B.C. party leaders unite with Ottawa over expelling Indian diplomats

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The leaders of B.C.’s two major political parties have backed the federal government’s expulsion of India’s High Commissioner and several other Indian diplomats over allegations of involvement in the murder of a Sikh temple leader in Surrey.

“The allegations released by the RCMP are shocking,” B.C. NDP Leader David Eby said Monday. “These are allegations of direct involvement by the Indian government in homicides, extortions and other criminal acts of violence in Canada.”

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Eby, who spoke with Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland and Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc on Monday, confirmed the June 2023 murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey was central to the federal government’s allegations.

Nijjar, who led Surrey’s Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara, was shot dead in his vehicle as he was leaving the temple. At the time he was organizing an unofficial referendum of Lower Mainland Sikhs on whether a portion of the Punjab region in northern India should separate from India into its own country called Khalistan.

India designated Nijjar a terrorist in 2020 and had been seeking his arrest in Canada, alleging he was involved in an attack on a Hindu priest.

Four Indian nationals were charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy in relation to Nijjar’s shooting and remain in custody. Their trial in Surrey has been delayed five times at the request of prosecutors and is now set to start on Nov. 21.

“Recent revelations about Indian agents operating in Canada are deeply troubling,” said B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad. “No Canadian, including members of B.C.’s Sikh community, should ever fear for their safety or freedom of expression because of foreign interference on Canadian soil.”

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According to the RCMP, there have been over a dozen credible and imminent threats that have resulted in police warning members of Canada’s South Asian community, notably those involved in the pro-Khalistan, or Sikh independence, movement.

Eby and Rustad are embroiled in a tight and bitter race in the lead-up to the Oct. 19 provincial election, with both needing success in several Surrey ridings with large Sikh Canadian communities.

Eby, who campaigned at a Sikh temple on Sunday, said that the allegation of foreign involvement in a murder in Canada was unprecedented and that he was concerned for the safety of the Sikh Canadian community in B.C.

There are around 250,000 Sikh Canadians in B.C., largely in Metro Vancouver.

On Monday, the Indian government retaliated against Canada’s move expelling six Canadian diplomats from the country, including acting high commissioner Stewart Wheeler.

Wheeler told media in India that Canada has “irrefutable evidence” of ties between Indian government agents and the murder of Nijjar.

New Delhi is rejecting the claims and calls the Canadian government and RCMP’s claims preposterous.

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Kwantlen Polytechnic University political science lecturer Shinder Purewal told Postmedia News he was surprised that the Canadian government did not wait until the upcoming trial of Nijjar’s alleged killers to spell out its claims of foreign interference.

“It is a very serious issue among Commonwealth states to expel diplomats,” he said. Canada and India are both members of the Commonwealth.

“This is not something good and (Prime Minister Justin) Trudeau doesn’t deserve a prize for it,” Purewal said. “Most diplomacy is conducted in secret so it is really surprising that it is the subject of a public communique. What is preventing them from simply using what evidence they have of foreign interference in court?”

Moninder Singh, spokesperson for the B.C. Gurdwaras Council, said the group had long suspected that the Indian government was co-ordinating efforts to repress Sikh activists advocating the creation of Khalistan.

He said that this included gathering information on Sikh activists and giving that information to criminal gangs to then target those activists through intimidation, extortion and “other forms of violence.”

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The Sikhs for Justice spokesperson, Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, said that by expelling Indian High Commissioner Sanjay Verma and other diplomats Trudeau had “demonstrated his government’s unwavering commitment to bringing to justice those who facilitated the assassination of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil irrespective of the pressure the Trudeau government faced from the (Narendra) Modi government and pro-Hindutva lobby in Canada.”

With files from Associated Press

dcarrigg@postmedia.com

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