Canada prime minister testifies at public inquiry amid worsening diplomatic row over murder of Sikh separatist
Why has Canada accused Indian diplomats of ‘criminal’ activities?Leyland Cecco in Toronto and Patrick Wintour in LondonWed 16 Oct 2024 21.48 BSTFirst published on Wed 16 Oct 2024 21.35 BSTShareJustin Trudeau has accused India of making a “horrific mistake” in violating Canadian sovereignty, amid an escalating diplomatic row over the murder of a Sikh separatist in British Columbia and allegations of a broader campaign of threats and violence against Indian exiles.
Testifying at a public inquiry into foreign interference on Wednesday, the Canadian prime minister accused Delhi of rebuffing efforts to cooperate and causing the increasingly bitter public feud that resulted in the mutual expulsion of senior diplomats on Monday.
“We are not looking to provoke or create a fight with India,” Trudeau said. “The Indian government made a horrific mistake in thinking that they could interfere as aggressively as they did in the safety and sovereignty of Canada. We need to respond in order to ensure Canadians’ safety.”
In his most detailed remarks on the saga so far, Trudeau said Canada had not wanted to “blow up” its valuable relationship with India.
But he said that after Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Canadian citizen, was shot dead outside a Sikh temple in British Columbia last June, “we had clear and certainly now ever clearer indications that India had violated Canada’s sovereignty”.
Trudeau made a number of explosive statements, including claims that highly classified intelligence suggested members of the opposition Conservative party were “engaged, or at high risk of” being a part of foreign interference efforts.
His comments came in a tumultuous week in which Canadian police accused the Indian diplomats of working with a criminal network led by a notorious imprisoned gangster to target Sikh dissidents in the country. India has rejected the allegations as “ludicrous”.
Responding to Trudeau’s comments, a spokesperson for India’s ministry of external affairs said: “What we have heard today only confirms what we have been saying consistently all along – Canada has presented us no evidence whatsoever in support of the serious allegations that it has chosen to level against India and Indian diplomats. The responsibility for the damage that this cavalier behaviour has caused to India-Canada relations lies with Prime Minister Trudeau alone.”
Lawrence Bishnoi: the feared Indian mob boss implicated in Canada killingsRead moreTrudeau said Canadian officials privately shared evidence with their Indian counterparts who, he said, have been uncooperative. “The decision by the RCMP to go forward with that announcement was entirely anchored in public safety and a goal of disrupting the chain of activities that was resulting in drive-by shootings, home invasions, violent extortion and even murder in and across Canada,” Trudeau said.
The prime minister said Canadian authorities first raised the Nijjar murder during the 2023 G20 summit in New Delhi. Officials working “behind the scenes” told the Indians “there are real concerns that your security agencies were involved in the killing”, he said.
But when Trudeau confronted Narendra Modi on the final day of the summit, he was told by the Indian prime minister that Canada should do more to crack down on Sikh separatists, he said.
And despite Canadian efforts to engage with Indian officials, Trudeau said, they appeared uninterested in “taking the off-ramp” offered.
Since Trudeau first told parliament of “credible allegations potentially linking” the Indian government and Nijjar’s murder, Ottawa and Delhi have been locked in an worsening feud over the issue.
India temporarily stopped issuing in visas in Canada, and on Monday Canada expelled six senior diplomats, including the high commissioner, Sanjay Verma. India retaliated by ordering the expulsion of six high-ranking Canadian diplomats, including the acting high commissioner.
Trudeau’s latest statement comes as Canada seeks to convince allied nations to also condemn India’s alleged actions – an effort that has so far produced mixed results.
Earlier on Wednesday, the UK called on India to co-operate with Canadian legal authorities to investigate the allegations, following a phone call between Trudeau and the UK prime minister, Keir Starmer.
The British Foreign Office said: “We are in contact with our Canadian partners about the serious developments outlined in the independent investigations in Canada. The UK has full confidence in Canada’s judicial system … The government of India’s cooperation with Canada’s legal process is the right next step.”
As Canada’s allegations have broadened, it has become more difficult for its allies in the Five Eyes intelligence partnership to remain silent.
‘Police said I’m in danger’: Sikh activists on edge worldwide after Vancouver killingRead moreCanada’s federal police force on Monday alleged that Indian diplomats have worked with criminal gangs to orchestrate a campaign of extortion, intimidation and coercion against members of the Canadian south Asian community, resulting in homicides, home invasions, drive-by shootings and arson. Since September 2023, at least 13 people have been “warned by the RCMP of grave threats against them” according to a coalition of lawmakers.
The US has repeatedly said that New Delhi is not cooperating with Canada’s investigation, but the state department said on Wednesday that it was satisfied with India’s cooperation in a separate case involving an alleged plot against a Sikh separatist leader in New York last year.
Washington has alleged that Indian agents were involved in the attempted assassination of Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, and has indicted an Indian national working at the behest of an unnamed Indian government official.
An Indian government committee investigating the foiled murder plot met US officials in Washington, for a meeting the state department described as “productive”.
During his testimony, Trudeau also warned Tory lawmakers were involved in, or vulnerable to, foreign interference.
“I have the names of a number of parliamentarians, former parliamentarians and/or candidates in the Conservative party of Canada who are engaged [in] or at high risk of or for whom there is clear intelligence around foreign interference,” Trudeau said.
The Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre has so far refused to get the security clearance necessary to be briefed the full scope of his party’s involvement, Trudeau said.
Trudeau also told the commission parliament’s national security and intelligence committee found evidence of foreign interference during the Tory leadership convention, which Poilievre won in 2022.
“The fact that there is absolutely no curiosity or openness in trying to figure out what happened or whether someone was compromised or whether a foreign country impacted those leadership races is simply irresponsible,” Trudeau said.
In a statement, Poilievre called on Trudeau to name the compromised lawmakers, and accused the prime minister of “lying to distract from a Liberal caucus revolt against his leadership and revelations he knowingly allowed Beijing to interfere and help him win two elections”.
Trudeau told the commission said he received intelligence in his role as prime minister but did not use it for “partisan” benefit. “I don’t believe in using national security information for partisan purposes,” he said.
A parliamentary public safety committee confirmed it will launch an emergency study of RCMP allegations that Indian government agents have been involved in violent crimes in Canada.