'It's unacceptable': Brother of Jagmeet Singh says Canadians warned about risk to their life deserve protection

OTTAWA — The brother of former federal NDP leader Jagmeet Singh says Canadians who receive a duty to warn about a threat against their life and safety should be provided protection, calling the lack of security “unacceptable.” Gurratan Singh says the need for protection is “paramount” and that the current situation results in people being left to “fend for themselves.” “It’s unacceptable and an immediate step that must be given is security must be provided to those who are facing duty to warns from, especially, foreign governments.” “I think any single Canadian who gets a duty to warn deserves that security immediately.” Issues surrounding a duty to warn notification, a practice used by police to alert someone when it believes there to be a credible threat endangering them, have emerged in light of India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s upcoming visit to attend the G7 in Alberta next week. Sikh activists and community leaders have denounced Prime Minister Mark Carney’s invitation to Modi as a betrayal of their community. They have pointed to the RCMP having said it has evidence showing links between violent crimes, such as murders and extortion, to the Indian government. Former prime minister Justin Trudeau also told the House of Commons in September 2023 that it had “credible allegations” that agents acting on behalf of the Indian government were involved in the killing of prominent Sikh separatist and activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar. India has denied the accusation, but had considered Nijjar, who advocated for an independent Sikh state to be created in India’s Punjab province, to be a terrorist. Earlier on Thursday, Global News also reported, citing unnamed sources, that former NDP leader Jagmeet Singh had been surveilled by someone with ties to the Indian government, which resulted in the RCMP providing him protection. During the recent federal election campaign, Singh himself revealed that the RCMP warned him about a credible threat against his life in late 2023, which resulted in him and his family being placed under police protection. At the time, Singh’s wife was pregnant with their second child, and the former party leader told reporters he was so concerned about the threat that he considered quitting politics. For Gurratan Singh, himself a former provincial member of Ontario’s legislature, what happened to his brother underscores the need for Canada to hold India accountable for its targeting of Canadians, which the RCMP has stated has been shown by evidence. “My brother was the previously democratically elected leader of the NDP, a national federal party in Canada. We now know that there’s evidence that he was being surveilled by the Indian government, that his life was at risk by the Indian government and that the risk was so live that his daughter was born under the shadow of that risk in a hospital that had RCMP and security presence,” he said on Thursday. He said the impact of his brother receiving that notification was tough, as was seeing him accompanied by police detail “It represents that your brother’s life is at risk and those around him are at risk as well.” Balpreet Singh, legal counsel and spokesman for the World Sikh Organization, in a news conference on Thursday, called it “unacceptable” that Jagmeet Singh now lacks this protection and that others who receive similar warnings from police are not provided security and receive minimal information. NDP Edmonton MP Heather McPherson told reporters she believes security should be offered to Singh. Interim NDP Leader Don Davies declined to comment on the matter, saying he was unsure of the specific details. Monninder Singh, spokesman for Sikh Federation Canada, says he has received multiple duty-to-warn notifications, as have “well over” a dozen other Sikh Canadians and activists. As a father of young children, he said their family had to come up with a plan that included discussions with child and family services. At one point, Singh said he left their home and returned after five months. “You move around constantly looking over your shoulder,” he said. “Every aspect of your life changes. You can’t go to your kids’ school. You can’t go to their practices. You can’t go to family events. You avoid weddings, you avoid any type of family gatherings, public spaces.” National Post staylor@postmedia.com

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