India expels 6 Canadian diplomats, withdraws envoy, ‘targeted’ officials from Canada

India has expelled six Canadian diplomats and announced the withdrawal of its high commissioner and other “targeted” officials from Canada after strongly dismissing Ottawa’s allegations linking the envoy to a probe into the killing of Sikh extremist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, in a major downturn in already frosty ties between the two nations.

India’s decision to recall High Commissioner Sanjay Verma and some other diplomats came on Monday (October 14), shortly after the Canadian Charge d’Affaires Stewart Wheelers was summoned to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). Wheelers was bluntly told that baseless “targeting” of the Indian envoy and other officials was “completely unacceptable”.

The Washington Post, quoting unnamed Canadian officials, reported that Canada on Monday ordered six Indian diplomats to leave the country, including Verma and the top consular official in Toronto.

Watch: Canada drags in India's top envoy in Nijjar killing | Diplomatic situation explained

Trudeau’s presser

Shortly after India announced its decision on Monday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in a hurriedly called press conference that Canada has shared with its Five Eyes partners, the United Stated in particular, all information they have related to the allegations of the involvement of Indian officials in the killing of Nijjar.

“From the beginning, as of last summer, we’ve worked closely with our Five Eyes partners, particularly with the United States, where they have gone through a similar pattern of behaviour from India in regards to an attempted extrajudicial killing,” Trudeau told reporters at a news conference in Ottawa.

“We will continue to work with our allies as we stand up together for the rule of law,” he said.

The US State Department has so far not made any statements on the diplomatic crisis between its two close allies and partners.

India made a monumental mistake: Trudeau

The situation is extremely undesirable, Trudeau said during the press conference. “Not only do we not want Canadians to be subjected to violence in their communities, in their homes, but we also do not want to have these tensions in relations with India,” he said.

“That is why last week, we approached the Government of India through our security agencies, diplomats and police agencies, to look for a way to resolve this deep difference…. to protect Canadians… but not to come and destroy the good relations or the relations between India and Canada,” Trudeau said.

Unfortunately, India has “not chosen to work with us. They have chosen to deny, repel and to make personal attacks against this government and question the integrity of our agencies and our institutions, and we have had to respond to protect Canadians”, he said.

“I believe that India has made a monumental mistake by choosing to use their diplomats and organised crime to attack Canadians, to make them feel unsafe here at (their) home, and even more, to create acts of violence and even murder. It's unacceptable,” Trudeau alleged.

Also read: Canada expels 6 Indian diplomats, claims they were collecting info for agents

RCMP has compelling evidence: Canada

Trudeau said he met and spoke with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in this regard last week.

“As the RCMP Commissioner stated earlier, they have 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, including clandestine information gathering techniques, coercive behaviour targeting South Asian Canadians, and involvement in over a dozen threatening and violent acts, including murder,” he said.

While attempts have been made by the RCMP and national security officials to work with India and their law enforcement counterparts on this matter, they have been repeatedly refused, Trudeau claimed.

“This is why, this weekend, Canadian officials took an extraordinary step. They met with Indian officials to share RCMP evidence which concluded six agents of the Government of India are persons of interest in criminal activities,” he alleged.

“Despite repeated requests to India, it has decided not to cooperate,” he claimed.

Six diplomats to leave

India has dismissed these allegations and, in a late-evening statement on Monday, the MEA said India has asked six Canadian diplomats including Charge d’Affaires Wheelers and Deputy High Commissioner Patrick Hebert to leave India by or before 11.59 pm on October 19.

The other diplomats expelled are Marie Catherine Joly, Ian Ross, David Trites, Adam James Chuipka, and Paula Orjuela (all first secretaries).

In its reaction to Canada’s charges against Verma, New Delhi described them as “concocted” and “preposterous imputations” and ascribed the allegations to the “political agenda of the Trudeau government that is centred around vote bank politics”.

Also read: Nijjar murder: India rebukes Trudeau over allegations, demands proof

No faith in Canadian govt: India

In its statement, the MEA said India received a “diplomatic communication from Canada yesterday suggesting that the Indian High Commissioner and other diplomats are ‘persons of interest’ in a matter related to an investigation in that country”.

Wheelers was summoned by MEA’s Secretary (East) Jaideep Mazumdar and it was underlined to him that in an atmosphere of extremism and violence, the Trudeau government’s actions “endangered” the safety of Indian diplomats and other officials.

“We have no faith in the current Canadian government’s commitment to ensure their security. Therefore, the government of India has decided to withdraw the high commissioner and other targeted diplomats and officials,” the MEA said.

“It was also conveyed that India reserves the right to take further steps in response to the Trudeau government’s support for extremism, violence and separatism against India,” it said.

It is learnt that Verma and other officials will return from Canada in the next few days.

Canada has provided evidence: Charge d’affaires

The relations between India and Canada came under severe strain following Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s allegations in September last year of a “potential” involvement of Indian agents in the killing of Nijjar.

He was gunned down in Surrey, British Columbia, in June last year. New Delhi had rejected Trudeau’s charges as “absurd”.

The Canadian charge d’affaires told reporters that his government has done what India has long been asking for.

“Canada has provided credible and irrefutable evidence of ties between agents of the Government of India and murderer of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil. Now it is time for India to live up to what it said it would do and look into those allegations,” he said.

“It is in the interest of both our countries and peoples of our countries to get to the bottom of this. Canada stands ready to cooperate with India,” he added.

MEA’s statement

Earlier in the day, the MEA said India reserves the right to take further steps in response to these “latest efforts of the Canadian government to concoct allegations against Indian diplomats”.

“Since Prime Minister Trudeau made certain allegations in September 2023, the Canadian government has not shared a shred of evidence with the Government of India, despite many requests from our side,” it said.

In its statement, the MEA also made a mention of what it called Trudeau’s “naked interference” in Indian internal politics in December 2020, apparently recalling the Canadian leader’s comments during the farmers’ agitation.

All about politics, says India

On Canada’s latest charges, the MEA said it “leaves little doubt that on the pretext of an investigation, there is a deliberate strategy of smearing India for political gains”.

It said Trudeau’s hostility to India has long been in evidence. In 2018, his visit to India, “which was aimed at currying favour with a vote bank, rebounded to his discomfort”.

“His Cabinet has included individuals who have openly associated with an extremist and separatist agenda regarding India,” the MEA said.

“His naked interference in Indian internal politics in December 2020 showed how far he was willing to go in this regard,” it said.

“That his government was dependent on a political party, whose leader openly espouses a separatist ideology vis-a-vis India, only aggravated matters,” it said.

“Under criticism for turning a blind eye to foreign interference in Canadian politics, his government has deliberately brought in India in an attempt to mitigate the damage,” the MEA said.

“Anti-India separatist agenda”

It said this latest development targeting Indian diplomats is now the next step in that direction.

“It is no coincidence that it takes place as Prime Minister Trudeau is to depose before a commission on foreign interference,” it said.

“It also serves the anti-India separatist agenda that the Trudeau government has constantly pandered to for narrow political gains,” it said.

“To that end, the Trudeau government has consciously provided space to violent extremists and terrorists to harass, threaten and intimidate Indian diplomats and community leaders in Canada. This has included death threats to them and to Indian leaders,” the MEA said.

Charges against diplomat ludicrous: India

“All these activities have been justified in the name of freedom of speech. Some individuals who have entered Canada illegally have been fast-tracked for citizenship.

“Multiple extradition requests from the Government of India in respect of terrorists and organized crime leaders living in Canada have been disregarded,” it added.

The MEA said High Commissioner Verma is India’s senior most serving diplomat with a distinguished career spanning 36 years.

“He has been Ambassador in Japan and Sudan, while also serving in Italy, Turkiye, Vietnam and China. The aspersions cast on him by the Government of Canada are ludicrous and deserve to be treated with contempt,” it said.

“The government of India has taken cognizance of the activities of the Canadian High Commission in India that serve the political agenda of the current regime,” it said.

(With agency inputs)