UN Special Rapporteurs Warn Canada over Threats to Activist Moninder’s Life

August

2026

Five UN special rapporteurs have written to Canadian authorities expressing 'serious concerns' about the safety of British Columbia-based Sikh activist Moninder Singh. The joint letter said the threats may have been an attempt by India to intimidate Moninder over his advocacy and co-operation with the UN. It said that Moninder had given several speeches to UN agencies, and that some of the plots to kill him detected by police coincided with those appearances. It further said, 'We are concerned that such threats fall within a broader pattern of transnational repression by Indian authorities against Sikh activists in different countries, including Canada. These allegations, if true, may constitute unlawful intimidation and reprisals in direct retaliation for Mr. Moninder Singh’s human rights advocacy and cooperation with United Nations human rights representatives and mechanisms.' India has emerged as the second-most significant foreign interference threat to Canada's democratic institutions and processes.” The letter recalled that since 2022, Singh has received four so-called ‘duty to warn’ notices from the Canadian authorities about credible and imminent threats to his life, including to his wife and children in February 2026. It asked Canada ‘to take all feasible measures at its disposal to protect Moninder and his family, as well as similarly situated individuals on Canadian soil. The letter said, ‘We also urge the authorities to accelerate the investigations into these allegations, hold perpetrators accountable, ensure adequate remedy to victims, and take all steps to prevent recurrence.' While UN human rights rapporteurs are not UN officials, they carry out mandates assigned to them by the organization, and report on human rights issues around the world. Canada has informed the UN that it remains 'deeply concerned' about the threats Moninder is facing, and is taking action to disrupt all credible threats made by foreign actors against those on Canadian soil. Meanwhile, three people, including a Panjab-origin Sikh correctional officer, were killed when a Correctional Service of Canada vehicle transporting an inmate was involved in a head-on collision in rural Alberta. The deceased have been identified as Correctional Officers Ramandeep Kaur Maan and Nicolae Serban, both from the Edmonton Institution for Women, and inmate Kiara Mooswa. Maan, a young woman from Gudhe village, Ludhiana district had moved to Canada as an international student and joined the country’s correctional service just six months ago (earlier coverage).