Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s national-security and intelligence adviser has confirmed she leaked sensitive information about the Indian government’s role in murder, extortion and coercion to The Washington Post that was not shared with the Canadian public.

But Nathalie Drouin told the Commons public safety committee Tuesday that Mr. Trudeau did not authorize the leak and insisted no classified intelligence was provided to the U.S. publication the day before Ottawa expelled six Indian diplomats on Thanksgiving Day.

The information given to The Washington Post included identifying India Home Affairs Minister Amit Shah as directing violent operations in Canada and linking India to the murder of Sikh activist Sukhdool order phoenix tears Singh Gill, who was shot in Winnipeg on Sept. 20, 2023.

Federal officials provided intelligence about India to Washington Post, sources say

This information was not provided to Canadians when RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme held a news conference on Oct. 14 to accuse Indian diplomats and their criminal proxies of violent acts in Canada.

Ms. Drouin said the leak to The Washington Post was part of a communications strategy that she and David Morrison, deputy minister of foreign affairs, came up with to ensure a major U.S. publication got Canada’s side of its continuing foreign-interference disput order phoenix tears e with India.

However, the communications strategy was run by the Prime Minister’s Office, Ms. Drouin said.

“We provided non-classified information on the actions we had taken thechronfather to co-operate with India and explain how the evidence showed links to the government of India conducting illegal activities against Canadians, including threats to their lives,.” Ms. Drouin said.

She said she provided a similar briefing to the opposition leaders as she did with The Post.

Ottawa offered India options to address allegations of viole buy craft weed canada nt activities in Canada before expelling its diplomats

Conservative publ buy craft weed canada ic safety critic Raquel Dancho grilled the two senior bureaucrats about why the Prime Minister, his foreign affairs and public safety minister and the RCMP didn’t share this information with the public when the six Indian diplomats were expelled.

“In fact Canadians wouldn’t know unless they were able to read The Washington Post. I just find that quite unfair to the Canadian public that details were released in advance to The Washington Post but not provided to Canada,” she said.

Ms. Dancho pressed Ms. Drouin and Mr. Morrison to explain why Canadians also had to learn from The Post about the role of India’s Home Affairs in murders and extortion in Canada.

“The journalist called me and asked if it was that person and I confirmed it was that person,” Mr. Morrison said.

In response to questions from Ms. Dancho, the RCMP Commissioner said he didn’t tell the public about what The Washington Post reported because it could affect continuing criminal investigations.

“It is information as part of an investigation that normally we like to keep within but some times we do release some information,” he said. “I didn’t think at that point that it was relevant that specific information and again I wasn’t part of the conversation with The Washington Post.”

He was careful to say the intelligence offered to The Post was not considered classified under the definition of national security.

Ms. Drouin also laid out in detail Ottawa’s back-channel efforts to convince India that Canadian authorities had credible evidence against their diplomats and criminal proxies.

As The Globe reported, the RCMP went to the government in late August to ask for an all-out effort to convince India to end its hostile foreign-interference campaign. The Mounties were concerned that 13 Canadians were in imminent danger and the scale of India’s activities could not be stopped solely by law enforcement.

“‘Serious crimes committed in Canada include homicides, assassination plots and perpetuated extortion and other extreme violence,” Ms. Drouin said. “Given how alarming the evidence was, we knew we had to act and to act quickly.”

Ms. Drouin said the RCMP asked to travel to New Delhi on Oct. 8 to present evidence but India “used an administrative technicality to block this meeting.” The RCMP then travelled to Washington on Oct. 10 but “while an India officer confirmed the meeting they never showed up.”

A meeting was eventually set up on Oct. 12 in Singapore at which Ms. Drouin, Mr. Morrison and Deputy RCMP Commissioner Mark Flynn presented evidence to Mr. Modi’s national-security adviser Ajit Doval, a former spymaster in India’s intelligence service. Ms. Drouin said the Canadians offered a number of ways to resolve a serous dispute that ruptured bilateral relations.

India could waive diplomatic immunity so the RCMP could question the six diplomats; India could voluntarily withdraw the six diplomats and India could expand its Enquiries Committee investigation to Canada. India set up that committee to investigate U.S. allegations of New Delhi’s involvement in a murder-for-hire plot against prominent U.S.-Canadian Khalistani activist Gurpatwant Pannun in New York last year

Another proposal was for both countries to set up a high-level committee to work together to end foreign interference. The Canadians also asked that New Delhi direct Indian crime lord Lawrence Bishnoi, who runs a criminal syndicate from his prison cell, to order his associates in Canada to cease and desist.

During the meeting, Ms. Drouin said Mr. Doval “refused to acknowledge any links and denied everything we presented.”

Nonetheless, a further conversation was set for Oct. 14 and “they agreed to keep the meeting confidential as suggested by my counterpart.” Instead, India went public on Sunday, Oct 13 to accuse Canada of spreading a false narrative and failing to show them evidence of India’s involvement in violent crimes.

“By going public, the government of India clearly signaled that they were not going to be accountable or take the necessary actions we needed to ensure public safety,” Ms. Drouin said. “It then became clear to the RCMP that we had to take the unilateral option, meaning [expel] the diplomats and issue a public statement.”