Canada and India plan to share intelligence in an effort to combat the rising threat of international crime and extremism, according to a new report from Bloomberg, days before a meeting between the two countries’ leaders.
Canadian officials declined to comment on the report, which, if confirmed, would represent a dramatic shift in relations between the two countries which for nearly two years have been locked in a bitter diplomatic spat after Canada’s federal police agency concluded that India planned and ordered the murder a prominent Sikh activist on Canadian soil.
Under the intelligence-sharing deal, which is expected to be announced during the G7 summit in Canada later this week, police from both countries will increase cooperation on transnational crime, terrorism and extremist activities. Canada has reportedly pushed for more work on investigations into extrajudicial killings.
Of course that doesn’t mean we have to trust it as a sole source of information, especially when a given piece of information is regarding known political biases.
“Trust but verify” isn’t limited to the Regan/Gorbachev era.
They may have useful eyes on someone that both countries have reason to be concerned about. And we can still be selective about what we share if we believe it could feed into their political misdeeds.