Dasvand
Ottawa (June 13, 2025): The World Sikh Organization of Canada (WSO) has written to Prime Minister Mark Carney expressing grave concern over a report from Bloomberg News that Canada is preparing to finalize a renewed intelligence sharing agreement with India. The WSO warns that such an agreement would jeopardize the safety of Canadian Sikhs and undermine Canada’s own national security standards.
The letter by WSO President Danish Singh to PM Carney follows below:
Prime Minister Carney,
Re: Canada-India Intelligence Sharing Agreement
I am writing on behalf of the World Sikh Organization of Canada to express our deep concern regarding reports that your government is preparing to finalize a new intelligence sharing agreement with the Republic of India. Such an agreement would place the safety of Canadian Sikhs at even further risk.
India has a long and well documented record of human rights abuses. According to Human Rights Watch’s 2025 report, “Allegations of torture and extrajudicial killings persisted, with the National Human Rights Commission registering 121 deaths in police custody, 1,558 deaths in judicial custody, and 93 alleged extrajudicial killings in the first nine months of 2024.”
Canada’s policies clearly prohibit the sharing, requesting, or use of intelligence where there is a substantial risk of mistreatment by a foreign entity. India’s track record makes it virtually impossible for these legal thresholds to be respected in practice.
India’s law enforcement agencies, including the Intelligence Bureau (IB), fall under the authority of Home Minister Amit Shah, who is widely considered Prime Minister Modi’s closest confidante. In October 2024, senior Canadian officials confirmed that Amit Shah personally ordered the campaign of violence and surveillance targeting Sikh activists in Canada. This information was confirmed by Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister David Morrison in testimony before the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security as well as in a report by The Washington Post.
Entering into formal intelligence cooperation with a regime whose senior leadership has orchestrated violence against Canadian citizens undermines public safety and national sovereignty.
Too many Canadian Sikhs have already experienced the consequences of India’s transnational repression. The RCMP has publicly confirmed that agents of the Indian government were involved in at least three targeted homicides in Canada, including the assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar. These killings, along with incidents of extortion, shootings, and now, news of the surveillance of former NDP leader Jagmeet Singh, form part of a broader campaign of intimidation. Sikh community members have also reported harassment and coercion of their relatives in India. These actions are the subject of ongoing criminal investigations by Canadian law enforcement.
WSO and other Sikh organizations in Canada have consistently called for a complete halt to all intelligence sharing with India. A renewed agreement would further damage the Sikh community’s trust in your government and reinforce the perception that their lives and concerns are being sacrificed for political expediency.
We urge your government to halt all negotiations and plans for renewed intelligence sharing with India, demand full cooperation from India in ongoing Canadian criminal investigations, and announce an independent public inquiry into India’s foreign interference and transnational repression in Canada.
Sincerely,
Danish Singh
President, World Sikh Organization of Canada
WSO is a non-profit national organization with a mandate to promote and protect the interests of Canadian Sikhs as well as to promote and advocate for the protection of human rights of all individuals.