Ontario Sikh leader explains why he refused protection: 'I’d rather take India’s bullet'

The man who has replaced Hardeep Singh Nijjar as the leader of the Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) group in Canada says he turned down an offer of protection from the Canadian government that would have required him to “disappear” from his life.

Inderjeet Singh Gosal of Brampton, Ont., is considered one of the main targets for assassination by the same forces that already gunned down his predecessor in the parking lot of the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara in Surrey, B.C.

Gosal says he has no plans to keep a low profile and will be in the nation’s capital for an SFJ-organized referendum on Punjabi independence from India next month — an event sure to infuriate the Modi government.

Canada has already publicly accused agents of the Indian government of ordering that killing. Court documents filed by U.S. prosecutors in a federal district court this week also tie it directly to an agent of India’s overseas intelligence agency.

CBC News spoke with Gosal, who is out on bail after being arrested last month for a dozen firearms charges, including careless use and illegal possession of a prohibited handgun.

The active threats against Gosal raise questions about the Carney government’s decision to move toward normalization of relations with India.

India's alleged activities were enough for the RCMP to go public on Oct. 14, 2024, warning of “an extraordinary situation" uncovered through "multiple ongoing investigations into the involvement of agents of the Government of India in serious criminal activity in Canada.”

They said they were taking this unusual step "due to the significant threat to public safety in our country.”

Since the diplomatic rift between India and Canada, which led to the expulsion of diplomats by both sides, the RCMP have continued to warn of direct threats to individual members of the Sikh community in Canada.

None is more exposed than Toronto-born Inderjeet Singh Gosal, who was targeted in a drive-by shooting at a worksite last year.

Gosal says that, starting in August, warnings from the RCMP began to increase in frequency and urgency.

“Between Aug. 20 and Sept. 10, the RCMP visited me maybe eight to 10 times. It got really serious after Sept. 8 when they visited me and said ‘there’s hit men in town, the shooters are in town.’”

He said the RCMP told him the only way he'd be protected was being put into witness protection and taken to a safehouse.

“I respectfully declined, because I’d rather take India’s bullet than stop campaigning for the Khalistan referendum.”

CBC News asked Gosal about the firearms charges against him.

“As the matter is before the courts, I can’t really make a statement on that,” he said. “But what I want to focus on is what transpired before these charges, the eight to 10 visits by the RCMP telling me the hit men are here and they’re ready to get me.”

CBC News asked the RCMP for comment about the protections offered to Gosal and has not yet received a response.

The leader of the worldwide Sikh referendum movement is U.S.-Canadian citizen Gurpatwant Singh Pannun. Last year he was the victim of an alleged assassination plot in New York City, where he lives. On Nov. 3, Indian national Nikhil Gupta is due to stand trial in New York on murder-for-hire conspiracy charges in connection with that plot.

This week the U.S. attorney prosecuting the case filed a motion revealing that his office will seek to introduce video and wiretap evidence allegedly tying together the failed Pannun plot and the murder of Nijjar in Surrey, B.C., in 2023, and also tying both directly to the Government of India.

Pannun says the offer of witness protection was never a real option for his Canadian deputy Gosal.

“Asking him to leave his life of 33 years, and disappear from the face of Canada, because we cannot protect you?” Pannun said. “He’s not a witness in a cartel gang war. He’s not a witness in an issue in which the opposite gang is going to kill him, either in jail or outside. This is an individual who’s running a peaceful and democratic referendum campaign.”

Pannun said Gosal had to choose between a form of protection that he could not accept, or being left defenceless, and that the charges for being armed should be seen in that context.

Gosal was on Parliament Hill on Thursday for a protest where members of the Khalistani movement called for Canada to halt the rapprochement with India until there is evidence that India is willing to call off what it sees as a campaign of violence, intimidation and assassination in Canada.

An influx of Indian diplomats under present circumstances would only elevate the already-high risks he faces, he said.

But Gosal said he would not stay out of sight. He vowed to be back in Ottawa for the latest instalment of the Sikh referendum on Nov. 23. Pannun said he also hopes to be in Ottawa that day, and is weighing that decision against related security issues.

India has in the past reacted with anger to the votes held by Sikhs for Justice, which have been held in several cities with Sikh diaspora communities ranging from London, Rome and Geneva to Surrey and San Francisco, sometimes attracting tens of thousands of voters.

Pannun said the terror listing of the Bishnoi gang, which allegedly provided the hit squad used to assassinate Nijjar, is a distraction from the larger issue of who directed the killing.

India's new High Commissioner to Canada, Dinesh Patnaik, presented his credentials last month, ending a period when both countries had downgraded their diplomatic presence to more junior officials.

Canadian officials, including Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand and national security adviser Nathalie Drouin, have been in talks with their Indian counterparts over the campaign of widespread violence denounced by the RCMP last year. Anand, who is travelling to India on Sunday, told CBC's Rosemary Barton Live that Canada will take a "step-by-step approach" to restoring ties.

"We will have a conversation when I'm in India about what are the next steps in the diplomatic relationship," she told host Rosemary Barton.

Anand said Indian officials are co-operating more with Canadian law enforcement.

"[India] realized that, and the same on our side, by sharing information we will have safer streets in Canada," Drouin said two weeks ago. "I think we have found a way, as I said, to address mutual concerns and for leaders to be able to talk about the trade relationship."

Pannun says the escalade of threats to his deputy in Brampton, and the continued issuance of "duty to warn" letters by the RCMP, undermine those claims.

“We want Anita Anand to take the evidence of the U.S. Department of Justice to India, who have always denied any involvement, and ask questions and seek a response,” he said.

“How do you normalize with a regime that is actively pursuing assassination plots? This normalization with India of Prime Minister Carney is going to fall flat.”

Gosal told CBC News that Canada was too keen to move on from the diplomatic row.

"We want Foreign Minister Anita Anand to confront, not co-operate, with India," he said.