Canada accuses Indian businessman of foreign interference, disinformation

A south Edmonton split-level with a brick facade and a spruce out entrance is the unlikely Canadian headquarters of the Indian conglomerate the Srivastava Group.

Run by a New Delhi household, the corporate claims to have workplaces in Belgium, Switzerland and Canada, the place it owns newspaper and oil and fuel companies.

However Canadian nationwide safety officers have alleged the Srivastava Group and its senior govt have additionally been concerned in additional secretive actions.

In keeping with public data launched to International Information, in 2009 India’s intelligence companies “tasked” the Srivastava Group’s vice chair to affect Canadian politicians.

Indian intelligence wished Ankit Srivastava to establish “random Caucasian politicians and try to direct them into supporting points that impacted India,” the Canadian Safety Intelligence Service wrote.

Srivastava was instructed “to offer monetary help and propaganda materials to the politicians so as to exert affect over them,” CSIS added within the 2015 report.

In a subsequent report in 2021, CSIS wrote that Srivastava’s firm had been accused of registering pretend web sites that introduced themselves as information retailers, a few of them Canadian.

“The target of those pretend media publications is to push a pro-India rhetoric and publish content material that’s crucial of Pakistan,” added the CSIS report, which was categorized secret.

Immigration officers have been so involved Srivastava may taint elections that they declared him a “severe menace to Canada” and barred him from the nation.

“The knowledge earlier than me continues to counsel that the Srivastava Group maintained a number of pretend information web sites, a few of which presupposed to be Canadian in origin,” the immigration division wrote.

“These web sites, I argue, could possibly be used to conduct operations in Canada to affect public opinion and the knowledge out there to voters, in impact compromising the conventional functioning of Canadian authorities and electoral processes.”

The case comes as Canada is dealing with an unprecedented Indian authorities international interference offensive that has allegedly included disinformation, political meddling and violence.

Canada’s international interference fee wrote in its Jan. 28 report that Indian brokers might have offered “illicit monetary assist” to politicians in an try to elect pro-India candidates or achieve affect over them.

The inquiry didn’t identify names however the authorities’s allegations about Srivastava, and his responses, are detailed in lots of of pages of public paperwork filed within the Federal Courtroom in Ottawa.

The data present Canadian officers have taken the battle towards Indian international interference and disinformation to a brand new entrance: the immigration system.

CSIS declined to remark.

However Srivastava has argued his innocence for nearly a decade, and two rulings from the bench have gone his means, most just lately final month.

“The allegations towards him are based mostly on unreasonable inferences that are unsubstantiated and from unreliable sources,” his lawyer Lorne Waldman stated.

A 42-year-old businessman, Srivastava was born in India, studied in Geneva and honeymooned in Bora Bora together with his Canadian bride, who sponsored him to immigrate as her partner.

“My husband is a profitable enterprise proprietor in India and wish to increase his enterprise in Canada within the subject of media and pure fuel exploration,” she wrote in her 2014 software.

“He has already began the analysis of increasing his newspaper in Canada with the identify of Canadian Politics At this time, the place this media would goal majorly on actions of the federal government.”

Earlier than granting him residence, Canadian officers interviewed Srivastava on the Excessive Fee in New Delhi on June 16, 2015. CSIS despatched its safety screening report back to the Canada Border Providers Company a month later.

The CSIS report stated Srivastava had admitted he met regularly with India’s Intelligence Bureau (IB) and international intelligence service, the Analysis and Evaluation Wing (RAW).

He “revealed that he was tasked by RAW to covertly affect Canadian authorities representatives and companies on behalf of the Indian authorities,” CSIS added.

“Mr. Srivastava acknowledged that the steerage from RAW included that he was to offer monetary help and propaganda materials to the politicians so as to exert affect on them.”

“For instance,” CSIS continued, “Mr. Srivastava acknowledged that he was tasked to persuade politicians that funding from Canada was being despatched to Pakistan to assist terrorism.”

India has lengthy complained that Canadian Sikhs who assist the separatist Khalistan motion ship cash to armed teams in Pakistan that conduct assaults in India.

“Moreover, Mr. Srivastava acknowledged that RAW had additionally tasked him to fulfill with authorities officers in Belgium and Canada in an effort to affect their views in favour of the Indian authorities.”

CSIS stated Srivastava met with the “IB and RAW handlers outdoors of Canada at the very least each two months and that the final time he met with them was in Could 2015.”

He “emphasised that he had no selection however to cooperate with RAW and IB,” the CSIS report added, however “he had not been profitable in his efforts.”

Calling the matter a “gross misunderstanding,” Srivastava denied he was instructed to finance politicians, however stated Indian intelligence “supplied to compensate me for my help.”

“However I refused this flatly.”

“The requests by the RAW and IB primarily amounted to a request for me to foyer Canadian politicians to affect them in favour of India’s insurance policies,” he wrote.

“Their requests have been to not spy or present data. It was to affect their views in favour of India. Even so, I refused their requests.”

He claimed his conferences with the intelligence officers have been “in my capability as a journalist” since his firm owns the New Delhi Instances newspaper.

As editor-in-chief, Srivastava claimed he solely interacted with IB and RAW officers “as a media particular person for the needs of gathering information.”

(Requested about his publication, the Reuters Institute for the Examine of Journalism stated it was not among the many main information sources tracked in its annual survey of Indian media.)

He additionally argued he had solely acquired a abstract of his interview with Canadian officers in New Delhi somewhat than a transcript, and disagreed with the characterization of his statements.

Regardless, Canada’s immigration division refused Srivastava’s software for everlasting residence, alleging there have been affordable grounds to imagine he was concerned in espionage.

He appealed to the Federal Courtroom and in 2020, a decide sided with him: His software was despatched again to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada for an additional evaluation.

“The courtroom discovered that there was inadequate proof to fulfill the very low necessities to seek out somebody inadmissible and rejected IRCC’s discovering associated to his alleged membership in Indian intelligence,” his lawyer stated in a press release to International Information.

By then, nonetheless, Srivastava was dealing with new allegations.

The Srivastava Group describes itself as one in every of India’s fastest-growing enterprise homes, with a “management place” in “the important thing industries that drive financial development.”

These embrace pure sources, clear vitality, aerospace, consulting, well being care, media and publishing, in accordance with its web site.

Its headquarters, nonetheless, makes use of the identical New Delhi tackle Srivastava listed as his residence on his immigration varieties, whereas the Canadian workplace is an Alberta dwelling owned by his in-laws.

The modest Edmonton home is listed in company data because the workplace of three Srivastava Group companies: the New Delhi Instances Inc., A2N Power and A2N Worldwide Buying and selling Corp.

Srivastava and his spouse are the one officers of all three, in accordance with Alberta and federal data.

The company mission of the Srivastava Group is to publish “content material that educates” and “construct more healthy lives,” but it surely has been accused of actions Canada deemed unhealthy to democracy.

In 2019 and 2020, EU DisinfoLab, a Brussels-based collective that investigates disinformation, launched reports linking the Srivastava Group to “a pro-India affect community.”

“The operation’s mission is to discredit nations in battle with India in Asia, specifically Pakistan but additionally to a lesser extent China,” EU DisinfoLab reported.

Utilizing pretend information websites and non-profit organizations, the scheme allegedly sought to “enhance the notion of India,” and safe the assist of worldwide establishments.

Strategies allegedly included impersonating United Nations-accredited non-profit teams and utilizing pretend media, a few of it concentrating on South-Asian populations in Canada.

Based mostly on the allegations, immigration authorities instructed Srivastava in 2022 that permitting him to immigrate can be opposite to Canada’s pursuits.

He was a serious participant within the Srivastava Group, which “has engaged in quite a few disinformation campaigns” since 2005, the immigration part wrote.

“Faux media retailers linked to the Srivastava Group in Europe embrace EP At this time, EU Chronicle, the Instances of Geneva, and 4 Information Company,” they wrote.

Sixteen of the web sites have been “designed to seem like native Canadian information web sites,” the report on Srivastava learn, citing a 2019 CBC story. The web sites promoted pro-India messaging and amplified pretend or deceptive articles about India’s rivals, the Canadian immigration report stated.

The report additionally famous that an organization known as Aglaya Scientific Aerospace Know-how Programs used the identical New Delhi tackle because the Srivastava Group and was owned by Srivastava’s brother.

Aglaya sells “data warfare” instruments comparable to malware and intrusion software program that can be utilized to disrupt crucial infrastructure and steal industrial, authorities and army secrets and techniques, it stated.

The corporate had carried out enterprise with teams implicated in state-sponsored hacking and surveillance concentrating on pro-democracy activists and political leaders of Canada’s allies, the immigration part stated.

Aglaya didn’t reply to requests for remark.

Permitting Srivastava to resettle in Canada would additional the Srivastava Group’s capability to pursue “disinformation operations in Canada to the detriment of the nationwide curiosity and nationwide safety,” the federal government report continued.

“Faux information and disinformation can have a major antagonistic influence on Canadian civil discourse, policymaking, and authorities relationships,” the immigration division wrote.

“As it seems that the Srivastava Group’s disinformation campaigns have already focused Canada’s South Asian populations up to now, I’m involved that your presence in Canada may contribute to compromising the integrity of Canadian electoral processes.”

Srivastava countered that his firm had “by no means engaged in intentionally disseminating disinformation” and denied any function in his brother’s firm.

“I’ve not carried out any disinformation campaigns in Canada,” he wrote. “I’ve by no means undertaken any exercise that may hurt Canada since my household is Proudly Canadian and I, too, plan to affix them of their allegiance to Canada.”

He questioned the reliability of experiences by EU DisinfoLab, which he stated had confronted “authorized sanction and criticism” of its work. They didn’t cite proof in regards to the alleged connection between the organizations featured within the report and the Srivastava Group, he stated.

Nor did the experiences present proof the Srivastava Group disseminated falsehoods, he continued, insisting criticism of Pakistan’s human rights abuses was not disinformation.

“Furthermore, even when the allegation that the Srivastava Group disseminated false details about Pakistan have been true, it’s not clear how this may make the applicant a hazard to the safety of Canada.”

EU DisinfoLab dismissed Srivastava’s criticism of its work, which was broadly lined by information retailers starting from the BBC to Vice and raised at Canada’s international interference fee.

“We stand firmly and unequivocally by our report and its findings,” stated Gary Machado, EU DisinfoLab’s managing director. “Within the coming weeks, we might be publishing extra open-source proof in response to this umpteenth try to discredit our work.”

Disinformation skilled Marcus Kolga stated EU DisinfoLab is a “very credible” group, and its analysis “uncovered a very huge community that was developed by this Indian firm.”

Permitting a international nationwide concerned in such exercise to immigrate can be “vastly problematic” for Canada, significantly for communities focused by these operations, he stated.

However after he was once more rejected by Canada’s immigration system, Srivastava took his case again to the courtroom and the decide dominated on Jan. 31, 2025 that it was unreasonable to attach him to his brother’s firm.

The case was despatched again to the immigration division for one more assessment. The courtroom determination didn’t tackle the disinformation allegations. The Canada Border Providers Company declined to remark.

“Merely put the Federal Courtroom on two events has rejected assertions by IRCC that there are affordable grounds to imagine that Mr. Srivastava is inadmissible,” his lawyer stated.

Because the Srivastava Group was publicly linked to disinformation allegations, its web site has gone offline. Emails despatched to the company have been returned as undeliverable.

No one answered the entrance door final week on the home recognized as its Canadian department. The downtown Edmonton suite that A2N Power known as its workplace had been emptied.

Though it as soon as claimed to personal 4,000 hectares of Alberta oil and fuel rights with greater than a billion barrels, A2N Power put its pursuits within the Calling Lake West, Judy Creek and Therien areas of the province up on the market in 2023.

In keeping with Companies Canada, A2N Worldwide Buying and selling is dealing with pending dissolution for non-compliance. The Alberta authorities struck the New Delhi Instances from its company registry in 2023 for failing to file annual experiences.

Srivastava’s identify, in the meantime, continues to seem in his newspaper above columns about Modi’s “principled imaginative and prescient,” “historic” international travels, “diplomatic acumen” and “diplomatic masterstroke.”

Stewart.Bell@globalnews.ca with recordsdata from Morgan Black