July 26, 2025 12:59 am (IST)
Follow us:
facebook-white sharing button
twitter-white sharing button
instagram-white sharing button
youtube-white sharing button
Jagdeep Dhankar's resignation: Election Commission initiates steps for Vice President elections | Centre bans Ullu, ALTT, other OTT apps over obscene content | Centre bans Ullu, ALTT, other OTT apps over obscene content | Deeply touched by Muizzu's gesture, writes Narendra Modi on X after arriving in Male | Tejashwi Yadav mulls boycotting Bihar polls over SIR, says 'no point in holding elections when people can't vote' | 'EC can't escape': Rahul Gandhi slams poll body for 'cheating' amid uproar over SIR in Bihar | 'Perverse exercise of judicial power': SC slams Karnataka HC bail to actor Darshan in Renukaswamy murder case | Supreme Court stays Bombay HC order acquitting 12 people in Mumbai train bomb blasts case | ED raids Anil Ambani's 35 premises in Delhi and Mumbai for alleged money laundering | PM Modi embarks on visit to the UK and Maldives
S Jaishankar during his visit to Sydney. Photo courtesy: S Jaishankar X

India slams Canada for blocking Australian outlet that interviewed Jaishankar, says it highlights Ottawa's 'hypocrisy'

| @indiablooms | Nov 08, 2024, at 02:55 am

New Delhi/IBNS: India has strongly slammed Canada for blocking an Australian news outlet's social media handles and webpages after it carried out a press conference by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong as well as an interview of the Indian Foreign Ministers.

Criticising the move, India said it highlights the hypocrisy of Canada towards freedom of speech and expression.

Jaishankar met Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese during his visit to Sydney and co-chaired the 15th Foreign Ministers' Framework Dialogue with Wong.

On being asked about the social media handles of Australia Today being blocked in Canada, Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal during his weekly media briefing on Thursday 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."

"We were surprised. It looks strange to us. Nonetheless, these are actions that 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, the Canadian government informed some Indian consular officials that they have been under audio and video surveillance.

Calling the action a "flagrant violation" of diplomatic conventions, India said Canada cannot cite technicalities to justify its harassment and intimidation.

It has also lodged a protest with the Canadian government over the issue.

India-Canada standoff over Khalistani row

A recent standoff between New Delhi and Ottawa was triggered after Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused Indian officials of being involved in the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

India had expelled six Canadian diplomats and asked them to leave the country last month after Ottawa said it was investigating the Indian ambassador and other diplomats as "persons of interest" in connection with the killing of a Sikh separatist leader last year.

In a tit-for-tat move, Canada too asked six Indian diplomats to leave the country alleging that its police reportedly got hold of evidence that they claimed to be a part of an Indian government "campaign of violence".

The Indian government had also decided to withdraw its High Commissioner in Canada after Ottawa's accusations which the Modi government called an act of "vote bank politics".

Support Our Journalism

We cannot do without you.. your contribution supports unbiased journalism

IBNS is not driven by any ism- not wokeism, not racism, not skewed secularism, not hyper right-wing or left liberal ideals, nor by any hardline religious beliefs or hyper nationalism. We want to serve you good old objective news, as they are. We do not judge or preach. We let people decide for themselves. We only try to present factual and well-sourced news.

Support objective journalism for a small contribution.
Close menu