No evidence linking India to threats against Canadians: Canada

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RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme tells Canadian TV the force cannot connect transnational repression files to a foreign entity — and specifically rules out a Bishnoi-India government link

By TRH World Desk

New Delhi, March 20, 2026 — Canada’s national police chief has delivered a carefully worded but significant statement on the question that has dominated Canada-India relations for more than a year: whether agents of the Indian government pose a threat to Canadian public safety.

RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme, speaking to Canadian television, said that based on the totality of criminal intelligence and investigations currently held by the force, there is no connection between Canada’s transnational repression files and any foreign entity — including India.

“Based on the criminal information and investigation that we have presently — on foreign interference or transnational repression — what we have in our holdings is we have people that are intimidating people, harassing people, but connecting the dots to a foreign entity regardless of the country, we don’t have that,” Duheme said.

Pressed directly on whether Canadians face a public safety threat from agents of the Government of India, Duheme was explicit. “We do not have that with the Bishnoi gang in particular,” he said — a pointed reference to the Lawrence Bishnoi criminal network, which Canadian authorities have previously identified in connection with the killing of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar in June 2023.

The statement is notable for what it does and does not say. Duheme acknowledged that harassment and intimidation of people in Canada — the core of transnational repression — is occurring and is under active investigation across multiple files. What the RCMP has not been able to establish, he said, is the evidentiary link between that conduct and a directing foreign government.

The distinction matters enormously in legal and diplomatic terms. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s September 2023 allegation — that there were credible reasons to believe Indian government agents were involved in the Nijjar killing — triggered one of the worst diplomatic ruptures in the history of Canada-India relations, with both countries expelling senior diplomats. That allegation was political. Duheme’s statement addresses the criminal evidentiary standard and, on that measure, the RCMP has not closed the gap.

The RCMP Commissioner was also careful to note the separation between his agency’s criminal intelligence role and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service’s broader national security mandate. CSIS assesses threats to Canadians; the RCMP investigates crimes. Duheme spoke only to what the police hold — not to what the intelligence service may separately assess.

The Bishnoi gang has been named by Canadian, American, and Indian investigators in connection with a range of alleged plots. The United States Justice Department previously alleged an Indian government official was involved in a plot to kill a dual US-Canadian citizen on American soil. India has consistently denied directing any such operations.

Duheme’s statement does not resolve the underlying political dispute. It does, however, signal that after more than a year of investigation, Canada’s national police force has not assembled the criminal case that would sustain a prosecution connecting foreign state direction to the violence and intimidation documented in its files.