Montreal: The Canadian government said on Wednesday (February 25) that it no longer believes India is linked to violent crimes on Canadian soil, marking a significant shift in position during a background briefing to journalists ahead of prime minister Mark Carney’s departure for India.“We have a very robust diplomatic engagement, including between national security advisers, and I think we can say we’re confident that that activity is not continuing,” one of the senior officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Wednesday, as reported by the Toronto Star.CBC News also reported on the same briefing, quoting a senior Canadian official as saying the government believes India has ceased attempts at transnational repression in Canada.“If we believed that the government of India was actively interfering in the Canadian democratic process, we probably would not be taking this trip,” the official added, CBC reported.Carney leaves Thursday (February 26) morning for Mumbai and New Delhi, where he is set to meet prime minister Narendra Modi, in what is the first standalone bilateral visit since ties between the two countries fractured more than a year ago. The former central banker has signalled that the India trip forms part of Canada’s broader trade diversification strategy, as Ottawa responds to US President Donald Trump’s tariffs and offensive rhetoric.India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) issued its own statement on Wednesday confirming the visit, two days after Carney’s office had already announced the trip.In language that signals how carefully both sides are managing the optics of the reset, the MEA said the visit “comes at an important juncture in normalisation of India-Canada bilateral relations” and that both leaders had agreed to pursue “a constructive and balanced partnership grounded in mutual respect for each other’s concerns and sensitivities.” The meeting, it said, would provide an opportunity to “reaffirm the positive momentum and shared vision of India and Canada in building a forward-looking partnership.”The written statement from the Canadian prime minister’s Office following the background briefing on Wednesday struck a more measured note, suggesting that Canadian government is sensitive to any perception that Ottawa is sweeping the Nijjar issue aside.While it did not contradict the officials’ assessment, it underscored that Canada would continue to combat transnational repression, organised crime and criminal acts on its territory. It added that “respect for the ongoing law enforcement dialogue will continue to be the basis of our step-by-step approach to re-engagement with India”.Nevertheless, the comments by Canadian officials at the briefing represent a marked change from Ottawa’s stance following the June 2023 killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey, British Columbia. Then prime minister Justin Trudeau said publicly in September 2023 there was “credible” evidence linking agents of the Indian government to the killing, triggering a diplomatic crisis and reciprocal expulsions.In October 2024, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said it had linked Indian diplomats to violent criminal activity in Canada, citing investigations into alleged ties to homicides, death threats and organised crime. Both sides expelled each other’s high commissioners and five other diplomats in a tit-for-tat move.The softening in tone has not been one-sided. India has adopted a notably less confrontational posture since Carney replaced Trudeau as prime minister early last year, initiating a reset in ties.In a noticeable shift, New Delhi is no longer pressing Ottawa to publicly produce evidence in the Nijjar case.As India’s high commissioner to Canada, Dinesh Patnaik, told The Wire regarding India’s longstanding demand that Canada provide proof to support the original allegations, New Delhi is no longer seeking disclosure now that criminal proceedings are underway in Canada. “Canada needs to put the case in the court,” he said.The government’s reassessment has drawn pushback from members of the Canadian Sikh community, who argue that the threat environment has not materially changed.CBC News reported that Gurpatwant Singh Pannun of Sikhs for Justice said he had obtained a list of individuals allegedly under surveillance in Canada by Indian agents. While CBC said it could not independently verify the authenticity of the list, the RCMP sought an in-person meeting with Pannun regarding it, according to communications reviewed by the broadcaster.Pannun was also the target of an attempted assassination in New York for which Indian national Nikhil Gupta changed his plea to guilty earlier this month. This meant accepting the charges of US prosecutors that he was directed by a former Indian government intelligence operative to find and pay a contract killer.Moninder Singh, a British Columbia Sikh leader who was close to Nijjar, said Vancouver police came to his home on Sunday (February 22) night and handed him a duty to warn letter for the fourth time telling him there was a credible threat against him, his wife and his two children.“With what this current government’s doing right now, it shouldn’t be this difficult to understand that you’re going to shake hands with the very people that have Canadian blood on their hands,” Singh told Star.In addition, a coalition of gurdwara councils in British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec has written to 20 MPs and leaders of the three major federal parties demanding full disclosure of intelligence related to transnational pressure campaigns and a public inquiry into the circumstances surrounding Nijjar’s killing, the broadcaster reported.The letter sets a deadline for Sikh MPs to support continued parliamentary scrutiny and warns that those who do not could be barred from speaking at gurdwaras or attending community events organised by them.The demand for renewed disclosure and scrutiny comes in a political landscape already shaped by Canada’s public inquiry into foreign interference.In January 2025, Justice Marie-Josée Hogue released the final report of a 16-month inquiry examining how foreign governments may have sought to undermine Canadian democratic institutions. The inquiry, established in September 2023, initially focused on alleged Chinese and Russian interference in the 2019 and 2021 federal elections and was later expanded to examine alleged Indian involvement.The final report described China as the “most active perpetrator of state-based foreign interference” in Canada and identified India as the “second-most active state actor involved in electoral foreign interference in Canada.”It stated that intelligence indicated a Government of India “proxy” agent may have attempted to clandestinely provide financial support to candidates from three political parties during the 2021 election. The report also alleged that India conducts interference through state officials and proxies, and that intelligence suggested proxy agents may have provided, and may continue to provide, illicit financial support to politicians in an effort to influence nomination processes and parliamentary decision-making.The commission also cautioned that intelligence did not necessarily show that candidates were aware of any alleged interference attempts, nor that such efforts were successful.New Delhi dismissed the findings at the time, stating that it was “in fact Canada which has been consistently interfering in India’s internal affairs”.