NEW DELHI: India called out Canada for what it described as Ottawa’s “hypocrisy” on freedom of speech in blocking a publication based in Australia – Australia Today – that highlighted foreign minister S Jaishankar’s remarks against Canada this week in Canberra. The govt also said Canada had not provided security for the consular camps that Indian missions have been hosting in the country, despite increasing threat to Indian officials, leading to cancellation of some of the camps.
On its X account, Australia Today says it carries news and opinions from Australia focused on multicultural communities and the Indian subcontinent. MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in a media briefing on Thursday that social media handles and pages of this particular publication, which he described as an important diaspora outlet, had been blocked and were no longer available for viewers in Canada.
Ottawa events binned over security issues
“This happened just a few hours after this outlet carried a press conference of the external affairs minister along with his counterpart 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 said.
“I will say these are actions that highlight yet again Canada’s hypocrisy on freedom of speech,” the official added.In a joint press conference with Wong, Jaishankar had accused Canada of developing a pattern of making allegations without backing those with any evidence. He had also said surveillance of Indian diplomats was unacceptable, while reiterating India’s position that Canada provides political space to extremists.
“So, you can draw your own conclusion about why Australia Today was blocked,” Jaiswal said. The official also said threats to Indian diplomats in Canada had increased and Ottawa had not provided security for Indian consular camps.
“Over the last year or even more, the kind of things that we have seen… attacking Indian diplomats, threatening, intimidating, harassing Indian diplomats,” he said. “Threats to Indian diplomats in Canada have increased. They have been put under surveillance, which is unacceptable. We had also taken up the matter very strongly with the Canadian side,” he said in response to media queries.