No Indian interference found in 2021 Canadian elections that Trudeau won, probe report reveals

Canada has finally admitted that India didn't interfere in the previous elections won by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. An official probe released its report on a matter related to foreign meddling in elections and refuted the unsubstantiated claims. The probe, however, mentioned China's influence in the elections in 2017 and 2021. 

"I do not believe that during the 2021 election, we saw evidence of the Government of India using those tools in the campaign," a polling official informed the investigation panel. 

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Earlier this year in January, a Bloomberg report claimed that Canada will examine whether or not India interfered in the national elections in 2019 and 2021. Trudeau's Liberal Party won both elections. 

But the claims had put the prime minister under pressure from opposition legislators and he set up a commission into the alleged foreign interference, including by India.   

New Delhi had strongly rejected alleged linkage to the democratic process of Canada. India's foreign ministry spokesperson, Randhir Jaiswal, even accused Canada of meddling in India's internal affairs.  

"We have seen media reports, Canadian Commission inquiring into foreign interferences...we strongly reject such baseless allegations of Indian interference in Canadian elections, it is not govt of India's policy to interfere in the democratic process of other countries, in fact, quite on the reverse it is Canada who has been interfering in our internal affairs," Jaiswal said in February's presser. 

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Foreign interference in Canadian polls

Recently, Canada's domestic spy agency concluded that China interfered in the last two elections, an official probe heard on Monday (Apr 8). It was the firmest evidence so far of suspected Chinese meddling in Canadian politics. 

A slide contained an extract of a February 2023 briefing from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS). 

"We know that the PRC (Peoples' Republic of China) clandestinely and deceptively interfered in both the 2019 and 2021 elections," it said. 

"In both cases, these FI (foreign interference) activities were pragmatic in nature and focused primarily on supporting those viewed to be either 'pro-PRC' or 'neutral' on issues of interest to the PRC government," it added. 

(With inputs from agencies)