Canada expelled India’s top diplomat in the country and five others over last year’s killing of a Sikh activist in British Columbia. India rejected the charges and said it would expel Canadian envoys.
Canada said it has identified India’s top diplomat in the country as a person of interest in the assassination of a Sikh activist there 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.
“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 Canada of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
Canada’s foreign minister, Mélanie 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.
