Indian diplomat pushed back when he used the words “Sikh nation”

Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown said foreign interference did not tip the scales in the Conservative party’s last leadership race that installed Pierre Poilievre at the helm.

But he offered up Thursday that he changed some of the language he was using after getting pushback from an Indian diplomat that some of his comments could sound like he was endorsing ideas of Sikh nationalism.

Brown, who was a candidate for the leadership in 2022, was summoned to a House of Commons committee Thursday to answer questions on the 2022 race after a report from a committee on national security referred to allegations of Indian interference in an unspecified Conservative leadership campaign.

“I don’t believe foreign intervention affected the final outcome of the Conservative leadership race,” Brown told the House of Commons public safety and national security committee Thursday.

A CBC/Radio-Canada article this week quoted several confidential sources from Brown’s campaign alleging that representatives from India’s consulate interfered to undermine his leadership bid.

On Monday, Brown posted on social media about the committee’s summons to say that he had no new evidence to add, and that the public inquiry on foreign interference was the proper venue to evaluate the allegations.

Brown insisted to the committee Thursday that no members of the Indian government reached out to him or his campaign workers during his leadership bid, saying the relationship was “already very strained” at that point.

The CBC News story also contained allegations that his national campaign co-chair Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner was pressured to withdraw her support for Brown — something she denied.

When NDP MP Alistair MacGregor quizzed him on the news report, asking why she left the campaign, Brown said she left seeking to launch her own leadership bid to replace UCP leader Jason Kenney in Alberta — not from pressure from India.

“At no time when we talked about her departing the campaign did she ever say it was over pressure from the consul general,” he said.

He said the article likely referred to a conference call more than a month before she left, after the consul general raised concerns with Rempel Garner about Brown using the words “Sikh nation.”

“The consul general had expressed directly to (Rempel Garner) that, obviously that was something they didn’t agree with, that it could be viewed in nationalistic terms towards the Sikh community,” he said.

That led him to change the language he was employing to a Punjabi term that he said meant the same thing.

Liberal MP Jennifer O’Connell asked if that’s “an appropriate election activity by a foreign government,” charging it was a clear instance of foreign interference.

Brown replied that Indian officials “have been more robust in their opinions than some of us would be comfortable with.”

A bombshell report by the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians into foreign interference released last spring referred to “India’s alleged interference in a Conservative Party of Canada leadership race.”

Brown said he was not under any kind of non-disclosure agreement with the Conservative Party that prevents him from speaking publicly about what happened during the race.

He said he believes it’s important to guard against foreign meddling in democracy but that he does not want to get drawn into partisan debates on Parliament Hill.

Brown was not included as a witness in the public inquiry into foreign interference, which wrapped up hearings earlier this fall with a final report due in the new year.

He was disqualified from the party’s 2022 leadership race due to allegations related to financing rules in the Canada Elections Act.