Canada expels top Indian diplomats, linking them to killing of Sikh leader

OTTAWA, Ontario – Canada expelled six Indian diplomats, including the high commissioner, on Monday, linking them to the killing of a Sikh separatist leader and asserting a broader operation to combat Indian dissidents in Canada.

Earlier in the day, India responded by ordering the expulsion of six senior Canadian diplomats, including the acting high commissioner, saying it had withdrawn its envoy from Canada, contradicting Canada's expulsion statement.

The diplomatic dispute represents a significant deterioration in relations between the two Commonwealth countries. Relations have been frayed since Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said last year he had evidence linking Indian agents to the killing of Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar Canadian territory.

The government now has “clear and convincing evidence that Indian government agents have conducted and continue to conduct activities that pose a significant threat to public safety,” Trudeau said at a news conference.

Those activities included clandestine intelligence-gathering techniques, coercive behavior, targeted attacks on South Asian Canadians and engaging in more than a dozen threats and acts of violence, including murder, he said.

“This is unacceptable,” he said, adding that India had made a fundamental mistake by engaging in criminal activities in Canada.

India has long rejected Trudeau's allegations. On Monday, it rejected Canada's approach to the investigation and accused Trudeau of pursuing a “political agenda.”

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said in an earlier news conference that the Indian government had undertaken a broad campaign against Indian dissidents that included assassinations and extortion. She also used organized crime to target the South Asian community in Canada and interfered in democratic processes, police said.

“The decision to expel these individuals was made with great consideration and only after the RCMP collected ample, clear and concrete evidence that identified six individuals as persons of interest in the Nijjar case,” the agency said in a statement Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

India said it had asked six Canadian diplomats to leave by Saturday. The ministry also said it had summoned Acting High Commissioner to India Stewart Wheeler, Canada's top diplomat in the South Asian country.

India said it expelled the diplomats because it was unsure whether their safety could be guaranteed.

“We have no confidence in the current Canadian government’s commitment to ensuring their safety. Therefore, the Government of India has decided to withdraw the High Commissioner and other targeted diplomats and officials,” the Indian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Serious fracture

Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly said the government had asked India to lift the diplomatic immunity of six diplomats so that Canadian investigators could question them about allegations of criminal activity. However, since India did not cooperate, it had to expel the diplomats.

“We do not seek diplomatic confrontation with India,” she said. “But we will not stand silently as agents of any country are linked to efforts to threaten, harass or even kill Canadians.”

Canada withdrew more than 40 diplomats from India in October 2023 after New Delhi asked Ottawa to reduce its diplomatic presence.

“We have gone from a rift to a major rift in relations with India,” said Fen Osler Hampson, a professor of international relations at Carleton University in Ottawa, in a telephone interview. “It is difficult to imagine at this point that there will be a return to normality in the foreseeable future.”

Canada is home to most Sikhs outside of their home state of Punjab, and demonstrations in recent years have angered the Indian government

The U.S. has also alleged that Indian agents were involved in an assassination attempt against another Sikh separatist leader in New York last year and said it had charged an Indian citizen who worked on behalf of an unnamed Indian government official.

An Indian government committee investigating India's involvement in the foiled assassination attempt will meet US officials in Washington this week, the State Department said on Monday.

Assassination allegations against Sikh separatist leaders in Canada and the United States have tested their ties with India as they seek to forge closer ties with the country to counter China's growing global influence.