Canada and India have announced tit-for-tat expulsions of diplomats on the same day the RCMP said Indian agents have been involved in homicides on Canadian soil.
The move came as Canada expelled six Indian diplomats, including its High Commissioner Sanjay Kumar Verma, as the row between the two countries escalates.
This latest crisis comes a little over a year after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused Indian agents of having a hand in the assassination on Canadian soil of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, sending diplomatic relations into a tailspin. The Indian government had accused Nijjar of being a terrorist.
Nijjar was gunned down in the parking lot of a Sikh place of worship in June 2023 in Surrey, B.C. Police arrested the murder suspects earlier this year.
The latest flare-up of tensions between Ottawa and New Delhi stems from recent accusations that Indian diplomats have been engaged in illegal activity in Canada.
The department said New Delhi “strongly rejects these preposterous imputations and ascribes them to the political agenda of the Trudeau Government that is centered around vote bank politics.”
Global Affairs Canada said India was asked to waive the diplomatic immunity of some of its staff in Canada to allow the RCMP to interview relevant individuals. “Regrettably, as India did not agree and given the ongoing public safety concerns for Canadians, Canada served notices of expulsion to these individuals,” the department said.
On the same day, the RCMP held a press conference to discuss Indian agents’ alleged involvement in “serious criminal activity.” RCMP Commissioner Micheal Duheme said, however, that the announcement was unrelated to the murder investigation of Nijjar and was taken due to the “significant threat to public safety.”
The force said that since September 2023, at least 13 people have been warned of threats to their lives, with some receiving multiple threats. Supporters of the pro-Khalistan movement were the targets, said the RCMP.
“We reached a point where we felt it was imperative to confront the government of India and inform the public,” said RCMP Commissioner Michael Duheme in explaining the move to level public accusations.
He said the RCMP created a multidisciplinary team to investigate the threat in February 2024, which uncovered a “significant amount of information about the breadth and depth of criminal activity orchestrated by agents of the government of India.”
The evidence uncovered includes links tying these agents to homicides and violent acts, the use of organized crime to create the perception of an unsafe environment, and interference in the democratic processes, Duheme said, adding that “several” Indian diplomats have been involved.
Assistant Commissioner Brigitte Gauvin said approximately eight individuals have been arrested and charged in relation to homicides, whereas at least 22 have been arrested and charged for extortion.
“Some of these have connections to the government of India,” Gauvin said.
“Indian diplomats and consular officials are here to protect the interests of their nationals that are based in Canada and their country’s national interests as well, and not to be part of criminal activity or intimidation or coercion of these individuals, so we take that very seriously.”
Gauvin said that sometimes prosecuting offences is “not the best option,” adding that the RCMP’s objective in going public is to “disrupt the networks and to stop the violence in our country.”
New Delhi has long complained that Canada has harboured Sikh separatists seeking to create an independent Khalistani state in India’s Punjab.
Its Ministry of External Affairs repeated the accusation on Oct. 14, saying the Trudeau government has “consciously provided space to violent extremists and terrorists to harass, threaten and intimidate Indian diplomats and community leaders in Canada.”
Duheme noted that violent extremists are impacting both Canada and India.
He also accused Indian diplomats of engaging in clandestine activities such as information collection, “either directly or through their agents and other individuals who acted voluntarily or through coercion.”
The information collected is then used by New Delhi to “target members of the South Asian community,” he said.
Duheme said the decision was made to have the announcement on Thanksgiving after a meeting with Indian officials on Oct. 12 didn’t go as planned. He said his deputy “plainly laid out the evidence that we had on some of the cases” and sought India’s collaboration.
“That did not result in the outcomes that were expected, and this is why we’re here today.”
