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India called out Canada’s hypocrisy towards freedom of speech for taking action against the news outlet, which carried a press conference of EAM S Jaishankar and his Australian counterpart Penny Wong
The Australia Today was blocked and is now unavailable for users in Canada. (Image: News18/screen grab)
India on Thursday said Canada banned an Australian media outlet, which is an important diaspora outlet, hours after it carried the news of a press conference of External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar’s meeting with his Australian counterpart Penny Wong.
Ministry of external affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said Canada has banned Australia Today. The news outlet has been blocked and is no longer available for viewers in Canada.
“…Yes, you heard it correctly. We also understand that the social media handles and pages of this particular outlet, which is an important diaspora outlet, have been blocked and are no longer available for viewers in Canada. This happened just a few hours after this outlet carried a press conference of the External Affairs Minister along with Penny Wong. The outlet also published several articles on the visit of the External Affairs Minister, as well as an interview with him. So, we were surprised. It seems strange to us…” he told reporters during the ministry’s routine briefing.
India further called out Canada’s hypocrisy towards freedom of speech for taking action against the news outlet, which carried a press conference of Jaishankar and Wong as well as an interview of him.
What Was The Jaishankar-Wong Press Conference About?
During Jaishankar’s four-day official trip to Australia, Wong raised the Canadian allegations that India has targeted Sikh activists in the country. She said she discussed the issue, which has been a flashpoint in the considerable worsening of Indo-Canadian ties, with her Indian counterpart in Canberra.
India has denied Canada’s allegation that Union Home Minister Amit Shah ordered the targeting of Sikh activists inside Canada. Wong said her message to the Sikh community was that people have a right to be safe and respected in Australia, regardless of who they are.
“We’ve made clear our concerns about the allegations under investigation. We’ve said that we respect Canada’s judicial process,” she said at a news conference with Jaishankar.
“We convey our views to India as you would expect us to do and we have a principled position in relation to matters such as the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary and also, frankly, the sovereignty of all countries,” she added.
In response, Jaishankar said Canada has put Indian diplomats under surveillance, which was “unacceptable”. “Canada has developed a pattern of making allegations without providing specifics,” he said.
Australia has close intelligence-sharing ties with Canada as members of the Five Eyes alliance that also includes the United States, Britain and New Zealand.
Over the weekend, India officially protested Canada’s allegation of Sikh activists being targeted there as “absurd and baseless”. On November 5 (Tuesday), Jaishankar also condemned reports of vandalism at a Hindu temple near Toronto in Canada as “deeply concerning”. In videos on social media, demonstrators carrying yellow flags in support of the Sikh separatist movement can be seen clashing with others, including some holding India’s national flag, inside the temple complex.
Relations between the two countries soured after Trudeau said last year there were credible allegations the Indian government had links to the assassination of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada. India has vehemently rejected the accusation.
New Delhi, long anxious about Sikh separatist groups, has increasingly accused the Canadian government of giving free rein to separatists from a once-strong movement to create an independent Sikh homeland, known as Khalistan, in India.
(With agency inputs)
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