OTTAWA—Indian state-sponsored actors are “likely” to have tried to infiltrate and spy on Canadian government networks, a prospect that could continue as tensions simmer between the two countries, Canada’s electronic spy agency says in its latest report.
The report says China, Russia and Iran pose the “greatest strategic cyber threats” to Canada, but also warns against North Korea and India’s “emerging cyber programs,” which in the latter’s case, is likely to target the Canadian government as relations between the two countries deteriorate.
“We assess that Indian state-sponsored cyber threat actors likely conduct cyber threat activity against Government of Canada networks for the purpose of espionage,” the report released Wednesday by Communications Security Establishment Canada and the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security says. “We judge that official bilateral relations between Canada and India will very likely drive Indian state-sponsored cyber threat activity against Canada.”
That revelation comes just two weeks after the RCMP went public with allegations that Indian diplomats and consular officials in Canada were tied to murders, violence, intimidation and threats against Canadians.
Those accusations led both countries to expel six diplomats each, as New Delhi slammed them as “baseless,” while British and American government officials’ called for India to co-operate with Canada’s investigation.
Tensions between the two countries escalated more than a year ago, after the June 2023 killing of Canadian Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who was shot dead outside a Surrey gurdwara. In September of that year, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau first went public with concerns that “agents of India” were believed to be connected to the killing, calling on India then to co-operate with Canadian investigators.
The suspicious death of another Sikh Canadian, Winnipeg’s Sukhdool Singh Gill, has since been alleged to be linked to Indian government officials too, while U.S. authorities last fall laid an indictment in a separate case alleging complicity by Indian government officials in unsuccessful attempts to kill an American-Canadian Sikh separatist figure living in New York City.
In an appearance in front of Parliament’s Public Safety committee on Tuesday, Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister David Morrison alleged Indian minister Amit Shah was directing New Delhi’s operations in Canada.
This is a developing story.
