Canada’s PM faces backlash for inviting India’s Narendra Modi for G7 summit

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Canada’s prime minister, Mark Carney, has defended his decision to invite India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, to the upcoming G7 summit in Alberta, despite the conclusion of Canada’s federal police’s that the murder of a prominent Sikh activist in British Columbia was orchestrated by the “highest levels” of the Indian government.

Carney declined to answer reporters’ questions over whether he believed Modi had a role in the assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar – a killing on Canadian soil that shattered relations between the two countries.

“There is a legal process that is literally under way and quite advanced in Canada, and it’s never appropriate to make comments with respect to those legal processes,” he said on Friday. Four Indian nationals living in Canada have been charged with Nijjar’s murder.

The summit, attended by key world leaders, runs from 15 to 17 June in Kananaskis, Alberta.

Carney said because India was the “fifth largest economy in the world, the most populous country in the world and central to supply chains”, he said it was important to invite the country’s leader despite the continuing investigation to discuss energy, artificial intelligence and critical minerals.

“I extended the invitation to Prime Minister Modi and, in that context, he has accepted,” Carney said.

Modi said he was glad to receive a call from Carney and congratulated the Liberal leader on his recent electoral victory.