Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has accused Indian diplomats of backing a pattern of criminal harassment and violence against Canadians, as ties between the two nations hit the rock bottom over the killing of Sikh extremist Hardeep Singh Nijjar on Canadian soil last year that saw both countries expel each other’s envoys on Monday.
India on Monday expelled six Canadian diplomats and announced withdrawing its high commissioner and other “targeted” officials from Canada after strongly dismissing Ottawa’s allegations linking the envoy to a probe into the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
India’s decision to recall high commissioner Sanjay Verma and some other diplomats came shortly after the Canadian Charge d’Affaires Stewart Wheelers was summoned to the ministry of external affairs (MEA). Wheelers was bluntly told that baseless “targeting” of the Indian envoy and other officials was “completely unacceptable”.
The Washington Post, quoting unnamed Canadian officials, reported that Canada on Monday ordered six Indian diplomats to leave the country, including Verma and the top consular official in Toronto.
In a late evening statement, the MEA said India has asked six Canadian diplomats including Charge d’Affaires Wheelers and deputy high commissioner Patrick Hebert to leave India by or before 11:59 pm on October 19.
Addressing a press conference in Ottawa, Justin Trudeau laid out the crux of the Canadian government’s case against India. Justin Trudeau also said Canadian officials and agencies have tried to work with India’s government, but its response has been “to deny, to obfuscate, to attack me personally and the integrity of the government of Canada”.
India was yet to respond to Justin Trudeau’s allegations.
Hours earlier, on the morning of Canada’s Thanksgiving public holiday, the Royal Mounted Canadian Police held an extraordinary briefing to share the fresh allegations implicating Indian government agents with the public.
“It is obvious that the government of India made a fundamental error in thinking that they could engage in supporting criminal activity against Canadians here on Canadian soil, whether it be murders or extortion or other violent acts,” the Canadian prime minister said.
“That is why we have taken such significant measures, why the RCMP chose to come out today and 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,” Justin Trudeau said.
Justin Trudeau has previously said there were “credible allegations” linking Indian intelligence services to the killing. Both countries have traded barbs since then, culminating with the expulsions Monday of each other’s ambassadors and five other top diplomats in both countries.
Justin Trudeau and Melanie Joly claimed that they had been in touch with their Indian counterparts, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and external affairs minister S Jaishankar.
Joly added she was also in contact with the foreign ministers of Canada’s Five Eyes intelligence-sharing allies, the US, UK, Australia and New Zealand.
US 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 US citizen, on American soil.
Joly further said the “sitting diplomats” were involved in violent acts that increased after Justin Trudeau’s allegation of India’s possible involvement in the June 2023 murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Khalistani separatist. India considered him a terrorist.
Asked if sanctions or other measures beyond expelling officials were being considered, Joly said, “everything is on the table.”
Earlier, India accused Trudeau’s government of baselessly targeting its officials and endangering their safety.
“We have no faith in the current Canadian Government’s commitment to ensure their security,” the ministry of external affairs said in a statement.
Hardeep Singh Nijjar – who immigrated to Canada in 1997 and became a citizen in 2015 – had advocated for Khalistan, a state carved out of India. Nijjar had been wanted by Indian authorities for alleged terrorism and conspiracy to commit murder.
Four Indian nationals have been arrested in connection with Nijjar’s murder, which took place in the parking lot of a Sikh temple in Vancouver in June 2023.
India had earlier said it had “received a diplomatic communication from Canada suggesting that the Indian high commissioner and other diplomats are persons of interest” in the ongoing investigation.
It said their envoy, Sanjay Kumar Verma, a former ambassador to Japan and Sudan, was a respected career diplomat and that the accusations were “ludicrous”.