India protests Canada's blocking of Oz media pages; cancels consular camps

New Delhi: India on Thursday responded strongly to reports of social media handles and pages of an Australian news outlet being blocked in Canada hours after it carried a press conference of External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong as well as an interview of the Indian minister while noting that such actions highlight Canada's hypocrisy towards freedom of speech.

The action by Canada is strange as it involves another 'Five Eye' member state - Australia and such incidents are uncommon between Ottawa and Canberra.

Incidentally, the matter coincided with the re-election of Donald Trump as the US President. While Trump has warm ties with the Indian PM, he has often not met eye to eye with Canadian PM Justin Trudeau. During his first term, Trump's relationship with Trudeau was marked by high-profile tensions, particularly surrounding trade disputes and ideological clashes.


In a sharp reaction, MEA spokesperson Randheer Jaiswal said, "We understand that social media handles and pages of this outlet, which is an important diaspora outlet, have been blocked and are not available for viewers in Canada. This happened a few hours after this particular handle carried the press conference of the external affairs minister with Penny Wong."

Stating that the outlet had carried an interview with Jaishankar as well as several articles on his visit, Jaiswal said, "We were surprised. It looks strange to us. But, nonetheless, these are actions yet again highlight the hypocrisy of Canada towards freedom of speech. In his media interactions, the external affairs minister spoke about three things: a pattern of Canada making allegations without evidence, the surveillance of Indian diplomats - which he termed unacceptable - and the political space being given in Canada to anti-India elements. So you can draw your conclusions from that on why the Australia Today channel was blocked."

Last week, India said some of its consular officials were informed by the Canadian government that they have been under audio and video surveillance. Terming the action a "flagrant violation" of diplomatic conventions, India had said Canada could not hide behind technicalities to justify its harassment and intimidation and that a protest had been lodged with the Canadian government.

Toronto camps cancelled after no security assurance

Jaiswal also informed that some consular camps have been cancelled in Toronto because they did not get security assurance from Canada.

The announcement came days after the attack on a Hindu temple in Brampton, where a consular camp was being held on November 3.

PM Narendra Modi had also condemned the attack and criticised "cowardly attempts" to intimidate Indian diplomats in Canada.