OTTAWA: India has ordered prominent video sharing platforms to block access to a new Canadian documentary probing the assassination of a prominent Sikh activist in Vancouver, in a move that highlights India’s mounting frustration with the allegations its government was behind the high-profile killing.
The request marks the second time in just over a year that India has sought to block a documentary critical of the Indian government or its leader, Narendra Modi. In 2023, India used emergency laws to block the distribution of the BBC documentary India: The Modi Question.
Last week, the CBC’s Fifth Estate, the national broadcaster’s investigative unit, aired Contract to Kill, a 43-minute documentary about the shooting death of Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
Nijjar, who held Canadian citizenship, was shot and killed in a parking lot in suburban Vancouver.
The murder, and subsequent investigation by Canada’s national security apparatus, prompted the prime minister, Justin Trudeau, in September to tell the country’s parliament there were “credible allegations” that “agents of the Indian government” were behind the killing.