Canada’s justice division is preventing to forestall “delicate” nationwide safety info from rising on the upcoming homicide trial of 4 Indian males accused of gunning down a B.C. Sikh chief in 2023.
In an software to the Federal Court docket, legal professionals representing the Lawyer Basic of Canada requested for permission to withhold some proof on the prosecution of the alleged killers of Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
Court docket paperwork launched to World Information don’t specify which particulars they’re searching for to maintain confidential, however they argued that releasing them “can be injurious to worldwide relations and nationwide safety.”
The case in opposition to the suspected killers of the Sikh temple president is being carefully watched due to allegations the authorities of India ordered the homicide as a part of a marketing campaign to silence its political opponents overseas.
The claims, first made public in September 2023 by then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, set off a diplomatic rift between Canada and India. Ottawa later expel Indian diplomats and consular officers from the nation.
Since taking workplace, Prime Minister Mark Carney has reengaged with India and sought to develop commerce relations. Canadian Sikhs have known as {that a} betrayal, given India’s alleged focusing on of them.
It’s common for federal legal professionals to ask a choose to permit them to chorus from disclosing nationwide safety info in trials. Usually, it happens when the knowledge in query was offered by a overseas company.
“In Canada, the Lawyer Basic has the ability to use to the Federal Court docket for an order to, in essence, shield sure forms of info from being launched publicly and to the defence,” stated College of Calgary regulation professor Michael Nesbitt.
“Such purposes are neither uncommon nor unusual, and are ruled by regulation and court docket oversight, whereas the defence has the chance to problem the appliance,” stated Nesbitt, a number one nationwide safety regulation skilled.
“We see this form of software lots within the anti-terrorism and nationwide safety realm, however usually additionally with respect to instances the place it’s needed to guard info related to undercover operators, informants, or info obtained from Canada’s allies the place such worldwide cooperation has occurred.”
Canadian Justice officers filed their court docket software on Dec. 24, 2025.
A Division of Justice spokesperson stated the Lawyer Basic of Canada was searching for an order underneath a bit of the Canada Proof Act “confirming the prohibition of disclosure of sure info.”
“We can’t present additional element presently.”
Get breaking Nationwide information
For information impacting Canada and world wide, join breaking information alerts delivered on to you after they occur.
The B.C. Prosecution Service, which is prosecuting the 4 accused, declined to touch upon the Federal Court docket case. A spokesperson stated the case was within the pretrial section, which is topic to a publication ban.
Nijjar was shot useless in his pickup truck on June 18, 2023, as he was leaving Surrey’s Guru Nanak Sikh Temple. The RCMP believes India tapped mob boss Lawrence Bishnoi to rearrange the killing.
In Might 2024, the 2 suspected shooters, Amandeep Singh and Karanpreet Singh, the alleged getaway driver Karan Brar and a fourth suspect, Kamalpreet Singh, had been arrested in Alberta and Ontario.
They’ve been charged with homicide and conspiracy to commit homicide. Neither Lawrence Bishnoi, who’s imprisoned in India, nor his Canadian lieutenant on the time, Goldy Brar, have been charged within the homicide.
The legal professionals representing Amandeep Singh, Karanpreet Singh and Karan Brar, declined to touch upon the matter. Kamalpreet Singh’s lawyer didn’t reply to emails from World Information.
India has stated it has seen no proof of its function within the plot.
India residents Karan Brar, left to proper, Kamalpreet Singh and Karanpreet Singh, in addition to Amandeep Singh (not proven) have been charged with the homicide of B.C. Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO, RCMP
A Canadian citizen who immigrated from India, Nijjar was a frontrunner within the Khalistan separatist motion that seeks independence for India’s Sikh majority Punjab state. Though India known as him a terrorist, he confronted no fees in Canada.
On the time he was killed, Nijjar was organizing a symbolic referendum that requested members of the Sikh diaspora in the event that they supported Khalistan independence. The opposite suspected targets of India’s marketing campaign had been additionally largely Khalistan activists.
The preliminary tip implicating high-level Indian officers within the killing got here from communications intercepted by the UK and shared with Canada by British intelligence, sources have instructed World Information.
Conversations mentioning targets in Canada had been additionally picked up by the FBI throughout its investigation into the same plot by which an Indian intelligence officer employed a legal to kill a pro-Khalistan activist within the U.S.
Such intelligence is usually shared with allies on the understanding that it can’t be utilized in court docket, stated nationwide safety regulation skilled Leah West, an affiliate professor on the Norman Paterson Faculty of Worldwide Affairs in Ottawa.
“It’s typical, in instances the place the police obtain info from different intelligence companies throughout an investigation, for the Lawyer Basic to hunt to have that info protected against disclosure,” she stated.
“The idea for searching for to withhold it’s known as nationwide safety privilege. The argument for that’s that if disclosed, the knowledge might reveal means and strategies, investigative pursuits, or personnel of the service and doing so can be detrimental to Canadian nationwide safety.”
A choose has to substantiate the privilege, she stated. As well as, the knowledge in query can’t be used in opposition to an accused, and something that might level to the innocence of a defendant should be disclosed, she added.
State actors resembling China, India and Iran have lengthy sought to intimidate and silence members of Canada’s diaspora communities, a apply often known as transnational repression.
“Transnational repression is rising as one of the crucial critical but least understood threats to safety and democracy in Canada,” stated a report launched on Tuesday by the Montreal Institute for World Safety.
“As overseas states more and more goal people on Canadian soil, by intimidation, surveillance, digital harassment, coercion of members of the family overseas, and, in some instances, plans for bodily hurt, Canada faces a problem that strikes on the core of its democratic values and establishments.”
