After new report linked India’s government to targeting of Sikhs, Patrick Brown still refuses to condemn his old friend, Indian PM Modi

This week, an article published by Global News was the latest evidence of the Indian government’s orchestration of transnational criminal repression against Canada’s large Sikh community. It raises questions, once again, about why Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown refuses to call out or even mention the Indian government in connection with the ongoing campaign of violence against Sikhs in his city and elsewhere in Canada.

Brown leads a city with the largest Sikh population outside India, and has long spoken glowingly about the country’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, who Brown has often called his “brother”. The Brampton mayor has visited India more than two-dozen times, including frequent trips since he arrived at City Hall. He has acknowledged meeting with officials in India who work for Modi’s BJP government, a Hindu nationalist regime which has ruled the country for more than a decade and is allegedly responsible for the orchestration of violent crimes against Canadian Sikhs, and at least one assassination here, the gangland-style murder of B.C. Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar in June of 2023. 

Brown credits Modi’s party, the BJP, for helping him win the Ontario PC leadership race in 2015, and has publicly acknowledged his fundraising efforts and party membership drives supported by the BJP. (Watch the video here.) 

When he was running for the Ontario PC leadership in 2015 Patrick Brown visited Prime Minister Narendra Modi in India to help organize memberships and fundraising within the province’s large Indo-Canadian community, which the Indian government maintains close ties with.
(Twitter)

His 2018 political memoir includes details of the royal treatment Modi has given him during Brown’s visits to India, aligning with strategic tactics described by national security officials that foreign governments use to groom Canadian politicians who are later used to interfere in elections and other matters. Brown has admitted succumbing to Indian foreign interference in 2022, when he was running for the Conservative Party of Canada leadership. He was forced to testify before a Parliamentary committee in December of 2024, after initially refusing, then revealed under questioning how the Indian government influenced his campaign, and his willingness to follow its orders.

Global reported on January 13 that it had obtained an RCMP document that included information of an Indian gang, the Bishnoi group, accused of extortion and murder-for-hire in Canada “acting on behalf of the Indian government,” quoting directly from the confidential RCMP document.

Though the information is not new and senior RCMP officials had previously stated publicly that the Indian government is directly connected to the criminal harassment of Sikhs in Canada by the Bishnoi group, an organized crime network led by Lawrence Bishnoi, who has been in an Indian jail since 2014, it was a reminder of the violence being experienced by one of the country’s largest and most visible ethno-religious communities. 

In an October 2024 press conference, the RCMP Commissioner Michael Duheme, together with Assistant Commissioner Brigitte Gauvin, said the “Bishnoi gang” has connections to the Indian government and is involved in criminal acts, including the murder of Sikh activists.

“I won’t be providing any further details in regard to the specificity of those investigations, but what we have seen from an RCMP perspective is the use of organized crime elements,” Gauvin detailed. “And I will say… It’s been publicly attributed and claimed by one organized crime group in particular, which is the Bishnoi group.”

“That’s what we are seeing here in Canada, and we believe that that group is connected to agents of the government of India.”

Reports of criminal intimidation in Peel, particularly in Brampton, against the Sikh community have been increasing over the past year-and-a-half. On December 7, a collection of Sikh advocacy groups from across the country gathered in Brampton, before politicians and members of the public, demanding action against the Indian government for its alleged role in the criminal acts against Sikhs in Canada.

The December 7 town hall meeting in Brampton that addressed the Indian government’s involvement in ongoing criminal violence against Canada’s Sikh community.

(Muhammad Hamza/The Pointer)

At the December 7 event, despite its specific focus on the Indian government and action Canadian leaders need to take against New Delhi, Brown once again refused to make the connection, failing to even mention Modi, the BJP or the Indian government. He has instead tried to shift attention to the Bishnoi group, despite mounting evidence that the criminal enterprise takes direction from the government of India. 

During a City Council meeting days after the town hall meeting, when violence against Sikhs was addressed and Councillor Navjit Kaur Brar asked Peel Police officials in attendance about the Indian government’s involvement, Brown once again refused to make any connection to the government of India while speaking about the ongoing criminal intimidation against the largest religious community in his city (watch the meeting here, at 1:04.30).

The Pointer asked Brown this week why he continues to refuse to condemn or even name the Indian government in relation to the extortion and violence impacting Sikhs in Brampton and across Canada.

A spokesperson for Brown claimed the mayor has made public comments in the past critical of the Indian government: “He will continue to be outspoken against transnational repression”. When asked to provide documentation or any examples of Brown publicly condemning the Indian government, the spokesperson did not respond.

Following the 2023 assassination of Mr. Nijjar in Surrey, British Columbia, a bombshell indictment was released by the United States Department of Justice detailing how Indian agents were involved, and another plot to kill a Canadian-U.S. citizen (who leads Sikh advocacy globally from New York) that was thwarted by American law enforcement. 

Brown faced pressure at the time to condemn his close friend Modi and the Indian government, and eventually provided a vague statement to The Pointer, but did not connect the country’s national government to the investigation into Mr. Nijjar’s killing.

Balpreet Singh, legal counsel at the World Sikh Organization Canada (WSO), told The Pointer this week that any politician who refuses to connect the Indian government to ongoing violence against their own community members will have to answer to the public.  

He previously told The Pointer, "I think it's very clear from the RCMP announcement in October 2024 that the Bishnoi gang is linked to the Government of India. Our own national security and intelligence advisor during the public safety committee hearings has clearly said that the Indian government has provided information to the Bishnoi gang and directed criminal activities here in Canada. So it's already on the record that the Bishnoi gang is affiliated with and is directed by the Government of India.”

He continued, in previous comments to The Pointer: “So why Mayor Brown or others have not said that explicitly, they can answer for themselves, but the RCMP and the National Security and Intelligence Advisor have all said on the record that the Bishnoi gang is directed by, linked to, and associated with the government of India."

During the December 10 Brampton Council meeting, Councillor Brar questioned Nick Milinovich, Deputy Chief of Peel Police, about the Bishnoi gang’s connection to the Indian government, and the feeling of terror her fellow Sikhs across the city are feeling, due to a foreign government.

Milinovich highlighted the force’s efforts to address the shocking rise of targeted violence aimed at the city’s South-Asian community but did not mention any connection to the Indian government. 

“Sikh Canadians have been living in fear for a while now, and these (extortion) incidents are not isolated. It represents a broader security concern affecting entire families and neighborhoods,” Brar replied. “Foreign intimidation is not acceptable on Canadian soil and must be taken seriously.”

During the exchange Brown did not say a single word connecting the targeting of Sikhs in Canada to the Indian government. He has frequently called out foreign governments and has made harsh allegations of genocide against the government of Sri Lanka, while taking on the Quebec government for a policy on the wearing of religious symbols and clothing. But he has refused to do the same with India regarding its ongoing treatment of Sikhs and other religious minorities in the world's largest country.

The Pointer sent follow up questions for the mayor about his ongoing silence. He did not respond.

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