LAST week, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had told The Canadian Press that India chose to attack and undermine Canada when information about there being credible intelligence linking India’s government to the June assassination of Khalistan activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar outside Surrey’s Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara became public.

“The scale of misinformation and disinformation in their media was comical,” Trudeau added.

This week, Trudeau in his year-end interview to CBC said he believes India’s relations with Canada may have undergone “a tonal shift” following the unsealing of the U.S. indictment about the conspiracy to murder a Sikh activist — Gurpatwant Singh Pannun — on American soil.

Trudeau said that that indictment seemed to have convinced the Narendra Modi government to adopt a more sober tone.

Trudeau told CBC’s Rosemary Barton: “I think there is a beginning of an understanding that they can’t bluster their way through this and there is an openness to collaborating in a way that perhaps they were less open before.”

The Prime Minister added: “There’s an understanding that maybe, maybe just churning out attacks against Canada isn’t going to make this problem go away.”

Trudeau said Canada did not want to have a fight with India right now over this.

He told CBC: “We want to be working on that trade deal. We want to be advancing the Indo-Pacific strategy. But it is foundational for Canada to stand up for people’s rights, for people’s safety, and for the rule of law. And that’s what we’re going to do.”