Trudeau accuses India of supporting violent crimes in Canada

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the Indian government has made a “fundamental error” as he accused it of supporting a campaign of violence against Canadians on Canadian soil.

The prime minister spoke to reporters Monday, hours after the RCMP laid out stunning allegations accusing agents of the Indian government of playing a role in “widespread violence” in Canada, including homicides, and warning that it poses “a serious threat to our public safety.”

Earlier Monday, Canada announced it’s expelling six Indian diplomats. India has denied the allegations and quickly retaliated, ordering six Canadian diplomats to leave the country within a week.

“I think it is obvious that the government of India made a fundamental error in thinking that they could engage in supporting criminal activity against Canadians, here on Canadian soil. Whether it be murders or extortion or other violent acts, it is absolutely unacceptable,” Trudeau said during a Thanksgiving Monday news conference. 

“No country, particularly not a democracy that upholds the rule of law, can accept this fundamental violation of its sovereignty.” 

Calling it an “extraordinary situation,” RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme held a news conference Monday morning to alert Canadians to what he repeatedly called a public safety threat. 

The Mounties, he said, have learned a “significant amount of information about the breadth and depth of criminal activity orchestrated by agents of the government of India and consequential threats to the safety and security of Canadians and individuals living in Canada.”

“Despite law enforcement’s actions, the harm has continued, posing a serious threat to our public safety,” he said. 

Duheme said his officers, working with other law enforcement agencies, have obtained evidence linking Indian government agents to homicides and other violent acts in Canada, including coercion and extortion. 

The commissioner said there have been “well over a dozen” credible and imminent threats to members of the South Asian community, specifically members of the pro-Khalistan movement. 

Duheme told reporters in Ottawa that Mounties have also collected evidence showing that Indian diplomats and consular officials based in Canada leveraged their official positions to engage in clandestine activities, such as collecting information for the government of India, either directly or through their proxies and other individuals who acted voluntarily or through coercion.

“Some of these individuals and businesses were coerced and threatened into working for the government of India,” he said.

“The information collected by the government of India is then used to target members of the South Asian community.”

Duheme said police have also identified serious issues of violent extremists working in both India and Canada; the use of organized crime to create perceptions of unsafe environments and target people in the South Asian community in Canada; and interference in democratic processes.

The ongoing inquiry into foreign interference has already heard evidence that India interfered in the last two Canadian elections.

When asked how many Indian diplomats are alleged to be involved in the serious allegations the RCMP detailed, Duheme said he could only say “several” given the ongoing nature of the investigations. 

He said while the RCMP is usually reluctant to share details of ongoing investigations, the seriousness of the threat compelled it to publicly disclose information about ongoing investigations into agents of the government of India who have allegedly used a wide variety of entities in Canada and abroad to collect information. 

Canada says it shared evidence with India  

Duheme said the Mounties’ evidence was presented directly to the government of India. 

He said RCMP Deputy Commissioner Mark Flynn attempted to meet with law enforcement counterparts in India to present evidence that government agents were involved in criminal activity in Canada.

The attempts were unsuccessful, so Flynn met with officials from the Indian government over the weekend, along with Canada’s national security adviser, Nathalie Drouin, and Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs David Morrison, Duheme said, reading from a prepared statement. 

“There’s a violent, extremist threat in Canada that Canada and India have been working on over the years,” he said. “However, these threats are impacting Canada and India’s ability to collaborate.”

India was asked to waive diplomatic and consular immunities and to co-operate in the investigation, but didn’t, according to a statement from Global Affairs Canada.

That prompted the Canadian government to issue six expulsion notices to Indian diplomats and consular staff.

In response, India’s ministry of external affairs announced that it is withdrawing its envoy, High Commissioner Sanjay Kumar Verma, along with “other targeted diplomats and officials” from Canada.   

In a statement, New Delhi rejected the “preposterous imputations” of the Canadian assertion, accusing Trudeau of having a “political agenda” centred around “vote-bank politics,” a term referring to voting blocs from specific communities.

“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,” it said in the statement, released Monday.

India also announced it is expelling six Canadian diplomats, including acting high commissioner Stewart Wheeler. The Canadians have until Saturday night to leave the country.

Wheeler on Monday reiterated Trudeau’s accusation, saying in a statement: “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.

“Now, it is time for India to live up to what it said it would do and look into those allegations.”

The World Sikh Organization of Canada said the RCMP’s announcement confirms “the lived experience of Sikhs for the past four decades.”

“India’s criminal activities in Canada must end. India’s targeting of Sikhs must end. We expect Canada’s elected officials to unite in condemning India’s foreign interference and its efforts to obstruct justice,” said president Danish Singh.

Tensions escalating between 2 countries 

Relations between New Delhi and Ottawa have been frosty since September 2023, when Trudeau said Canada was “pursuing credible allegations of a potential link” between Indian agents and the killing of Canadian Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar that year, prompting a strong reaction from New Delhi, which denied the allegation.

India has repeatedly said Canada has not shared any evidence to back its claim in that case.

“This latest step follows interactions that have again witnessed assertions without any facts,” it said in its statement Monday. 

“This leaves little doubt that on the pretext of an investigation, there is a deliberate strategy of smearing India for political gains.

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

It also alleged that the Trudeau government “has consciously provided space to violent extremists and terrorists to harass, threaten and intimidate Indian diplomats and community leaders in Canada.”

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

Soon after Canada’s allegation, the U.S. claimed that Indian agents were involved in an attempted assassination plot of another Sikh separatist leader in New York in 2023, and said it had indicted an Indian national who was working at the behest of an unnamed Indian government official.

Unlike its angry response to Canadian allegations, however, India expressed concern after the U.S. raised the issue, dissociating itself from the plot, and has launched an investigation.

NDP leader briefed on allegations 

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said he was briefed on the latest allegations Monday and urged his opposition colleagues to do the same, and to “hold the Modi government accountable and refuse to look the other way.”

“We support today’s decision to expel India’s diplomats and we’re calling on the government of Canada yet again to put diplomat sanctions against India in place, ban the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh Network (RSS) in Canada, and commit to pursuing the most severe consequences for anyone found to have participated in organized criminal activity on Canadian soil,” he said in a statement. 

The RSS is a Hindu nationalist organization that has been accused by groups like National Council of Canadian Muslims of being a right-wing paramilitary organization.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre accused Trudeau of failing to take national security seriously.

“Our government’s first job is to keep our citizens safe from foreign threats,” he said in his statement.

“We expect the full criminal prosecution of anyone and everyone who has threatened, murdered or otherwise harmed Canadian citizens.”