No, Canada has not banned RSS amid diplomatic row; misleading video viral

Amid the rising diplomatic tension between Canada and India over the murder of pro-Khalistan leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a video has gone viral on social media in which a man speaks of banning the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in Canada. It is claimed that the Canadian government announced the banning of the Right-Wing outfit.

In the video, the man says that Canada’s ambassador to India should be recalled, the Indian ambassador to Canada should be evicted from the country, trade between the two countries should be stalled and the RSS should be banned.

X (formerly Twitter) user @B5001001101 shared the video with the caption, “RSS banned in Canada. Waiting for Bakths to come with a storyline that George Soros & Congress are behind the ban of RSS in Canada.” (Archive)

RSS banned in Canada.

Waiting for Bakths to come with a storyline that George Soros & Congress are behind the ban of RSS in Canada. pic.twitter.com/SrTYWvxpM2

— Брат (@B5001001101) September 21, 2023

Another user named Sandeep Singh (@ActivistSandeep) shared the video with the caption:” कनाडा में RSS बैन,
2024 चुनाव के बाद इंडिया में करेंगे आरएसएस बैन।”. He later deleted the tweet. (Archive)

Several other users made the same claim. Among them are Bharat RM (@bloggingpanda87), Ujwal Latkar AAP
(@UjwalLatkar) and Ashfaq Hassan (@BrigAshfaqHasan).

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Fact Check

We ran a reverse image search with a still from the video and found a YouTube channel named NCCMtv, which posted a longer version of the speech on September 20 with the caption “NCCM CEO Stephen Brown Calls for Action in Response to Alleged Assassination of Sikh Man in Canada”.

The description of the video says, “Today, NCCM CEO Stephen Brown joined Mukhbir Singh, Board of Directors, World Sikh Organization of Canada to call for clear actions by our government in response to the alleged assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar by agents of the Government of India.”

A relevant search on Google revealed that NCCM stood for National Council for Canadian Muslims. We checked the official website of National Council of Canadian Muslims and found out that it was “an independent, non-partisan and non-profit organization, built from within the Canadian Muslim community”. There is no mention of any affiliation to the government of Canada. Therefore, the implicit claim that NCCM is linked with the Canadian government is not true.

Next, we performed a keyword search on Google with the terms ‘RSS ban in Canada’. We could not find any news update from a Canadian media outlet or any such announcement on any government website. We also checked the website of Global Affairs, Canada, the department of the government of Canada that manages Canada’s diplomatic and consular relations. No mention of a ban on RSS could be found on it.

We, however, found an Al Jazeera report on a joint press conference by Stephen Brown and Mukhbir Singh. The reports states that “Sikh and Muslim leaders in Canada have called on the government to do more to prevent potential threats against their communities.”

Thus, it is clear that the viral video shows the CEO of the National Council for Canadian Muslims making some demands. He is not linked to the Canadian government in any way. The claim that the Canadian government has banned the RSS is false.

Shreyatama Datta is an intern at Alt News.