Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown looks on during the Diwali Mela festival at Sesquicentennial Park in Brampton, Ont., on Nov. 1.Andrew Lahodynskyj/The Canadian Press
Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown says India’s consul-general meddled in his 2022 Conservative leadership bid but he does not believe foreign interference by New Delhi influenced the outcome of the race that elected Pierre Poilievre.
Mr. Brown, who was ultimately disqualified from that race after allegations he violated financing rules, told a parliamentary committee Thursday that Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner received an angry phone call from the consul-general to demand that he stop using the term “Sikh nation.”
Ms. Rempel Garner served as his 2022 campaign co-chair – until mid-June that year when she resigned, saying she was considering entering Alberta politics – and the concern over “Sikh nation” was later raised at a conference call with top campaign aides.
“The concern that was raised was that I had used the term on a number of occasions, Sikh nation, and the consul-general had expressed directly to MP Rempel Garner that this was something they obviously didn’t agree with; that it could be used in nationalistic terms toward the Sikh community,” he said. “What was agreed upon was that I wouldn’t use the word Sikh nation.”
The Commons Public Safety and National Security Committee is examining Indian foreign interference in Canada.
Liberal MP Jennifer O’Connell asked whether Mr. Brown felt this was appropriate for a foreign government to demand a Canadian politician change his language. “That constitutes foreign interference, pretty clearly,” she said.
Mr. Brown responded: “I certainly think that consul-generals in India have been more robust in their opinions than some of us would be comfortable with.”
Mr. Brown, a former Conservative MP, said he was also disinvited from an Indian community event because of what he believed was Indian government displeasure that he had attended a vigil in Brampton for actor-turned-Sikh-activist Deep Sidhu, who had died in a car accident.
He testified that he had never had a direct threat from India to say “they are going to raise funds for someone else or tell people to not sign up memberships. But in previous occasions, when there has been positions that I have taken, that the government of India does not support, I would hear directly from the consul-general.”
Still he insisted that India’s meddling did not affect the outcome of the 2022 federal Conservative leadership race.
“I don’t believe foreign intervention affected the final outcome of the Conservative leadership race. I believe that Pierre Poilievre was successful in that race because he signed up 300,000-plus memberships.”
Mr. Brown disputed a Radio Canada report that Ms. Rempel Garner resigned as co-chair as a result of pressure from India, an allegation Ms. Rempel Garner has also strongly denied.
“When I spoke to Michelle directly, it was very clear to me was that the reason she departed was to run for the provincial leadership to replace Jason Kenney. At no time when we talked about her departure from the campaign did she ever say was it because of pressure from the consul-general,” he said.
Mr. Brown said he had fielded complaints from India’s diplomats between 2016 and 2022 as a result of his criticism of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, including the crackdown on Indian farmers’ protests.
“It is not unusual in Canada to have consul-generals from multiple nations that are very vocal in their advocacy,” he said.
Mr. Brown was expelled from the party’s leadership race in July, 2022, over concerns and allegations he may have broken electoral financing laws in their membership sales and in using a third-party company to pay salaries for campaign staff.
It later emerged that Mr. Poilievre’s campaign paid the legal fees for Debbie Jodoin, the woman who blew the whistle on the third-party arrangement, and who is a long-time Conservative organizer.
The Commissioner of Canada Elections launched a review of the party’s concerns over membership sales and concluded that while potential “minor” breaches of the Elections Act existed, they did not consider the issue in the public interest to pursue further.
Internal party data circulated at the close of membership sales for the campaign showed Mr. Poilievre sold more than 312,000 memberships and Mr. Brown sold 62,000.
His leadership campaign also remains in debt, because once he was kicked out, the party refused to issue political-contribution receipts for donations to pay off his bills.
With a report by Stephanie Levitz