There is an old issue. The new foreign-interference law in Canada won’t

Canada’s Foreign-Interference Law: An old Washington news item provides a helpful beginning point for understanding Canada’s failure to prosecute foreign collaboration on a criminal basis.

A Canadian correspondent noted in 1981 that the United States and Canada were taking different approaches to the use of security intelligence in law enforcement. A story earlier this month that claimed politicians had knowingly and unknowingly worked with foreign governments to obtain campaign assistance and even foreign funds may have shocked some Canadians. 

One Canadian intelligence veteran who worked closely with many U.S. agencies and witnessed the stark differences in surveillance practices between police in each nation was not among the astonished.

The ‘Intelligence-to-Evidence Dilemma’

The RCMP released a long statement announcing its investigation following the shocking parliamentary report. However, it acknowledged significant obstacles to the investigation in the following sentence.

First, cops have little access to intelligence. The Mounties acknowledged that they had not been aware of certain information in that report.

1981: A Fork in the Road

The United States was then emerging from a period following Watergate when its intelligence services had been tarnished by scandal and bad press. Several national security directives and executive orders enacted by President Ronald Reagan urged intelligence services to work with law enforcement.

Meanwhile, a multi-year investigation in Canada revealed that the RCMP had committed unacceptable and unlawful acts while performing intelligence operations, including breaking, burning a barn, and opening mail. 

Since 9/11, U.S. intelligence capabilities have grown.

Even the United States was involved in arresting a senior RCMP official who oversaw the force’s intelligence strategy.

After an appeal, Cameron Ortis, the former director general of the RCMP’s National Intelligence Coordination Centre, faces 14 years in prison for leaking state secrets. The case against him began with an arrest in Washington state.

The suspected perpetrator of India’s crimes in Canada and the politician

These actions are part of a broader campaign by the Indian government against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s opponents and activists across Canada.

The Canadian government expelled them on Monday for their suspected involvement in crimes mostly targeting members of the Khalistan movement, which advocates for the independence of Punjab, which is Sikh-majority in India. On Monday, the RCMP went above and beyond by alerting Canadians to the possibility that India is involved in “serious criminal activity in Canada.”

According to sources, agents have been utilizing money and extortion to persuade victims to perform chores for them while operating out of India’s high commission in Ottawa and its two biggest consulates.

Generally speaking, South Asians were not granted visas to return to India

The house in Brampton is owned by Sikh-Canadian activist Inderjeet Singh Gosal, who is planning a referendum for the independence of Khalistan.

Following the June 18, 2023, shooting death of his predecessor, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, outside the Guru Nanak Sikh Temple in Surrey, British Columbia, he assumed the position.

In May, four individuals were apprehended in Ontario and Alberta. Justin Trudeau, the prime minister, has blamed the Indian government for the murder.

Investigators told Gosal in an interview that the gunfire at his house and the threat to his life were “100%” part of an Indian government operation.