CSIS chief says he learned new details of alleged plot to kill Sikh activist from U.S. indictment

The head of Canada’s spy service is addressing his agency’s handling of the shocking murder of a Sikh separatist activist on Canadian soil for the first time since Prime Minister Justin Trudeau blamed India for Hardeep Singh Nijjar’s death earlier this year.

In an interview with CBC News, Canadian Service Intelligence Service (CSIS) Director David Vigneault said he learned some details of India’s alleged assassination plot when a U.S. indictment was unsealed recently.

But he cautioned against speculating about whether that information might have saved Nijjar’s life.

“Some information that is now public was maybe not available at the time of the murder of Mr. Nijjar,” he told CBC News on Monday.

Vigneault says he’s hoping the ongoing investigation will lead to charges, at which point more information could be made public.

“I think before we see all of that, we have to be careful to speculate about if a piece of information was not shared, [if it] could have prevented an action to taking place,” he said.

Nijjar’s death outside a Sikh temple in June has drawn international attention and raised questions about whether Canada’s security and intelligence agencies did enough to warn and protect him.

Those questions were amplified when U.S. court documents revealed that American authorities had thwarted an assassination plot linked to India in their own territory — one with ties to Nijjar and a scheme to kill Canadians.

While Vigneault said he couldn’t talk openly about many details of the case due to an ongoing criminal investigation, he said he learned more about the criminal aspects of the U.S. case when the documents were released.

“I learned things from the U.S. criminal investigation … Because we are an intelligence service, we’re looking at the issues from a different perspective,” he said.

“But again, we have to be careful to not speculate about what the RCMP, as the lead criminal investigative body here, would have been aware of.”

When asked what kind of warnings CSIS and the RCMP gave Nijjar, Vigneault said reports of CSIS involvement in the case haven’t always been accurate.

“[The] Sikh population, you know, of course, is rattled by this assassination. And so I just would want to be careful about speculating that something could have been done in this specific case before all of the information is available,” he said.

“There’s some information in the public domain that sometimes [is] not being very accurate.”

Vigneault spoke highly of his agency’s work with the RCMP.

“It’s unacceptable that the Indian government was engaged in the murder of a Canadian on Canadian soil,” he said. “And we absolutely need accountability of the Indian government.”

Some adversaries have ‘no limits’ — Vigneault

Vigneault spoke to CBC before he gave a keynote speech at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg. His speech focused on what he called the human toll of foreign interference.

“This toll comes in different forms. It can erode people’s ability to express opinions and speak up without fear of retribution. Sometimes it can damage the well-earned livelihoods and finances of Canadians and their families,” he said.

“Other times, it can put individuals in harm’s way.”

Some of Canada’s adversaries have “virtually no limits to what they will attempt,” said Vigneault.

Much of his public address focused on the “relentless” tactics of the People’s Republic of China.

“The PRC’s transnational repression efforts are vast, but one of its most appalling strategies is to use family and friends living in China as leverage. The threats against them are varied. They risk losing their jobs, being arrested, assaulted, or even disappearing,” he said.

He raised the case of an unnamed Chinese-Canadian human rights activist living in Canada whose family was targeted.

“The PRC took measures against her family and restricted their travel. In turn, her own father asked her to stop speaking out against the PRC,” said Vigneault.

Another common PRC strategy, said Vigneault, is to use community leaders as intermediaries to promote its interests as if they would benefit the community.

“These are usually local politicians and non-elected officials who lead community associations,” he said, speaking in French.

“These are people who exercise real influence, who enjoy the trust of the population.”

When asked before his speech whether he had concerns about any politicians in the House of Commons, he said he wasn’t able to speak to those types of details.

Vigneault also dedicated a portion of his speech to China’s interest in Canada’s North and its attempts to control  essential infrastructure and natural resources in the Arctic, including critical minerals.

“Its strategy includes secretly investing in communities, interfering in the decision-making processes of local administrations, and even stealing critical resources,” the director said in French.

This, he said, risks compromising the self-determination of the Inuit as well as Canadian sovereignty.