Canadian spy agency says India using cyber tech to target ‘dissidents living abroad’

A Canadian spy agency has accused India of conducting threatening cyber activity against the North American nation and its citizens as the fallout from the assassination of a Sikh separatist leader continues to worsen bilateral relations.

The Communications Security Establishment said India is using technology to track and spy on activists and dissidents “living abroad”.

“As Canada and India potentially may have some tensions, it is possible that we may see India want to flex those cyber threat actions against Canadians,” Caroline Xavier, head of the agency, said on Wednesday.

Ms Xavier said New Delhi is stepping up cyberattacks against Canadian government networks.

Her agency has previously described India as an emerging cyber threat to the country.

The statement comes a day after deputy foreign minister David Morrison reiterated that the Indian home minister Amit Shah sanctioned a wave a violence targeting Sikh separatists across the North American country.

Mr Shah, prime minister Narendra Modi’s chief lieutenant, was identified as the “senior official in India” who “authorised the intelligence-gathering missions and attacks on Sikh separatists” in Canada, The Washington Post reported earlier this month based on information supplied by a Canadian source.

Mr Morrison confirmed on Tuesday that he is the source.

“The journalist called me and asked me if it was that person. I confirmed it was that person,” Mr Morrison told a parliamentary committee on Tuesday.

Relations between India and Canada have gone into a tailspin since Ottawa accused the Indian high commissioner and other top diplomats of being directly involved in the assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

Nijjar, 45, a Sikh activist, was shot dead by masked gunmen in Surrey outside Vancouver in June 2023. He was a face of the Khalistan movement, which seeks to carve out an independent Sikh homeland in western India.

New Delhi had long accused Nijjar, a Canadian citizen born in India, of being involved in terrorism, an allegation he denied.

Canadian police have since charged four Indian nationals living in the North American country with Nijjar’s killing. They are all awaiting trial.

India has denied the Canadian allegations as “preposterous”. It reacted furiously when Ottawa first made the allegation last year by briefly suspending visas for Canadians.

Bilateral ties hit a nadir when Canada expelled six Indian diplomats earlier this month, accusing them of involvement in the killing. New Delhi, in a tit-for-tat move, expelled six Canadian diplomats.

This month, prime minister Justin Trudeau and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police went public with allegations that Indian diplomats were targeting Sikh separatists in the country by sharing information about them with New Delhi.

Top Indian officials, in turn, were giving the information to organised crime groups to extort, intimidate and even murder Canadian Sikh activists, they said.

India is the top source for temporary foreign workers and international students moving to Canada but a backlog of applications has built up since Mr Trudeau’s allegations last year.