Toronto: India’s High Commissioner to Canada has refuted a report in a Canadian daily citing him as criticising the country’s security establishment as “compromised”.
The report appeared in the outlet Globe and Mail on Tuesday, even as Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal was in Toronto with the largest-ever business delegation from India to tour any country.
Dinesh Patnaik, the envoy to Ottawa, said he was “disappointed” with the “allegations” carried in the report.
“We have strong faith in Canada’s institutions and completely reject these misleading allegations. The report, based on an off-the-record discussion, has been taken out of context, uses selective quotations, and does not reflect our current assessment of the integrity of institutions,” he said in a statement issued by India’s High Commission.
Patnaik said that India had maintained “excellent cooperation, especially over the past year, with law enforcement and security agencies in Canada” and pointed to the visits the National Security Advisors and the regular meetings between the security agencies as “testimony to this cooperation”.
Indian national security adviser Ajit Doval visited Ottawa in February and met his then counterpart Canada’s National Security and Intelligence Advisor Nathalie G Drouin as part of the ongoing Security and Law Enforcement Dialogue. He also met Canada’s Minister of Public Safety Gary Anandasangaree. Drouin had visited New Delhi in September 2025.
The Globe and Mail report, which was purportedly based on a “sweeping interview” with Patnaik, quoted him as saying, “There are a whole lot of allegations within India that the Canadian security establishment is compromised.”
Reacting to the report, Anandasangaree said his country Canada takes all threats to national security “seriously”, and its “priority will always be the safety and security of Canadians and the protection of our democratic institutions.”
Anandasangaree added, “We appreciate High Commissioner Patnaik for clarifying his comments.”
