent, Vikash Yadav, although it portrayed him as a rogue actor.
The newest indictment does not allege Indian government involvement, and a previous U.S. State Department note addressing India’s role in the murder plot is no longer available on the department’s website.
Asked by CBC News whether the U.S. would now seek the extradition of Lawrence Bishnoi, Nicole Navas Oxman of the U.S. Department of Justice declined to comment.
Both the U.S. and Canadian governments have sought to restore relations with the Modi government in the wake of the diplomatic rupture that followed the Pannun and Nijjar cases.
Some members of Canada’s Sikh community have interpreted the latest comments from the RCMP as a sign that Canada is reluctant to allow threats against them to interfere with the larger trading and diplomatic relationship.
Moninder Singh is chair of the Sikh Federation (Canada) and was a close friend and associate of Nijjar. He says he has continued to receive “duty to warn” letters from Canadian police.
“It felt like a betrayal after everything that’s happened over the last few years,” he said. “There’s a pattern over the last year, I think, we’ve been noticing since Mr. Carney’s government has come in to court India.”
‘Hundred-headed demon’
Singh said he welcomed the arrests and charges against gangs that have extorted and terrorized the South Asian community in North America.
“When people like that are taken off the street, public safety will improve for the average individual,” he said.
But Singh said the arrests were less likely to reduce the threat to Sikh separatist political activists such as himself, “because the issue is with the Indian government.”
“India is like a hundred-headed demon,” he said. Lawrence Bishnoi and Goldy Brar “are just two heads on that hundred-headed demon that can be replaced. And there’s plenty more they can go to and they probably are using that we’re not aware of.”
Of the claim that there is no evidence linking India to any cases in Operation Hard Ball, he said “we’re just not buying it.”
