Canada blocks Australia Today outlet, hours after coverage of EAM Jaishankar’s presser in Canberra: MEA

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Thursday lambasted Canada for its “hypocrisy towards freedom of speech,” as Justin Trudeau government “blocked” the social media handles and pages of “an important diaspora outlet” Australia Today, shortly after it broadcast S Jaishankar’s press conference with his counterpart Penny Wong at Canberra.

In the presser the EAM Jaishankar has slammed Canada for making allegations without any specific evidence, termed “surveillance of Indian diplomats” unacceptable and also highlighted that the “political space has been given in Canada to anti-India elements.”

Adressing the weekly briefing on Thursday, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said, “We understand that the social media handles, pages of this particular outlet, which is an important diaspora outlet, has been blocked and are not available for viewers in Canada.”

“This happened just an hour or few hours after this particular handle carried the press conference of EAM Dr S Jaishankar with Penny Wong…We were surprised. It looks strange to us.” he added.

Further Jaiswal also said that these actions highlight the “hypocrisy of Canada towards freedom of speech.”

“EAM in his media engagements, spoke about three things. One was Canada making allegations and a pattern has developed without any specific evidence. The second thing he highlighted was surveillance of Indian diplomats happening in Canada, which he termed as unacceptable. The third thing which he highlighted was the political space which has been given in Canada to anti-India elements. So you can draw your conclusions from that, why Australia Today channel was blocked by Canada,”Jaiswal added during the mea briefing.

Jaiswal also spoke on Jaishankar’s visit to Australia and stated that a while ago he was speaking to the business community and CEOs.

“EAM is in Sydney today. He was sometime back speaking to the business community and CEOs. He also had a meeting with the Australian Foreign Minister where they together attended the 15th India-Australia Framework Dialogue. EAM did discuss all our security concerns that we have with Australia…” MEA spokeperson said.

During the briefing, Jaiswal also highlighted the recent violence that took place at Brampton’s Hindu Sabha Mandir on November 3 in Brampton, near Toronto.

“You have seen the comments that we made. We condemn the attack on the temple in Brampton. We also called upon the Canadian Govt to uphold the rule of law and to bring to justice people who purported the violence. those. We hope the Canadian Govt will take due action.” Jaiswal said.

Higlighting, the recent events in Canada that have raised security concerns, the MEA spokeperson said the Indian Consulate in Toronto cancelled some scheduled consular camps due to Canadian security authorities’ inability to provide minimum protection.

“You would have seen the message posted by our consulate in Toronto that they have had to cancel the consular camp that they were planning to organise over the weekend because they did not get adequate security or security assurance from the government,” he said.

“We have a large diaspora in Canada. Many of these people, especially around the month of November, December, they need several documentation for continuation of their pensions and several other activities here in India. So this consulate camp that we do is helpful to the community, to both people of Indian nationality and people who are of Indian origin but Canadian nationals today. I do understand that in other parts of Canada, Vancouver for example, the consular camps will be conducted. These consular camps are conducted at the request of the community organizations. So where the community organization is comfortable, we will go ahead with these consular camps,” he added.