India Said to Have Meddled in Canada Party Election

Reports of past meddling by the Indian government roiled Canada’s general election on Tuesday, putting Pierre Poilievre, the Conservative Party leader and the main challenger to Prime Minister Mark Carney, on the defensive.

Canadian intelligence officials said Indian agents and proxies raised money and organized support for Mr. Poilievre in the 2022 Conservative Party leadership race that he won, Canadian news media reported on Tuesday. Intelligence officials said there was no evidence that Mr. Poilievre or people close to him were aware of the interference.

There was no indication that the meddling influenced the outcome of the leadership race, which Mr. Poilievre won in a first-round landslide, garnering 68 percent of the votes.

But news of India’s involvement resurrects uncomfortable questions concerning Mr. Poilievre’s steadfast refusal to seek top security clearance to receive classified briefings on interference in Canada by foreign countries. Mr. Poilievre, the only federal party leader to refuse to get top security clearance, has said that getting the clearance would restrict what he can say in public.

Canadian intelligence officials did not inform Mr. Poilievre of Indian interference in 2022 because he lacked the necessary security clearance, according to The Globe and Mail, which was the first to report on the meddling.

A yearlong public inquiry into foreign interference in Canadian politics identified India as one of the main actors, along with China, saying that it supported candidates believed to be pro-India. One intelligence report released last year said that India had interfered “in a Conservative Party of Canada leadership race.’’

But Tuesday’s reports were the first to connect India’s interference to the 2022 race that Mr. Poilievre won.

Mr. Poilievre, in a news conference on Tuesday, said that he had “won the leadership fair and square.”

He also restated his opposition to accepting top security clearance.

“They don’t want me to be able to speak about these matters,” Mr. Poilievre said, adding that the Liberal-led government wanted to impose an “oath of secrecy” on him.

Mr. Poilievre went on the offensive, attacking Mr. Carney’s dealings with China as a former chairman of Brookfield Asset Management, a global investment firm.

Mr. Carney, who called a general election on Sunday less than two weeks after succeeding Justin Trudeau as prime minister, said Mr. Poilievre’s decision not to seek security clearance was “irresponsible.”

Yves-François Blanchet, the leader of the Bloc Québécois, a party that supports independence for Quebec and runs candidates for the federal Parliament only in the French-speaking province, said he had never felt muzzled after getting security clearance. Mr. Poilievre, he added, had chosen not to get clearance and classified briefings to protect Conservative candidates who might otherwise be forced to withdraw from races.

Asked about Mr. Blanchet’s comment, a Conservative Party spokesman referred to Mr. Poilievre’s news conference, which did not address it.

The yearlong public inquiry revealed meddling by China and India in Canada’s two previous elections. The Chinese government and its proxies mostly supported candidates of the Liberal Party, which, especially during Mr. Trudeau’s early leadership, pushed for friendly ties with Beijing.

China also tried to undermine Conservative candidates who espoused a hard line against China and were critical of its human rights record.

By contrast, the Indian government has had tense relations with the Liberal Party, which it has accused of coddling Sikh-Canadians promoting a separate Sikh state in India. Historically, the Indian government has had friendly relations with the Conservative Party.

Stephen Harper, the former Conservative prime minister under whom Mr. Poilievre served in ministerial positions, recently said during a visit to India that he was “heartbroken” about the bad relations between India and Canada. Relations worsened in the past two years when Mr. Trudeau accused Indian government agents of orchestrating the assassination of a Sikh-Canadian activist in Vancouver.