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Canada and India each expel six diplomats amid murder investigation of Sikh activist in B.C.
RCMP says police have uncovered evidence of a targeted campaign against Canadian citizens by agents of the Indian government.Updated 18 hrs ago
Oct. 14, 2024
4 min read
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau listens as Minister of Foreign Affairs Melanie Joly speaks at a news conference on the investigative efforts related to violent criminal activity occurring in Canada with connections to India, on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, on Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang
Justin Tang The Canadian Press
By Star Staff
OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says his government expelled six Indian diplomats from Canada because New Delhi refused to co-operate in criminal investigations.
Canada has identified India’s top diplomat in the country as a person of interest in the assassination of a Sikh activist and expelled him and five other diplomats Monday, in an escalating dispute over the June 2023 killing and allegations of other crimes.
“We will never tolerate the involvement of a foreign government threatening and killing Canadian citizens on Canadian soil,” Trudeau said. He alleged that diplomats were collecting information about Canadians and passing it on to organized crime to attack Canadians, and said “India has made a monumental mistake.”
“This is unacceptable,” he told reporters at a press conference on Monday afternoon.
He says Canada is still asking India to co-operate with RCMP probes into violent incidents and coercive behaviour linked to agents of the Indian government.
Canada’s foreign minister, Mélanie Joly, said the Royal Canadian Mounted Police had gathered “ample, clear and concrete evidence which identified six individuals as persons of interest in the Nijjar case.”
She said India was asked to waive diplomatic and consular immunity and co-operate in the investigation but refused to co-operate.
“Regrettably, as India did not agree and given the ongoing public safety concerns for Canadians, Canada served notices of expulsion to these individuals,” Joly said.
She asked that India’s government support the ongoing investigation “as it remains in both our countries’ interest to get to the bottom of this.”
“To be clear, we’re not seeking diplomatic confrontation with India, but we will not sit quietly as agents of any country are linked to efforts to threaten, harass or even kill Canadians,” she said.
India swiftly retaliated by ordering six Canadian diplomats to leave the country within a week.
RCMP Commissioner Michael Duheme told a news conference in Ottawa that the force decided to take the “extraordinary” step of warning the public after Indian government officials refused to co-operate in an investigation into the threats.
“It’s not our normal process to publicly disclose information about ongoing investigations in an effort to preserve their integrity,” Duheme told reporters. “However, we feel it is necessary to do so at this time due the significant threat to public safety in our country.”
“Let me be clear: the evidence brought to light by the RCMP cannot be ignored,” Trudeau said. “It leads to one conclusion: It is necessary to disrupt the criminal activities that continue to pose a threat to public safety in Canada.”
The RCMP commissioner said investigations revealed that Indian diplomats and consular officials based in Canada leveraged their official positions to engage in clandestine activities including collecting information for the Government of India, either directly or through proxies.
“Evidence also shows that a wide variety of entities in Canada and abroad have been used by agents of the Government of India to collect information,” Duheme said, including some people and businesses that were allegedly coerced and threatened into providing information used to make threats.
Duheme said Canadian law enforcement, including the RCMP, have investigated and charged people in homicides, extortions and other criminal acts. He added there have been well over a dozen credible and imminent threats that have resulted in police warning members of the South Asian community, notably the pro-Khalistan movement.
The Canadian government will never tolerate the involvement of a foreign government threatening and killing Canadian citizens on Canadian soil, Trudeau said, calling the actions “a deeply unacceptable violation of Canada’s sovereignty and of international law.”
Canada’s Minister of Public Safety Dominic LeBlanc encouraged all Canadians, and in particular leaders in the South Asian and Sikh communities, to continue to work with law enforcement, who are “working to keep them safe and to hold to account those who seek to harm Canadians.”
In February 2024, a unit was formed to investigate the threats.
“The team has learned a significant amount of information about the breadth and depth of criminal activity orchestrated by agents of the Government of India and consequential threats to the safety and security of Canadians and individuals living in Canada,” Duheme said.
“Despite law enforcement action, the harm has continued, posing a serious threat to our public safety.”
Duheme said the force felt compelled to confront the Government of India and to inform the public about its findings. However attempts to have discussions with Indian law enforcement were unsuccessful, he added.
New Delhi rejected the allegations, and called the Canadian government’s claims preposterous. The Ministry of External Affairs said it had been informed Sunday that the country’s Indian High Commissioner and other diplomats were “persons of interest” in an ongoing investigation.
It claimed that since Trudeau made “certain allegations” in September 2023 pertaining to the Indian government, the Canadian government has not shared a “shred of evidence.”
Canadian official says India’s announcement came after Canada had declared high commissioner Sanjay Kumar Verma and five other diplomats persona non grata.
Not long after, India’s Ministry of External Affairs announced in a release it has expelled six Canadian diplomats from the country, including Canada’s acting high commissioner.
Stewart Wheeler, Canada’s acting high commissioner in India, told local media in that country that Canada provided New Delhi with “irrefutable evidence” of ties between Indian government agents and the murder of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil.
He and his colleagues have been given until next Saturday to leave India.
Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar, 45, was fatally shot in his pickup truck in June 2023 after he left the Sikh temple he led in the city of Surrey, British Columbia. An Indian-born citizen of Canada, he owned a plumbing business and was a leader in what remains of a once-strong movement to create an independent Sikh homeland.
Police have charged multiple Indian nationals in the killing.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has repeatedly denied any involvement in the murder of Nijjar, who was designated as a terrorist under Indian law last year.
The pro-Khalistan movement is a thorny issue between India and Canada. New Delhi has repeatedly criticized Trudeau’s government for being soft on supporters of the Khalistan movement who reside in Canada. The Khalistan movement is banned in India, but has support among the Sikh diaspora, particularly in Canada.
India has been asking countries like Canada, Australia and the U.K. to take legal action against Sikh activists. India has particularly raised these concerns with Canada, where Sikhs make up nearly 2% of the country’s population.
U.S. prosecutors in a separate case have accused an Indian government agent of directing a thwarted plot to assassinate Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a Sikh separatist and U.S. citizen, on American soil. After those allegations, which included references to the Nijjar case, the Indian government formed a committee of inquiry to look into the issue.
On Monday, the U.S. State Department said the Indian investigating team would visit Washington this week to discuss the Department of Justice case against Nikhil Gupta, an Indian citizen who is accused of trying to hire a hit man to kill Pannun on orders from an unnamed Indian government employee. Gupta has pleaded not guilty.
India “has informed the United States they are continuing their efforts to investigate other linkages of the former government employee and will determine follow up steps, as necessary,” the State Department said.
With files from The Associated Press and Bloomberg
Protesters chant outside of the Consulate General of India office during a protest held after the shooting of Shaheed Bhai Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Vancouver in June 2023.
Canada and India each expel six diplomats amid murder investigation of Sikh activist in B.C.
RCMP says police have uncovered evidence of a targeted campaign against Canadian citizens by agents of the Indian government.
