\n<\/p>\n
A south Edmonton split-level with a brick facade and a spruce out front is the unlikely Canadian headquarters of the Indian conglomerate the Srivastava Group.<\/p>\n
Run by a New Delhi family, the company claims to have offices in Belgium, Switzerland and Canada, where it owns newspaper and oil and gas businesses.<\/p>\n
But Canadian national security officials have alleged the Srivastava Group<\/a> and its senior executive have also been involved in more secretive activities.<\/p>\n According to public records released to Global News, in 2009 India\u2019s intelligence agencies \u201ctasked\u201d the Srivastava Group\u2019s vice chair to influence Canadian politicians.<\/p>\n Indian intelligence wanted Ankit Srivastava to identify \u201crandom Caucasian politicians and attempt to direct them into supporting issues that impacted India,\u201d the Canadian Security Intelligence Service wrote.<\/p>\n Srivastava was told \u201cto provide financial assistance and propaganda material to the politicians in order to exert influence over them,\u201d CSIS added in the 2015 report.<\/p>\n In a subsequent report in 2021, CSIS wrote that Srivastava\u2019s company had been accused of registering fake websites that presented themselves as news outlets, some of them Canadian.<\/p>\n \u201cThe objective of these fake media publications is to push a pro-India rhetoric and publish content that is critical of Pakistan,\u201d added the CSIS report, which was classified secret.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n Immigration officials were so concerned Srivastava could taint elections that they declared him a \u201cserious threat to Canada\u201d and barred him from the country.<\/p>\n \u201cThe information before me continues to suggest that the Srivastava Group maintained multiple fake news websites, some of which purported to be Canadian in origin,\u201d the immigration department wrote.<\/p>\n \u201cThese websites, I argue, could be used to conduct operations in Canada to influence public opinion and the information available to voters, in effect compromising the normal functioning of Canadian government and electoral processes.\u201d<\/p>\n The case comes as Canada is facing an unprecedented Indian government foreign interference offensive that has allegedly included disinformation<\/a>, political meddling<\/a> and violence<\/a>.<\/p>\n Canada\u2019s foreign interference commission wrote in its Jan. 28 report that Indian agents may have provided \u201cillicit financial support\u201d to politicians in an attempt to elect pro-India candidates or gain influence over them.<\/p>\n The inquiry did not name names but the government\u2019s allegations about Srivastava, and his responses, are detailed in hundreds of pages of public documents filed in the Federal Court in Ottawa.<\/p>\n The records show Canadian officials have taken the fight against Indian foreign interference and disinformation to a new front: the immigration system.<\/p>\n CSIS declined to comment.<\/p>\n But Srivastava has argued his innocence for almost a decade, and two rulings from the bench have gone his way, most recently last month.<\/p>\n \u201cThe allegations against him are based on unreasonable inferences which are unsubstantiated and from unreliable sources,\u201d his lawyer Lorne Waldman said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t\tA \u2018serious threat to Canada\u2019\t\t\t<\/h2>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
\n\t\t\t\tThe Indian Executive and the Intelligence Officers\t\t\t<\/h2>\n<\/p><\/div>\n