maaxx.ca

Remaining Canadian diplomats “were clearly instructed” not to endanger Canadian lives after New Delhi’s top ambassador to Canada was named as a person of interest in the murder of a Sikh activist, says Friday the Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs.

The Indian high commissioner and five other diplomats were expelled Monday after Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly said Canadian national police had linked Indian diplomats to killings, death threats and intimidation in Canada, leading to has given rise to comparisons between India and Russia.

Jolie said Friday that Canada would not tolerate foreign diplomats endangering the lives of Canadians.

“Unheard of in our history. International oppression cannot take place on Canadian soil. Seen elsewhere in Europe. Russia did the same thing to Germany and the United Kingdom and we must be firm on this issue,” he said in Montreal.

Asked if other Indian diplomats would be expelled, Jolie said: “They were obviously given notice. Six of them, including the high commissioner in Ottawa, were expelled. Others come mostly from Toronto and Vancouver, and we do not tolerate diplomats who go against the Vienna Convention.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police announced allegations this week that they targeted Indian diplomats by sharing information about Sikh separatists in Canada with people in their home country. They say Indian authorities passed the information to Indian organized crime groups who targeted Canadian citizen activists with shootings, robberies and murders.

India, for its part, has rejected Canada’s allegations as baseless and its foreign ministry said it would expel Canada’s acting high commissioner and five other diplomats.

Canada is not the only country where Indian officials have been accused of plotting assassinations abroad. The U.S. Department of Justice on Thursday indicted an Indian government employee for allegedly conspiring to kill a Sikh separatist leader living in New York.

In the case announced by the Justice Department, Vikash Yadav, who authorities say led the plot to New York from India, is charged with murder for hire in a planned assassination that they say prosecutors, was intended to precede other politically motivated killings. In the United States and Canada.

Canadian Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who was shot dead outside a cultural center in Surrey, British Columbia, on June 18, 2023, may have killed a Sikh American days later, U.S. officials said. said the prosecutor. The goal is to kill at least four people in Canada and the United States by June 29, 2023, and more after that.

Nijjar’s killing in Canada has soured relations between India and Canada for over a year, and although Canada says it sent evidence of the allegations to Indian authorities, the Indian government continues to deny witnessing it .

India has repeatedly criticized the Canadian government for being lax toward its supporters, known as the Khalistan movement, which is banned in India, but they enjoy support from the Sikh diaspora, particularly in Canada.

Trudeau said Wednesday that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi stressed to him during last year’s G20 summit in India that Canada should arrest people who oppose the Indian government. Trudeau said he told Modi he believed the action was free speech in Canada.

Trudeau said his government told Modi it would work with India to combat terrorism, incitement to hatred or anything unacceptable in Canada. Trudeau stressed that supporting separatism is not illegal in Canada, although it is not Canadian government policy.

The RCMP said it found evidence of a campaign by Indian government agents against Canadians.

Nijjar, 45, was shot to death in his van last year. A Canadian citizen of Indian origin, he owned a plumbing business and was one of the leaders of the once-powerful movement to create an independent Sikh homeland.

Four Indian nationals living in Canada have been charged with Nijjar’s murder and are awaiting trial.