Trudeau ‘targeted’ by pro-Modi outlets after Nijjar assassination allegations: docs

Media outlets aligned with the Indian government “targeted” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau after he revealed Canada suspected India was behind the killing of B.C. Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar, new documents suggest.

A report by the Rapid Response Mechanism (RRM), a unit with Global Affairs Canada that monitors state-sponsored disinformation, said commentators at outlets that backed Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi amplified highly similar narratives that sought to discredit Trudeau and Canada.

The report was released by a federal inquiry investigating allegations of foreign interference in the 2019 and 2021 federal elections.

The analysis of online platforms found that pro-Modi news media and influencers also went after Canadian security agencies, the Sikh diaspora and Canada’s High Commissioner to India following Trudeau’s September 2023 announcement linking Indian agents to Nijjar’s murder.

An outspoken leader of the Khalistan movement that seeks independence for India’s Punjab region, Nijjar was gunned down in the parking lot of the Guru Nanak Sikh Temple in Surrey, B.C. on June 18, 2023. In May, the four suspected gunmen were arrested in Alberta and Ontario.

Trudeau’s public announcement that the Canadian government had “credible allegations” of a “potential link” between Nijjar’s killers and agents of the Indian government further chilled an already frosty relationship between Ottawa and New Delhi.

“(The) incident has quickly evolved into a diplomatic crisis between Canada and India that will likely carry considerable implications for Canadian foreign policy,” the RRM report, included in a cache of documents released by the Hogue inquiry Thursday, read.

The report noted that some pro-Modi news outlets painted Canada