Foreign interference in Canada | Indian high commissioner and five diplomats expelled

(Ottawa) The Trudeau government expelled six Indian diplomats stationed in the country, including the high commissioner, amid RCMP investigations surrounding New Delhi’s alleged involvement in “homicides, extortion, and other criminal acts of violence” in Canada. The Indian government immediately responded by also expelling half a dozen Canadian diplomats, including the acting high commissioner.

“India made a monumental mistake by choosing to use their diplomats and organized crime to attack Canadians […] This is unacceptable,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau declared at a press conference in parliament on Monday.

If the Canadian government took the exceptional measure of showing the door to six diplomats from a theoretically friendly country, it is because “we had to come and disturb, disrupt, and prevent” a modus operandi which aims in particularly members of the South Asian diaspora, he continued.

The scheme involves the Bishnoi criminal gang, which is involved in extrajudicial killings outside India’s borders, said Canadian government sources who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the thorny Canadian issue. Indian.

At the instruction of the government of Narendra Modi, the organization would recruit members of organized crime on Canadian soil to terrorize members of the Sikh community who are campaigning for the creation in India of an independent state called Khalistan, still d ‘after these sources.

And the six Indian diplomats who were declared persona non grata by Ottawa were essential cogs in these operations, alleges the Canadian government. If they were expelled, it was because India refused to lift their immunity so that they could be questioned by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).

“Given the risks to the security of Canadians, we have early this morning [lundi] signed expulsion notices to six diplomats and consular agents based in Canada,” explained Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly.

“To be clear, we are not seeking diplomatic confrontation with India,” she insisted. But we will not remain silent in the face of information that agents [étrangers] are linked to efforts to threaten, harass, or even kill Canadians. Period. »

“Homicide, extortion and other criminal acts”

India’s interference in Canadian territory came to light in June 2023, when Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar was murdered in front of the Sikh temple he led in Surrey, British Columbia. Individuals of Indian nationality have since been arrested by the federal police.

And despite the efforts made by a multidisciplinary team created in 2024 by the RCMP to counter “homicides, extortion, and other criminal acts of violence”, the threat has not dissipated, the Commissioner of RCMP Mike Duheme.

“The misdeeds continue and constitute a significant threat to our public security,” also regretted the boss of the federal police. We have reached a point where we believe it is imperative to confront the Government of India and inform the people. »

New Delhi riposte

The Modi government’s response was not long in coming. The same medicine – expulsion – was served to six Ottawa representatives in Indian territory. Among the ejected diplomats was Canada’s acting high commissioner Stewart Wheeler.

“They have been asked to leave India by or before Saturday, October 19, 2024, 11:59 p.m.,” it was ordered.

In an attempt to impose its version of events, the Indian government first announced the departure of its high commissioner — the ambassador, for the Commonwealth countries. The Indian Ministry of Foreign Affairs presented it as a recall rather than an expulsion.

The allegations coming from the Canadian camp were brushed aside.

“Yesterday we received [dimanche] a diplomatic communication from Canada suggesting that the Indian High Commissioner and other diplomats were “persons of interest” in a matter related to an investigation in that country,” reads the ministry’s website.

“The Indian government strongly rejects these absurd imputations,” it is also written.

Towards another escalation

Now that these “unprecedented” allegations have been made public, everything is in place for a further escalation of tensions between Canada and India, notes Vina Nadjibulla, vice-president of research at the Asia-Pacific Foundation of Canada.

“In diplomatic matters, it’s something [les expulsions] which very rarely happens between countries that have friendly relations. Even at the height of tensions between Canada and China, we had not reached that point,” she illustrates.

And the Canadian government, which cannot measure up to the Indian giant, will need its G7 allies, and in particular, the United States. “It will be a very difficult balancing act. Canada alone cannot compete with India,” emphasizes Vina Nadjibulla.

Another tile for the relationship

This umpteenth quarrel between New Delhi and Ottawa comes as Justin Trudeau prepares to testify for a second time before the commission of inquiry into foreign interference. India believes that it is not “a coincidence” that these allegations surface in the run-up to this exercise.

Concretely, they also come a few days after the summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) – a meeting on the sidelines of which the Canadian Prime Minister briefly spoke with his opposite number Indian.

The Canadian-Indian relationship has been frosty for years. It escalated further in September 2023 when the Prime Minister claimed to have credible evidence that India had ordered the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

In the days that followed, the Modi government unilaterally revoked the diplomatic protection of 41 Canadian diplomats based in India. If Ottawa seemed isolated in the wake of the Singh Nijjar affair, it was publicly supported by the United States and the United Kingdom after the clash with the Vienna Convention.

The fact that U.S. law enforcement derailed an Indian plot to execute a Sikh activist in New York also gave further weight to Canada’s allegations.

“Unfortunate crimes”

Last May, the Indian high commissioner sought to downplay the murder of Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar, which was at the origin of the renewed tension between the two countries. “There have been unfortunate crimes [ayant visé] people who are currently Canadian citizens,” he argued during a conference in Montreal.

He made these remarks at the Council on International Relations of Montreal (CORIM) a few days after the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) arrested men of Indian nationality in connection with the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

They said

The news and allegations released today by the RCMP are extremely concerning and should be taken very seriously. We expect that all those who have threatened, murdered or otherwise harmed Canadian citizens will face criminal prosecution.

Pierre Poilievre, leader of the Conservative Party of Canada.

We support today’s decision to expel Indian diplomats and we again call on the Government of Canada to implement diplomatic sanctions against India […] and to commit to applying the most severe consequences to any person who participated in organized criminal activity on Canadian soil.

Jagmeet Singh, leader of the New Democratic Party