OTTAWA, Ontario — Canada on Monday expelled six Indian diplomats, including its high commissioner, accusing them of involvement in the assassination of a Sikh separatist leader and a broader effort to target Indian dissidents in Canada.
Earlier in the day, India retaliated by ordering the expulsion of six senior Canadian diplomats, including the Acting High Commissioner, and said it had withdrawn its envoy from Canada, defying Canada's expulsion declaration.
The diplomatic dispute represents a major deterioration in relations between the two Commonwealth countries. Relations have been tense since Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spoke out last year. There was evidence linking Indian agents to the murder of Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijja on Canadian soil.
The government now has “clear and convincing evidence that agents of the Government of India have engaged and continue to engage in activities that pose a significant threat to public safety,” Trudeau said at a press conference.
He said the operation involved more than a dozen acts of threats and violence, including covert intelligence gathering techniques, coercive behavior, attacks and murders of South Asian Canadians.
“This is unacceptable,” he said, adding that India made a fundamental mistake by engaging in criminal activities in Canada.
India has long denied Trudeau's accusations. On Monday, he rejected Canada's initiative to investigate and accused Trudeau of pursuing a “political agenda.”
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said at an earlier press conference that the Indian government had launched a massive campaign against Indian dissidents, including assassinations and extortion. It also used organized crime to target Canada's South Asian community and interfered with the democratic process, police said.
“The decision to deport these individuals was made with great consideration and only after the RCMP gathered substantial, clear and convincing evidence that identified the six individuals as persons of interest in the Nijja case,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
India said it had asked six Canadian diplomats to leave by Saturday. The ministry also said it had summoned Acting High Commissioner to India Stuart Wheeler, Canada's top diplomat in the South Asian country.
India said it is expelling the diplomats because it is not sure their security can be guaranteed.
“We do not believe in the current Canadian government’s commitment to ensuring your safety. Therefore, the Government of India has decided to withdraw the High Commissioner and other targeted diplomats and officials,” the Indian Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement.
big crack
Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly said the government requested India to waive the diplomatic immunity of six diplomats so that Canadian investigative agencies could question them over allegations of criminal activity, but India did not cooperate and had to expel the diplomats.
“We don’t want a diplomatic conflict with India,” he said. “But we will not stand by while agents from any country are linked to attempts to threaten, harass or even kill Canadians.”
Canada cancels more than 40 Indian diplomats in October 2023 after New Delhi asked Ottawa to reduce its diplomatic presence.
“We’ve gone from a crack in relations with India to a big crack,” Fenn Osler Hampson, a professor of international relations at Carleton University in Ottawa, said in a phone interview. “It is difficult to see at this point that there will be a return to normality in the near future.”
Canada is home to the largest population of Sikhs outside their home state of Punjab, and protests in recent years have angered the Indian government.
The US also alleged that Indian agents were involved in attempted murder In New York last year, another Sikh separatist leader was plotted against accused an Indian citizen acting under the direction of an unidentified Indian government official.
An Indian government committee investigating Indian involvement in the assassination plot will meet with US officials in Washington this week. State Department said Monday.
Allegations of assassination plots against Sikh separatist leaders in Canada and the United States have tested their relationship with India as they seek to deepen ties with the country to combat China's growing global influence.
