As questions surrounding India’s involvement in foreign interference and transnational repression persist, B.C. Premier David Eby says he has received “no information” that agents of the Indian government have been involved in extortion in his province.
“I want to be clear: At this point, we do not have any information,” Eby said in an interview with CTV Power Play on Tuesday. “Police may. I’m not part of the investigation the information they have, but we don’t have any information that the Indian government is involved in this.”
“We have received allegations that the Bishnoi Gang was involved in some of this,” he later added.
There has been a rash of extortion-related violence targeting the South Asian community and businesspeople in B.C.’s Lower Mainland, with Eby describing the trend as the province’s “No. 1 public safety issue.”
Pressed by host Vassy Kapelos on whether he has been briefed or made aware of links to the Indian government, Eby insisted he has not.
“For what we have information for at the political level, at least in British Columbia, we don’t have information about the Indian government’s involvement in extortion,” Eby said.
“Certainly, if government officials do, I hope it’s forming part of the basis of police investigation.”
Eby – who led his own trade mission to India in January – also pointed to the federal government listing the Bishnoi Gang as a terrorist criminal organization “operating primarily out of India.”
The B.C. premier’s comments appear to counter allegations made by the RCMP in October 2024, during which the police organization accused Indian diplomats and consular officials based in Canada of engaging in clandestine activities linked to serious criminal activity in this country, including homicides and extortions.
A year prior, former prime minister Justin Trudeau said there were “credible allegations” that agents of the Indian government were involved in the assassination of Canadian Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar in 2023. India has denied the accusations.
Eby’s comments come as the federal government faces pressure to clarify whether there is an ongoing threat of foreign interference and transnational repression from India.
Last week, senior government officials suggested to reporters that India was no longer actively interfering.
But in his first media availability since those comments and following a visit to India, Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Tuesday he “would not use those words.”
Carney was also asked if he was concerned about reporting by The Globe and Mail indicating evidence linked Indian officials at the Vancouver consulate to the killing of Nijjar. He was also asked whether he agreed with Trudeau’s assessment that there were “credible allegations of a potential link” between Indian government agents and the assassination of Mr. Nijjar, and what his government is doing to hold India accountable.
Carney did not directly answer.
“This is a criminal procedure. It’s a process underway, and my job at this point with respect to that process is to make sure that I do not say anything that prejudices the prospect of justice being served,” Carney said.
“So, in that context, I can’t comment on the specific aspects, those three aspects of your question, and I hope you’ll appreciate that what is important here is that justice is served, and that the immense resources that are put in place in order to ensure that justice is served run their course.”
India’s High Commissioner to Canada Dinesh Patnaik, meanwhile, recently said that foreign interference from India was “never” a problem in the first place.
“It never happened,” Dinesh K. Patnaik told journalists when asked multiple times about the issue on the sidelines of Carney’s visit to India on Saturday.
With files from CTV News’ Rachel Aiello and Abigail Bimman
