The diplomatic dispute between Canada and India is back in the spotlight amid growing concerns about foreign interference and the ongoing investigation into the 2023 murder of a Sikh separatist leader in British Columbia.
In a tit-for-tat move, both countries expelled their diplomats on Monday. Ottawa said it was expelling six Indian diplomats and consular officials “in connection with a targeted campaign against Canadian citizens conducted by agents linked to the Government of India.”
The government has taken action “to break the chain of activity that leads from Indian diplomats here in Canada to criminal organizations to brutally influence Canadians across the country,” Prime Minister Justina Trudeau said.
Global News has learned that agents working at the Indian High Commission in Ottawa and the consulates in Vancouver and Toronto are behind dozens of violent crimes across Canada targeting opponents of the Narendra Modi government.
Although on paper they held diplomatic and consular positions, Indian agents played a key role in a wave of shootings, killings, threats, arson and extortion in Canada, according to senior sources familiar with the matter.
The victims were mainly supporters of the so-called Khalistan movement seeking independence for the Indian region of Punjab, where Sikhs dominate. Sources say the others were simply rivals of the government.
These reports come as Canadian law enforcement continues to investigate the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey, British Columbia, where the killers were allegedly linked to Indian government agents.
On Monday, Trudeau again called on New Delhi to cooperate with Ottawa in an ongoing investigation into criminal activities allegedly linked to the Indian government.
“We will never tolerate a foreign government engaging in threatening and killing Canadian citizens on Canadian soil – which is a deeply unacceptable violation of Canadian sovereignty and international law,” he added. Trudeau said in a statement.
India has long denied any involvement in Nijjar's killing and on Monday accused Trudeau of pursuing a “political agenda.”
“The Government of India strongly denies these ridiculous allegations and attributes them to the Trudeau government's political agenda, which revolves around vote bank politics,” India's Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement.
As tensions escalate between the two countries, here's what happened and how we got here:
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, which is investigating Nijjar's murder, said Monday it had a significant amount of information about criminal activity allegedly organized by Indian government agents.
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An investigation has revealed that Indian diplomats and consular officials based in Canada are using their official positions to engage in “clandestine activities,” the RCMP said.
According to the RCMP, evidence points to “violent extremism” in both countries, Indian government agents' involvement in killings and acts of violence, the use of organized crime against the South Asian community in Canada, and interference in democratic processes.
Global Affairs Canada expelled six Indian diplomats and consular officials.
The operation was allegedly supervised by Indian High Commissioner Sanjay Kumar Verma. Another diplomat from Ottawa was allegedly involved, as well as two consular officials in Toronto and two in Vancouver.
In a retaliatory move, India expelled six Canadian diplomats, asking them to leave by Saturday, October 19, and withdrew its own envoy from Canada, who was named in the RCMP investigation.
Relations between India and Canada have deteriorated since 2023, when Trudeau said Canadian intelligence agencies had credible evidence linking Indian government agents to the murder of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
Nijjar was murdered on June 18, 2023, when two gunmen opened fire on his pickup truck as he left the Guru Nanak Sikh Temple in Surrey, where he was president.
Four Indian nationals – Karan Brar, Amandeep Singh, Kamalpreet Singh and Karanpreet Singh – have so far been charged with murder and conspiracy to murder Nijjar.
Nijjar, 45, was a well-known activist who fled India and came to Canada in 1997.
He was a Canadian citizen, a plumber and a prominent leader of the Khalistan movement, which seeks independence for the Sikh-majority Indian state of Punjab.
The Modi government has long accused Nijjar of leading the so-called terrorist group behind the attacks in India, and no credible evidence has ever been produced.
India has repeatedly pressured Canada to arrest him over the years.
Three months after his murder, Trudeau went public with allegations that investigators had found credible evidence that Indian government agents may have been involved. India denies the accusations.
What is the Khalistan Movement?
The Khalistan Movement is considered a security threat by the Government of India.
The origins of the movement date back to the independence conflicts of India and Pakistan in 1947. Sikh separatists called for a homeland in negotiations preceding the division of the Indian region of Punjab between the two new countries.
Separatists claimed that the homeland would be called Khalistan, meaning “land of the pure”, and that it should be created from Punjab.
The Khalistan movement eventually turned into a bloody armed insurgency that rocked India in the 1970s and 1980s. Its center was in the northern state of Punjab, where Sikhs are the majority, although they make up about 1.7 percent of India's total population.
The uprising lasted over a decade and was crushed by an Indian government crackdown that killed thousands of people, including prominent Sikh leaders.
There is currently no active insurgency in Punjab, but the Khalistan movement has supporters in the state as well as in the Sikh diaspora outside India.
The movement enjoys support from parts of the Sikh diaspora in Canada, which has the largest Sikh population outside Punjab, as well as in the UK, Australia and the US
Why is this happening now?
Canada has asked India to waive diplomatic and consular immunities for those currently expelled to allow them to be questioned by the RCMP.
However, according to Ottawa, India refused to cooperate.
Tensions escalate as the federal foreign interference inquiry continues to investigate allegations of interference by countries such as India and China in the 2019 and 2021 elections and in Canadian society more broadly.
Both the Foreign Interference Committee and the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliament (NSICOP) ranked India as the second most serious foreign interference threat to Canada, behind China.
— with files from Stewart Bell, Mercedes Stephenson, Reuters and The Associated Press from Global News
