Last October, a wave of sensational headlines swept across Indian television screens and social media feeds, painting a Canadian border officer as a wanted terrorist hiding in plain sight within the Canadian government. Sandeep Singh Sidhu, a superintendent with the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) and a lifelong resident of British Columbia, suddenly found himself at the center of a storm that would upend his life and spark a transnational legal battle.
According to reporting from Global News and Beritaja, Indian news anchors and online influencers branded Sidhu as a “dreaded terrorist” and accused Prime Minister Mark Carney’s administration of harboring extremists. Under inflammatory banners like “Trudeau’s tax-funded terrorist” and “Kanada rewards assassin,” Indian outlets claimed Sidhu was not only a fugitive but also a high-ranking Canadian official—allegations the Canadian government and Sidhu’s lawyers flatly deny. The real story, Sidhu contends, is one of disinformation, scapegoating, and institutional betrayal.
On December 2, 2025, Sidhu filed a landmark lawsuit in Ontario court, seeking $9 million in personal injury damages from both the Indian and Canadian governments. His claim alleges that New Delhi orchestrated a campaign of fabrications to punish Ottawa for accusing India of violence on Canadian soil, including the assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey, B.C. Sidhu, who goes by “Sunny,” was, in his words, made the “patsy” of this effort because of his Sikh name and visible role in Canadian security. “Sunny became merely an instrument of India’s propaganda machine to falsely accuse Canada of employing and supporting a Khalistani extremist,” the statement of claim reads.
The ordeal began in earnest last fall, when a pro-Modi influencer with 750,000 YouTube followers accused Sidhu of being a terrorist known as “Toronto Sunny.” The video, amplified by other prominent social media voices, called for Sidhu’s arrest and extradition. “The instruction to make this allegation came from the Indian government,” the lawsuit alleges. Sidhu immediately reported the smear to his superiors, expecting support. Instead, as the lawsuit details, the CBSA “did nothing to help him and instead mocked the death threats against him and advised him that this was not a work-related matter.”
Sidhu’s ordeal did not end there. He cooperated fully with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), which conducted thorough background checks, interviewed friends and family, and administered polygraph tests. “CSIS found nothing,” the suit states. Although the CBSA eventually cleared him, the story refused to die. As diplomatic tensions between Canada and India escalated in October 2024, Indian media doubled down, airing Sidhu’s name, photo, and home address. He was depicted as a terrorist mastermind, accused of working with Pakistan’s ISI intelligence service and being a member of the International Sikh Youth Federation, which is on Canada’s list of terrorist organizations.
Indian news outlets attributed their information to a “dossier” from India’s National Investigation Agency. The photo of Sidhu used in broadcasts was one he had provided to the Indian government for a visa application in 2018. Despite the CBSA telling Indian reporters there was no evidence to support the claims, the stories remained online. Times Now characterized the CBSA’s denial as “defiance” against India after a “so-called investigation.”
The threats against Sidhu quickly escalated. On X (formerly Twitter), a user posted an aerial image of his home, writing, “His address. Go and kill him.” He reported the threats to local police in Abbotsford, B.C., who warned him to take extraordinary safety measures: change his appearance, switch vehicles, check for tracking devices, take alternate routes, and vacate his family home. According to the lawsuit, police told Sidhu that India had previously circulated false terrorism allegations against nine other individuals, one of whom had been murdered under suspicious circumstances.
Sidhu’s requests to be transferred to the more secure port of Vancouver were ignored by the CBSA, his lawyers allege. Instead, the agency circulated one of the Indian news reports to all employees in an internal email blast. Meanwhile, colleagues allegedly joked about Sidhu making bombs out of fertilizer at his family’s Fraser Valley farm and asked about his “friends in Hamas.”
The psychological toll was immense. Sidhu was diagnosed with clinical depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder. He admitted himself to a rehab program at St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver and began seeing a counselor, paying out of pocket. “It isn’t easy being the chosen weapon of a disinformation campaign by a country of almost 1.5-billion people,” his lawyers wrote. The lawsuit claims the CBSA concluded on March 3, 2025, that Sidhu faced no threats to his safety and closed its workplace assessment—without even interviewing him. “This conclusion was incomprehensible, ludicrous and tone deaf especially given the multiple explicit threats to Sunny’s safety, the concerted doxxing attempts and the countless warnings from law enforcement agencies with knowledge of the risks to his safety,” the claim reads.
The suit further alleges that CBSA management’s perception of Sidhu’s Sikh heritage contributed to their inaction, suggesting they believed he was more likely to sympathize with Khalistan extremists. The CBSA, the claim states, was “negligent, reckless, careless, and failed to meet the standards of the duty of care of a competent employer.” For its part, India also owes Sidhu redress for its “prolonged disinformation and smear campaign,” which consisted of “widespread proliferation of blatantly false and defamatory allegations.”
India’s High Commission in Ottawa did not respond to requests for comment, and Indian officials have consistently denied charges of disinformation, transnational repression, and election meddling in Canada. Despite the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) stating that its investigations support the allegations against Indian agents, Prime Minister Mark Carney has moved to restore diplomatic ties and pursue a trade deal with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. After meeting at the G20 summit in South Africa, Carney wrote on X, “India is the world’s fifth largest economy, and that means big new opportunities for Canadian workers and businesses.”
Yet, for members of Canada’s South Asian community—whom the RCMP says are the main targets of the Modi government’s activities in Canada—the future is uncertain. The Sidhu case, rare in its attempt to seek accountability for international disinformation, underscores the human cost of geopolitical gamesmanship and the dangers of unchecked propaganda in the digital age.
Sidhu’s story is a cautionary tale about the vulnerability of individuals caught in the crossfire between states, the power of media narratives to shape lives, and the responsibilities of governments to protect their own. As the legal battle unfolds, its outcome may set a precedent for how democracies respond to foreign disinformation campaigns that threaten not just national security, but the safety and dignity of their citizens.