Ambassadors fired, assassination… What is happening between Canada and India?

Tensions are high between India and Canada. For a year, the two countries have faced each other in a violent diplomatic crisis. Latest episode: the expulsion of ambassadors representing the opposing country in India and Canada. But why such renewed animosity? Europe 1 takes stock.

A murder at the origin of rising tensions

It was the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar that plunged the relations of the two countries into an icy cold. This man, a Sikh separatist activist (a minority religion in India) advocating the creation of Khalistan – an independent Sikh state in what is currently northern India – was killed on June 18, 2023 in front of a temple in the suburbs of Vancouver. If four people were quickly arrested for the murder of this forty-year-old who had obtained Canadian nationality, the World Organization of Sikhs of Canada denounced a “targeted assassination”.

New Delhi regularly complains about the activities of Sikh activists on its soil, particularly to Canada which has the largest community outside India. Finally, the Indian authorities were also looking for Hardeep Singh Nijjar for “terrorism” and conspiracy.

And it is as the investigation into the death of the separatist activist progresses that relations between Ottawa and New Delhi deteriorate. Thus, as early as September, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau considered that there were “credible allegations” that the Indian secret services were linked to the assassination perpetrated a few months earlier. Accusations strongly criticized by India, which, in retaliation, threatens to withdraw the diplomatic immunity of around forty Canadian representatives.

A situation without a solution?

Very quickly, the situation got bogged down. Ottawa repatriates its threatened representatives, while New Delhi advises its citizens against traveling to certain parts of Canada due to “an increase in anti-Indian activities”. And a year later, relations between the two countries are at their lowest, with no prospect of development. Thus, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau affirmed on Wednesday that “clear indications” showed that India had violated Canada’s sovereignty with the assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

The Canadian federal police, the Royal Mounted Police (RCMP), announced on Monday that they had “evidence” regarding “the involvement of agents of the Government of India in serious criminal activities in Canada”. PM says RCMP has evidence that acts of violence against Canadians – including home invasions, extortion, and “even murder” – were “permitted and in many cases ordered by the government Indian”.

The Prime Minister also detailed on Wednesday actions involving, according to him, Indian diplomats “having collected information on Canadians who are opponents or disagree with the Modi government, and having then passed this information to criminal organizations like the gang of Lawrence Bishnoi to incite violence against Canadians. New declarations which should not allow an improvement in relations between the two countries in the near future.