A row between Canada and India has intensified after each side expelled six diplomats in the fallout over the assassination of a Sikh separatist leader in British Columbia last year.
The diplomats expelled late on Monday included Sanjay Verma, India’s high commissioner to Ottawa, and Stewart Wheeler, Canada’s acting high commissioner in New Delhi.
India said it had “recalled” its diplomats, but only after Canada said it had asked Delhi to suspend diplomatic immunity for them all, including Mr Verma, as they were “persons of interest” wanted for questioning by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).
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The RCMP has been investigating the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a 45-year Sikh separatist leader and Canadian citizen, who was shot dead by two masked gunmen in a car park in Vancouver’s suburb of Surrey in late June 2023.
Mr Nijjar, who took Canadian citizenship in 2007, was an active campaigner for a separate Sikh homeland of Khalistan in India’s northern Punjab state and was wanted by the Indian government for his reported involvement in several killings and acts of violence at home.
Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau told reporters in Ottawa on Monday that his government had “clear and compelling evidence” that Indian government agents had engaged and continued to engage in activities that posed a significant threat to public safety in Canada.
These activities involved clandestine information-gathering techniques, coercive behaviour targeting Canadians of South Asian origin and involvement in more than a dozen threatening and violent acts, including murder, he said, in an apparent reference to Mr Nijjar’s shooting. “This is unacceptable,” Mr Trudeau said.
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Mr Trudeau told Canada’s parliament last year that allegations of Indian involvement in Mr Nijjar’s killing were based on Canadian intelligence. This triggered a withdrawal of about 40 Canadian diplomats from India at New Delhi’s insistence, adversely affecting visa and consular services.
At a news conference on Monday, Mr Trudeau said Canada had “clear and compelling evidence that agents of the government of India have engaged in and continue to engage in activities that pose a significant threat to public safety”.
India dismissed the assertions as “baseless” and “unsubstantiated” and accused Mr Trudeau’s Liberal Party-led government of being influenced by Sikh separatist campaigners whose support was critical to its continuation in office.
Its foreign ministry spokesman said it had “no faith” in the Canadian government’s commitment in ensuring the Indian diplomats’ security in Ottawa and hence had opted to recall them.
The US, which is collaborating with Canada on the Nijjar assassination case and related Indian activities, has claimed Indian government agents were involved in an attempted assassination plot against another Sikh separatist leader in New York last year.
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