YouTube blocks Canadian media story about Sikh separatist killing

By Barry Ellsworth

TRENTON, Canada (AA) – YouTube blocked an investigative TV program Wednesday focusing on the deadly shooting of a Canadian Sikh separatist after being ordered to do so by the Indian government.

YouTube told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s that its The Fifth Estate program, which contained a video of the fatal shooting of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in British Columbia, had been pulled.

The Indian government maintains that it has the right under its Information and Technology Act 2000 to order YouTube to block access to any program. India's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology also ordered X to remove anything related to The Fifth Estate story, the CBC said.

"Indian law obligates X to withhold access to this content in India; however, the content remains available elsewhere," X said in an email to The Fifth Estate.

"We disagree with this action and maintain that freedom of expression should extend to these posts. Following the Indian legal process, we are in current communication with the Indian authorities."

The video showed the victim leaving the parking lot of a Sikh temple in Surrey, British Columbia on June 18, 2023.

As he drove to the exit in his truck, a white car blocked his vehicle and two men ran to Nijjar’s truck and then shot him before escaping in a Toyota Camry. The story with the video aired on the CBC last week.

The murder caused a furor, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in September there was “creditable allegations of a potential link between agents of the Government of India and the killing of a Canadian citizen, Hardeep Singh Nijjar.”

India was vehement in its denial of complicity in the murder.

To date, there have been no arrests in the killing.