Canada blocks 'Australia Today' after Jaishankar's presser, MEA gives befitting response

PTC News Desk: The war of words between India and Canada once again broke out when Canada blocked the media outlet Australia Today hours after they  External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar's press conference where he spoke about India-Canada standoff. 

Canada's actions followed India's hard hitting response. In a befitting reply, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said the incident exposed Canada's hypocrisy towards freedom of speech. 

"We understand that the social media handles, pages of this particular outlet, which is an important diaspora outlet, have been blocked and are not available for viewers in Canada. This happened just an hour or a few hours after this particular handle carried the press conference of S Jaishankar with Penny Wong. We were surprised. It looks strange to us," said Jaiswal.

"But, nonetheless, what I will say is that these are actions which yet again highlight the hypocrisy of Canada towards freedom of speech. You would have seen that the External Affairs Minister, in his media engagements, spoke about three things. One was Canada making allegations and a pattern had developed without any specific evidence. The second thing he highlighted was surveillance of Indian diplomats happening in Canada, which he termed as unacceptable," he further said. 

Dr. S.Jaishankar is on a bilateral visit to Australia. He was addressing a media briefing along with his Australian counterpart where he criticised Canada while saying that it has given space to anti-India elements and extremism. 

"Let me make three comments, one, Canada has developed a pattern of making allegations without providing specifics. Secondly, when we look at Canada, for us, the fact that...our diplomats are under surveillance, is something which is unacceptable," Jaishankar said.