Prior to the expulsion of six Indian diplomats from Canada, the Canadian authorities had confronted these officials with information about their alleged role in violent acts in Canada, including extortion and homicide, with the aim of disrupting on-going violence against Canadian citizens, according to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The relations between India and Canada have been unraveling since Mr. Trudeau told the Canadian parliament in September 2023 that Indian agents were behind the slaying of a Canadian citizen and pro-Khalistan figure Hardeep Singh Nijjar in June last year.
Speaking at a press conference in Ottawa on Monday, Mr. Trudeau and his colleagues, Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly and Public Safety Minister Dominic Leblanc, emphasized that the nature of the alleged violence caused by agents of the Indian government was “ ongoing “ and that the reason the Canadian authorities precipitated a diplomatic situation was to disrupt the pattern after failing to obtain the cooperation of the Indian government.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), had approached the Indian authorities as recently as last week, as per Mr. Trudeau, but the Indian side had “rejected those advances” necessitating Monday’s actions. Ms. Joly claimed that sitting Indian diplomats were involved in acts of violence and the level of violence had increased since last year, when Mr Trudeau first made the allegations.
Earlier in the day, the RCMP had said that an “extraordinary situation” had compelled them to speak publicly about on-going investigations into “serious criminal activity” in Canada in which agents of the Government of India were involved. The police said there were “imminent threats” to members of the South Asian community, specifically “members of the pro-Khalistan movement”.
The government of India had made “a fundamental error” by thinking it could engage in “murders or extortion or other violent acts” against Canadians on Canadian soil, Mr. Trudeau said.
The RCMP, Mr. Trudeau said, had chosen to come out today with the allegations on Monday to “disrupt the pattern of Indian diplomats collecting, through questionable and illegal means, information on Canadian citizens that were then fed to criminal organizations that would then take violent actions from extortion to murder against Canadians”.
India-Canada row over Nijjar killing: read updates
“This is not a choice that Canada made - to create a chill in Canada- India relations, he added.
“ India is an important democracy... a country with which we have deep historical people to people, business ties, at a time where the instability around geopolitics mean democracies have to stick together,” Mr. Trudeau said, explaining that Canada had reached out to India hoping to fix the situation.
Mr. Trudeau said that India’s response had been to “deny , to obfuscate, to attack me [Mr Trudeau] personally, and the integrity of the Government of Canada and its officials and its police agencies”, ever since He made his allegations about Indian involvement in the killing of Mr Nijjar.
The Canadian Prime Minister told reporters that he had emphasized to Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week in Laos, when the two men interacted on the fringes of the ASEAN Summit, how “ incredibly important” the meeting between the countries’ national security advisors [Ajit Doval and Canadian NSA Nathalie Drouin] in Singapore (reportedly held on Saturday October 12) was.
Timeline: What led to India, Canada expelling top diplomats?
“I impressed upon him that it needed to be taken very, very seriously,” Mr Trudeau said.
“I know the events of the past year and today’s revelations have shaken many Canadians, particularly those in the Indo-Canadian and Sikh community,” Mr Trudeau said.
“Canada fully respects the sovereignty and territorial integrity of India. We expect the Indian government to do the same for Canada,” he said. New Delhi, however, does not share that view. The government has repeatedly said that domestic political compulsions and “ vote bank” politics in Canada have led to a very “permissive” environment in the country for India-related secessionist activity. Mr Trudeau’s beleaguered Liberal party, which recently made it through two votes of confidence, will have to face an election before the end of October 2025.
When asked about the number of homicides that were allegedly being orchestrated by Indian agents, the security minister, Mr. LeBlanc, demurred, not wanting to get ahead of the RCMP investigations. He confirmed he had spoken with U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland on Monday morning and discussed cooperation between the FBI and RCMP.
The Modi government finds itself in a similar situation across the border, in the United States, where Indian citizens stand accused in a plot to kill the chief of Khalistani group Sikhs for Justice (SFJ), Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, who is a U.S. citizen. An Indian team to probe the allegations is scheduled to visit Washington DC on Tuesday.
The Canadian Foreign Minister, Ms Joly, told reporters that Ottawa had requested New Delhi to waive diplomatic immunity for six of its personnel so they could be questioned about “a number of violent incidents targeting members of the South Asian community, particularly the Sikh community, in many cities across the country”.
When they refused to waive immunity, they were served notices of expulsion. Earlier the Canadian government had said India’s decision to withdraw its diplomats came after Canada’s decision to expel them. India had announced its intention to withdraw the diplomats before news of them being expelled broke.
The resulting expulsion included six diplomats each. This included India’s High Commissioner to Canada Sanjay Kumar Verma and his (acting) counterpart in India, High Commissioner Stewart Ross Wheeler.
Asked if Canada would consider sanctions on India, Ms Joly appeared to step back from the idea, while not ruling it out at a later date.
The expulsion of diplomats was one of the toughest measures a country could undertake under the Vienna Convention, Ms Joly said., adding, that Canada was going to continue engaging both the G7 advanced economies and the Five Eyes.
“ ...And everything is on the table,” she said.
The Foreign Minister said she had been in touch with External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on Monday and that Canada would “continue to ask” for India’s cooperation. She also confirmed she had spoken with her ‘ Five Eyes’ counterparts, i.e., Foreign Ministers of the intelligence sharing group comprised of Canada, the U.S., U.K., Australia and the U.S.
“We don’t want diplomatic confrontation with India,” Ms Joly said, emphasizing that Canada wanted to ensure that the movement of people between the countries and ties between them were still possible.
“And so in that sense, we are asking India to cooperate in the investigation, period,” she said.
With the expulsion of Indian diplomats, Ottawa was hoping to send “a strong message” Ms Joly said, saying that the message was also for other Western democracies, where “transnational repression” was occurring.
“It is important that India gets the message,” she said.
Canadian Leader of the Opposition and Canada’s Conservative Party, Pierre Poilievre, called the RCMP allegations “extremely concerning” and said foreign interference, including from India, was unacceptable. Mr. Poilievre blamed Mr Trudeau’s Liberal government for turning Canada into a “playground” for foreign activities.
Published - October 15, 2024 07:31 am IST
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