On Saturday (23 September), United States Ambassador to Canada David Cohen claimed that there was “shared intelligence among Five Eyes partners” that prompted Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to publicly allege that there could be a “potential” link of the government of India in the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar on Canadian soil, Canadian media CTV reported.
Apparently, the US ambassador to Canada Cohen made the claim in an exclusive interview on CTV’s Question Period with Vassy Kapelos which will air on Sunday (24 September). The Canadian media report added that Cohen confirmed that the shared intelligence emboldened the Canadian Prime Minister to make those absurd allegations against India on September 18 in the Canadian Parliament.
However, the report added that the US ambassador didn’t comment on whether the intelligence shared with their Canadian counterparts was both human and surveillance-based, or whether it included signals intelligence of Indian diplomats.
Regarding this, Cohen said, “There was shared intelligence among Five Eyes partners that helped lead Canada to make the statements that the Prime Minister made.”
Five Eyes is an intelligence alliance comprising Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. These countries have signed a joint treaty for joint cooperation in signals intelligence.
Several reports in Western media including CBC and The Associated Press had claimed that the intelligence Trudeau was speaking of did not come from Canada alone. They stated that additional information was provided by an unspecified member of the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance. It was also speculated that the US was the most likely source.
During the interview, US diplomat Cohen told CTV’s Kapelos that there was “a lot of communication” between Canada and the US.
Further, the US ambassador also denied the Washington Post report that asserted that weeks before Trudeau’s mischievous allegations against India, Canada had asked its closest allies, including the U.S. to publicly condemn the murder of Khalistani terrorist Nijjar. The report had categorically emphasised that Trudeau’s move was rebuffed by Canada’s Western allies.
While stating that he doesn’t like to comment on private diplomatic conversations, Cohen claimed, “Look, I will say this was a matter of shared intelligence information.”
He added, “There was a lot of communication between Canada and the United States about this, and I think that’s as far as I’m comfortable going.”
Interestingly, the Canadian representative responsible for the province (British Columbia) where the incident took place seems to have been kept in the dark regarding any of these developments.
Notably, yesterday, on Friday (22 September), two days after Justin Trudeau made the bizarre allegation, British Columbia Premier David Eby expressed frustration with the briefings by the Canadian intelligence agency in connection with the murder of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar. He said that he was not given any information obtained from intelligence sources regarding the matter, and the information provided to him was in the public domain on the Internet.
Regarding the supposed intelligence Canada had to substantiate Trudeau’s allegations, Eby said, “The only briefings I’m able to receive from the CSIS (Canadian intelligence agency) are open information briefings or open source briefings which is information that’s available to the public doing an internet search – Which I found frustrating.”
His presser had highlighted that Trudeau sparked a diplomatic standoff with India, based on unfounded intelligence reports about the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, which are still under the purview of investigation by the Canadian Intelligence Agency (CSIS).
David Eby, who represents the New Democratic Party in Canada and is an ally of the Trudeau government, expressed frustration that the government was withholding information about the Khalistani terrorist.
He added that Trudeau reached out to him before speaking in the Parliament about the matter. The Premier of British Columbia emphasised, “I expressed my frustration in the meeting with the CSIS director about our inability to get more concrete information.”
He also sought reforms with the Canadian Intelligence Agency so that it can share more information with provincial leaders and not just open source, easily available material on the internet.
