Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Wednesday that India made a “horrific mistake” with its alleged interference in the “safety and sovereignty of Canada.”
Strained relations between Canada and India hit a breaking point on Monday when the Royal Canadian Police expelled India’s High Commissioner to Canada and five other Indian diplomats, publicly identifying them as persons of interest in the June 2023 assassination of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar. India, which has rejected such accusations, expelled six Canadian diplomats in response.
“We are not looking to provoke or create a fight with India,” Trudeau said during his testimony before the Foreign Interference Commission in Ottawa Wednesday. “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.”
For India’s part, the country’s Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement Monday that “there is a deliberate strategy of smearing India for political gains.”
The ministry added that Trudeau has been hostile toward India and that his government “has consciously provided space to violent extremists and terrorists to harass, threaten and intimidate Indian diplomats and community leaders in Canada.”
Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press via AP
India has been critical of Trudeau’s government for being soft on supporters of the Khalistan movement, a Sikh separatist movement banned in India, which particularly has support among the Sikh diaspora in Canada.
Nijjar was the leader of what remains of a once-strong movement to create an independent Sikh homeland until he was fatally shot in his pickup truck after leaving the Sikh temple he led in Surrey, British Columbia. He was 45 years old.
Four Indian nationals living in Canada have already been charged with Nijjar’s assassination and are awaiting trial.
Trudeau said on Wednesday that the decision by the Royal Canadian Police to go public with the allegations against Indian diplomats “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.”
He added that Indian diplomats have been informing the highest levels of the Indian government about Canadians. These details are then shared with organized crime, which results in violence against Canadians, according to Trudeau.
The prime minister said he tried not to “blow up” relations with India and that Canadian officials privately shared evidence with their Indian counterparts, who he said have been uncooperative. He also noted that he met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to express his concerns privately at the G20 Summit in September 2023.
Meanwhile, India’s Ministry of External Affairs said in their statement Monday, “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.”
Newsweek reached out for comment to India’s external affairs ministry via email.
This article includes reporting from The Associated Press.
