Canada, India expel each other’s diplomats in dispute over B.C. murder

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TORONTO — Canada said it has identified India’s top diplomat in the country as a person of interest in the assassination of a B.C. Sikh activist and expelled him and five other diplomats Monday, in an escalating dispute over the June 2023 killing and allegations of other crimes.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canada was expelling the Indian high commissioner and the others — all persons of interest, as Canada’s foreign minister said police had uncovered evidence of a worsening campaign against Canadian citizens by agents of the Indian government.

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“We will never tolerate the involvement of a foreign government threatening and killing Canadian citizens on Canadian soil,” Trudeau said. He alleged that diplomats were collecting information about Canadians and passing it on to organized crime to attack Canadians, and said “India has made a monumental mistake.”

India has rejected the accusations as absurd.

India’s foreign ministry in turn said it was expelling Canada’s acting high commissioner and five other diplomats, adding that they were told to leave by the end of Saturday.

Trudeau said last year there were credible allegations that India’s government had links to the assassination in Surrey of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

Canada’s foreign minister, Melanie Joly, said the Royal Canadian Mounted Police had gathered “ample, clear and concrete evidence which identified six individuals as persons of interest in the Nijjar case.”

She said India was asked to waive diplomatic and consular immunity and cooperate in the investigation but refused. She asked that India’s government support the ongoing investigation “as it remains in both our countries’ interest to get to the bottom of this.”

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She noted that violence “actually increased” following the allegations a year ago.

RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme said police have evidence allegedly tying Indian government agents to other homicides and violent acts in Canada.

“The team has learned a significant amount of information about the breadth and depth of criminal activity orchestrated by agents of the government of India, and consequential threats to the safety and security of Canadians and individuals living in Canada,” he said.

Duheme declined to provide specifics, citing ongoing investigations, but he said there have been well over a dozen credible and imminent threats that have resulted in police warning members of the South Asian community, notably the pro-Khalistan, or Sikh independence, movement. He said attempts to have discussions with Indian law enforcement were unsuccessful.

Nijjar, 45, was fatally shot in his pickup truck after he left the Sikh temple he led in Surrey. An Indian-born citizen of Canada, he owned a plumbing business and was a leader in what remains of a once-strong movement to create an independent Sikh homeland.

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Four Indian nationals living in Canada were charged with Niijar’s murder.

READ MORE: Who was murdered Surrey Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar?

India designated Nijjar a terrorist in 2020, and at the time of his death had been seeking his arrest for alleged involvement in an attack on a Hindu priest.

India has repeatedly criticized Trudeau’s government for being soft on supporters of the Khalistan movement who live in Canada. The Khalistan movement is banned in India but has support among the Sikh diaspora, particularly in Canada.

India has been asking countries like Canada, Australia and the U.K. to take legal action against Sikh activists. India has particularly raised these concerns with Canada, where Sikhs make up nearly 2% of the country’s population.

In response to Canada’s earlier allegations, India told Canada last year to remove 41 of its 62 diplomats in the country. Relations between the countries have been frosty since then.

The Indian foreign ministry said Monday that “India reserves the right to take further steps in response to the Trudeau government’s support for extremism, violence and separatism against India.”

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The ministry also summoned Canada’s top diplomat in New Delhi and told him that “the baseless targeting” of the Indian high commissioner and other diplomats and officials in Canada “was completely unacceptable.”

One of the diplomats, Stewart Wheeler, told reporters after being summoned that India must investigate the allegations and that Canada “stands ready to cooperate with India.”

Meanwhile, the U.S. State Department said in a statement that an Indian inquiry committee set up to investigate a plot to assassinate another prominent Sikh separatist leader living in New York would travel to Washington on Tuesday as part of its ongoing investigations to discuss the case.

“Additionally, India has informed the United States they are continuing their efforts to investigate other linkages of the former government employee and will determine follow-up steps, as necessary,” it said.

Last year, U,S, prosecutors said an Indian government official directed the plot to assassinate Sikh separatist leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun on American soil and announced charges against a man they said was part of the thwarted conspiracy.

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The official was neither charged nor identified by name, but was described as a “senior field officer” with responsibilities in security management and intelligence, and was said to have previously served in India’s Central Reserve Police Force.

New Delhi at the time expressed concern after the U.S. raised the issue and said India takes it seriously.

Canada’s foreign minister on Monday noted that India is cooperating with U.S. officials and can do it with Canada as well.

A timeline of recent Canada-India tensions

Monday’s announced expulsion of six Indian diplomats from Canada comes after months of tensions between the two countries, which came to a head after the assassination of B.C. Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar, allegedly at the behest of the Indian government.

Here is a timeline related to the killing, which triggered the ongoing diplomatic rift between Canada and India:

2023

June 18 — Hardeep Singh Nijjar is shot dead outside the Guru Nanak Sikh temple in Surrey, B.C.

July 3 — Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly says she is concerned about the safety of India’s diplomats following the distribution of what she called “unacceptable” posters, as some looming protests call for people to “kill India.”

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Sept. 1 — Canada pauses trade negotiations with India

Sept. 10 — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi have a tense exchange on the sidelines of the G20 summit in New Delhi

Sept. 15 — Canada postpones a planned October trade mission to India

Sept. 18 — Trudeau tells the House of Commons there is credible intelligence about a potential link between India’s government and the killing of Nijjar

Sept. 18 — Canada expels a top Indian diplomat and a senior Canadian diplomat is expelled from India in return

Sept. 21 — India suspends visa services for Canadians

Oct. 19 — Canada recalls 41 diplomats from India after the Indian government revokes their diplomatic immunity

Oct. 25 — India resumes some visa services for Canadians

Nov. 29 — An indictment is unsealed in New York alleging a murder-for-hire plot by an Indian national. The indictment alleges an Indian government employee directed the attempted assassination in the United States, and spoke about others, including Nijjar’s killing in Canada

2024

May 3 — Karan Brar, Kamalpreet Singh and Karanpreet Singh are arrested and charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder in Nijjar’s death

Oct. 14 — Trudeau announces Canada has expelled six Indian diplomats, including high commissioner Sanjay Kumar Verma, due to what he called accusations of widespread murder, extortion and coercion across Canada. India announces that it is also sending six Canadian diplomats home.

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