Minister responds to case of border officer targeted by Indian ‘disinformation’

Canada’s public servants are being “defamed by a range of actors,” the minister in charge of border security said Tuesday after Global News reported his department had failed to assist an officer falsely branded a terrorist by India.

Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree told reporters he was unfamiliar with the case but that government employees “serve Canadians and they deserve to be treated with respect, whether it’s from within Canada or outside.”

The minister was responding to accusations the Canada Border Services Agency, which he oversees, has failed to help a veteran officer an India propaganda campaign labelled a wanted terrorist mastermind.

In a lawsuit filed in Ottawa, Sandeep Singh Sidhu described how, for the past two years, India had used him in a disinformation scheme designed to retaliate against Canada as part of a diplomatic dispute.

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In 2023, Canada publicly accused Indian agents of assassinating a Sikh activist in B.C. In response, India told its press that Sidhu was a terrorist on Canada’s payroll, according to the suit.

While the Canadian government has cleared Sidhu, the lawsuit filed in Ottawa on Tuesday alleges it abandoned him to face the onslaught of state-sponsored disinformation on his own.

As India’s news channels and social media loyalists spread falsehoods about Sidhu, he was subjected to harassment and threats, but the CBSA declined to help him, claiming it wasn’t a work-related matter, according to the suit.

2:22 Canadian-born Sikh activist speaks publicly about assassination threats

The CBSA has not yet responded to a request for comment. Neither has India’s high commission in Ottawa, nor the Indian news outlets whose reports calling Sidhu a terrorist remain online.

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The case comes as Prime Minister Mark Carney is mending ties with India in the hope of securing a trade deal, despite mounting evidence of its attacks on Canada’s large South Asian community.

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“We take the position that this was an orchestrated misinformation campaign against a citizen of Canada, and in this case, an innocent citizen of Canada,” his lawyer, Jeffrey Kroeker, said in an interview.

“At the height of a diplomatic row between Canada and India, they needed a convenient patsy to blame something or put something on to deflect from genuine accusations of assassinations taking place in Canada.”

“So what they did is, they found somebody who worked for the Canadian government amongst tens of thousands of civil servants, picked him out of the air because he has Sikh heritage, and threw him under the bus,” Kroeker said.

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“And then the Canadian government took over the bus and drove backwards over him.”

The ruse was part of India’s ongoing attempt to convince its citizens that Canada is a haven for pro-Khalistan terrorists who support independence for the South Asian nation’s Sikh-majority Punjab state.

Sidhu was likely chosen for the ploy because he has a common Sikh name and was a senior, uniformed official in Canada’s national security establishment, according to his lawyers.

While the government has the tools to address state-sponsored disinformation targeting Canada, it did not use them for Sidhu and left him to deal with it on his own, Kroeker said.

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The suit, filed in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, seeks a total of $9-million in damages from India and Canada, which it argues had a duty to protect Sidhu but let him down.

In an interview with Global News after the case was launched, Sidhu said he was born in B.C., had been a border officer for two decades and had never had anything to do with India’s affairs.

The lawsuit is an attempt to take back the life that was stolen from him when Indian social media influencers and news outlets began claiming he was a terrorist, a killer and a fugitive, he said.

They not only showed his photo to their millions of viewers and followers, but also published his home address, prompting one social media user to post a photo of the house along with the words, “Go and kill him.”

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“I woke up living in a nightmare,” he said.

“Every one of these allegations is completely and unequivocally false. They are not true. This has been a misinformation campaign, a foreign interference campaign, and I have been used as a pawn.”

But he said that when he reported the matter to his superiors, and relayed that police were concerned about his safety, the CBSA offered him no protection and instead subjected him to an internal investigation.

The CBSA consulted the Canadian Security intelligence Service and concluded the Indian allegations were fake, but would neither offer him protection nor help him clear his name, he said.

“It’s a complete betrayal,” Sidhu said.

“This has affected my life at all levels,” he said. “It’s left me fearing for my life. It’s left me fearing for my family’s safety.”

“The police took these threats very credibly. We’re talking about a government superpower who has now falsely accused me and has spread this disinformation campaign to advance their own agenda.”

“I am not that person. I’m not associated with that person. I am never made a pro-Khalistani statement,” Sidhu said.

“I am pro-Canadian, lived in Canada. My family is lifelong public servants, and it’s just unfortunate how this has been handled by everyone that I’ve reported it to.”

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