Is the potential India murder link a hint espionage is growing bolder?

An expert says the alleged assassination - which the Indian government denies - takes place as countries like Iran, China and Russia push against Canada, the U.S. and the West.

If agents of the Indian government were behind the murder of Sikh Canadian Hardeep Singh Nijjar, as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says intelligence suggests may be the case, it could hint at growing espionage boldness, an intelligence expert told Global News.

And confirmation of such allegations would show levels of what she called “overt, covert” interference are rising, “or at least that countries are willing to sort of step out of the shadows.”

“Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, if you angered the Americans or NATO or the EU, you are going to be left out in the cold in terms of economic development, trade relationships, etc.,” said Jessica Davis, president of Insight Threat Intelligence.

“But now we have China, Russia and India who are all kind of forming a bit of a trade bloc on their own so they’re willing to take more risks.”

It could be an egregious example of covert actions on Canadian soil, but the existence of covert activities is not itself new.

Canada has accused or alleged other countries like China, Iran and Russia of attempting to interfere in Canada’s elections or intimidating diaspora communities on Canadian soil.

And Canada, Davis said, can be an appealing target for some of those activities compared to the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand — collectively known as the Five Eyes.

“We haven’t had to make the kinds of investments in our security and intelligence services a lot of other countries have… (and) we’ve been less overt in terms of prosecuting some of these activities.”