‘Fighting’ Both China & India, Canada ‘Succumbs’ To Pressure; Cracks Down Chinese Dissidents In Country?

Last month, Canada alleged India’s hand in killing Khalistani hardliner Hardeep Singh Nijjar. Reports have now emerged that Ottawa, under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, has followed China’s dictates of hounding dissidents in the North American nation.

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s ‘The Fifth Estate’ reported that Canada under Trudeau has been helping China hunt down dissident Chinese nationals who sought refuge in Canada to live abroad. The report said the driving factor for Trudeau’s capitulating to Beijing was a quid pro quo for continued business and trade cooperation.

In the Canadian parliament in mid-September, Trudeau claimed “credible allegations” of India’s agents from its external spy agency Research & Analysis Wing having a role in Nijjar being shot dead in British Columbia. Canada also expelled an Indian diplomat from its High Commission in Ottawa, resulting in reciprocatory actions from New Delhi.

India threatened to withdraw diplomatic immunity to 41 Canadian diplomats, seeking number parity with the Indian diplomats accredited to its missions in Canada, by October 20, resulting in Ottawa removing them before the deadline, disrupting operations in its consulates at Mumbai, Chandigarh, and Bangalore.

CBC Probe Reaches Ambassadors, Police Officers

Meanwhile, CBE’s The Fifth Estate reported that its investigation led it to people with first-hand knowledge of the relationship between the Trudeau government and Xi Jinping’s regime in China that forced bartering on trade, assistance in fighting illegal drugs and negotiating the release of Canadian nationals detained in Beijing.

The Fifth Estate quoted former Canadian ambassadors to China and other officials to substantiate its report. A former Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) operations officer in British Columbia, Calvin Chrustie, in an interview, said he received direction “from Ottawa at the highest level” to “assist and collaborate with” Chinese officials regarding a “high-profile fugitive that they were after in the Vancouver area.”

An immigration lawyer in Toronto said the Canada-China deal was inspired by ‘economic interests’ that accrue to Ottawa by heeding Beijing’s demands. Lorne Waldman, the lawyer, added: “We turned a blind eye to the lack of the rule of law in China and turned a blind eye to the fact that we should be way more skeptical about the evidence coming from China. And as time went on, we turned a blind eye to the fact that Chinese agents were acting in Canada.”

The Chinese government has been aggressively pursuing the return of dissidents, alleging that they are corrupt public officials and economic criminals, from abroad through long-arm police operations it dubbed Sky Net and Fox Hunt since 2014, the report said.

Earlier this year, Ottawa politicians decried the reported presence of several alleged Chinese police stations in three major Canadian hubs: Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver. CBC’s The Fifth Estate added that the return of thousands of these alleged fugitives has been broadcast on state television in Beijing.

China’s Hand In Nijjar Killing?

Even as the Canada-India diplomatic spat raged, a prominent Canadian-Chinese YouTuber, Lao Deng, posted that China had a hand in Hardeep Singh Nijjar’s killing on Canadian soil as part of Beijing’s grander plan to tarnish India’s global image.

Nijjar’s killing on June 18 outside a Sikh cultural hub exacerbated the India-Canada diplomatic strains. In his program, Lao Deng claimed it was the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) covert operations that had a “singular, chilling mandate — eliminate Nijjar in Canada.” There was also a meticulous attempt to link this killing to Indian agents, Lao Deng said.

In his program, Lao Deng disclosed that in the early days of June this year, the CCP’s Ministry of State Security, as a part of their “Ignition Plan” initiative, dispatched a high-ranking official to Seattle, US. This official orchestrated a clandestine meeting in Seattle. CCP operatives working incognito within the US and Canada assembled at this meeting.

Their mission was to undermine the rapport between India and Western nations. To this end, a clear directive was given to these agents: assassinate Nijjar on Canadian soil, wrote Jennifer Zeng, an award-winning writer based in Australia, regarding the killing of the Khalistani movement leader. She had previously done a show on her YouTube channel on the subject.

Jennifer Zeng also said that the Chinese agents wiped out all evidence from the crime scene, apart from incinerating the weapons used in the assassination, and escaped Canada by flight.

CCP’s ‘Ignition Plan’ To Disrupt India’s Ties With West

Lao Deng revealed that the CCP’s “Ignition Plan” was devised in March this year. Xi Jinping instructed the Chinese military and the Ministry of State Security to create plans: the army crafted the Taiwan Strait military plan, and the Ministry of State Security devised the ‘Ignition Plan’ to complement the military’s actions.

Lao Deng asserted receiving credible information on the exhaustive process, including how Nijjar was shadowed, the count of vehicles employed during the murder, the identities of the assassins, their chosen disguises and the methods they used to conceal their visages, their Hindi-speaking abilities among other details.

He says three cars were involved in this operation and that he had already forwarded this information to the Canadian government.

The Chinese-origin YouTuber was shocked that the Canadian prime minister disregarded the evidence provided to him and instead commissioned a probe into potential Indian operatives’ involvement.

Was Justin Trudeau directly or indirectly aiding and protecting the Chinese agents who committed Nijjar’s murder and helped them to escape as a quid pro quo for some benefit from Beijing? This needs further investigation.

• NC Bipindra is a 30-year veteran in journalism specializing in strategic affairs, geopolitics, aerospace, defense, and diplomacy. He has written extensively for the Times of India, New Indian Express, Press Trust of India, and Bloomberg News. He can be reached ncbipindra (at) gmail.com
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