Canada

UN Experts Urge Canada to Protect Sikh Activist From Threats

Is India's surveillance of Khalistan activists a foreign interference crisis or is Canada shielding extremists with terror ties?

Published AUG 4

UN Experts Urge Canada to Protect Sikh Activist From Threats

Story

Above: Moninder Singh poses during an interview with AFP in Geneva, Switzerland, on March 19. Image credit: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images

The Facts

In a letter made public on Monday, five U.N. human rights experts wrote to the Canadian government on June 3, urging it to "take all feasible measures" to protect Sikh activist Moninder Singh and his family after Canadian authorities issued him four "duty to warn" notices about credible threats to his life since 2022.
Stewart Bell on X
United Nations
National Post
The most recent warning, issued Feb. 22, 2026, was the first to include Singh's wife and children, and was based on intelligence assessed by Canadian police as sufficiently serious to require direct notification of an alleged assassination plan.
United Nations
The U.N. letter, signed by five independent rapporteurs including Ben Saul and Nazila Ghanea, expressed concern that the threats against Singh fall within a broader pattern of alleged transnational repression by Indian authorities against Sikh activists in multiple countries. India has denied the allegations.
Global News
CTVNews
Singh, 44, chairs the Sikh Federation Canada and has publicly advocated for an independent Sikh state known as Khalistan. The Khalistan movement dates to India's 1947 independence and has been linked to the assassination of an Indian prime minister and the bombing of a passenger jet.
United Nations
Sri Lanka Guardian
Guardian
The 2023 killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a close associate of Singh, near a Sikh temple in a Vancouver suburb prompted then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to publicly allege Indian involvement. Canada and India each expelled a string of diplomats in 2024 amid the dispute.
CTVNews
National Post
Relations between Canada and India are said to have improved after Prime Minister Mark Carney took office, culminating in a March visit to India to sign trade deals. Canadian police subsequently stated that no evidence directly linking the Indian government to Nijjar's death had emerged, though the investigation remains ongoing.
National Post
Independent

Sources Split

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RIGHT

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ESTAB

The Spin

Narrative A

India's Modi government is actively hunting Khalistan referendum activists on Canadian soil, and five U.N. Special Rapporteurs have now confirmed the threat is real and state-backed. Surveilling a Canadian activist simply for sharing a video of a debate invitation is a blatant assault on Canadian sovereignty. Canada must treat this as the foreign interference crisis it is and protect its citizens.

Gurpatwant Singh Pannun on X

Sguardian on X

Narrative B

Moninder Singh is no peaceful activist — his father-in-law conspired in the 1985 Air India bombing that killed 329 people, and his associates include designated terrorists and those on Canada's no-fly list. Canada is handing a megaphone to someone with documented ties to extremism and organized crime. Demanding special government protection for someone with that background is a serious overstep.

Allen Hampton on X

Juno News