India trying to influence candian elections

[kevinUsa]

 

[kevinUsa]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/china-india-interference-1.5284473

[kevinUsa]

The Canada-India relationship is also delicate.

For decades, Indian governments have harboured a belief that Canada is soft on the movement for an independent Khalistan, a separate homeland for Sikhs.

 

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is greeted by Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi as he arrives for an official welcoming ceremony at the Presidential Palace in New Delhi, India on Friday, Feb. 23, 2018. (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)

The topic was discussed when prime ministers Justin Trudeau and Narendra Modi met last year during Trudeau's trip to India in early 2018. That trip became mired in controversy when news broke that Jaspal Atwal — convicted of trying to assassinate an Indian cabinet minister in B.C. in 1986 — was invited to dine with Trudeau at a formal event hosted by the Canadian High Commissioner in Delhi.

Earlier this year, Canada agreed to remove a reference to Sikh extremism from a report on terrorism after receiving pushback. The 2018 Public Report on the Terrorism Threat to Canada had listed Sikh extremism as one of the top five extremist threats in Canada, but the text was changed to read, "extremists who support violent means to establish an independent state within India."

India's former ambassador to Canada Vishnu Prakash flatly denies the claim that his country is trying to influence the federal election. 

"We do not have the ability nor the desire to influence the elections in any country," he said.

"I'm afraid the Canadian agencies are bashful about naming China alone and want to balance it by naming India, which is most unfortunate."

• Five Eyes allies raising questions as damage control continues in Cameron Ortis case: sources

• Norad asked Canada to 'identify and mitigate' cyberthreats to critical civilian sites

Jessica Davis, president of Insight Threat Intelligence and a former CSIS analyst, said efforts to influence an electorate through human agents have had mixed results.

"Sometimes it can be very effective and states can put a lot of money behind a particular candidate and potentially get the outcome that they want," she said. "But in other instances the electorate does what its wants to do and it's very difficult to influence that."

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) has said publicly that "as [in] any country with a large multicultural population, diaspora groups within Canada are subject to clandestine and deceptive manipulation by certain foreign powers."

"Foreign interference in Canadian society – as a residual aspect of global or regional political and social conflicts, or divergent strategic and economic objectives – constitutes a threat to the security of Canada," says the CSIS website.