Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday slammed India’s “unacceptable” actions in supporting criminal activity against Canadians on Canadian soil, as he justified Ottawa’s decision to expel the Indian ambassador and five other diplomats for refusing to cooperate in criminal investigations.
Addressing a press conference on the diplomatic expulsions, which escalated a 2023 row between Canada and India over the killing of Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar on Canadian soil, Trudeau said it was a “fundamental error” of Delhi to believe it could support criminal activity against Canadians, “whether it be murders or extortion or other violent acts.”
Stressing that Canada would “never tolerate” the involvement of a foreign government in threatening or killing Canadian citizens on Canadian soil, he said this was a “deeply unacceptable violation of Canada’s sovereignty and of international law.”
Earlier, India had announced its envoy in Canada was a “person of interest” following the killing of Nijjar. It subsequently expelled Ottawa’s acting High Commissioner Stewart Wheeler, his deputy and four first secretaries, ordering they leave before midnight on Sunday. In a statement, India claimed it was withdrawing its diplomats as it had “no faith” in the Canadian government to ensure their security. It further said it had asked six Canadian diplomats to leave by Saturday.
In retaliation, Ottawa announced similar measures, with Canadian police saying they had “evidence pertaining to” Indian agents’ involvement in “serious criminal activity” in Canada.
Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly, who accompanied Trudeau, said India had refused to cooperate in the investigation, or to lift diplomatic immunity for its envoys. “The decision to expel these individuals was made with great consideration and only after the RCMP gathered ample, clear and concrete evidence which identified six individuals as persons of interest in the Nijjar case,” she said in a statement, referring to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
Canadian envoy Stewart Wheeler, the senior-most diplomat in India, was summoned to Indian External Affairs Ministry. While leaving, he told journalists that Ottawa had given Delhi the evidence it had demanded. “Canada has provided credible, irrefutable evidence of ties between agents of the Government of India and the murder of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil,” he said. “It is in the interest of both our countries and the peoples of our countries to get to the bottom of this,” he said, a few hours before India announced his expulsion.
Nijjar immigrated to Canada in 1997 and became a citizen in 2015. He was a vocal proponent of Sikh separatism and was declared a terrorist by India. Since his murder in Vancouver in June 2023, four Indian nationals have been arrested.
Reacting to Canada’s allegations, India claimed it was “preposterous” to see any connection between it and the murder, and alleged a “strategy of smearing India for political gains.” It warned that India had the right to “take further steps in response to the Trudeau Government’s support for extremism, violence and separatism against India.”
Trudeau has previously said there were “credible allegations” linking Indian intelligence services to Nijjar’s killing. In November 2023, the U.S. Justice Department also charged an Indian citizen living in the Czech Republic with allegedly plotting a similar assassination attempt on U.S. soil. Court documents suggested an Indian government official was also involved in the planning of that attempt.