Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Mélanie Joly announced on Monday the expulsion of six Indian consular officials and diplomats, following a Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) investigation into crimes allegedly connected to the Indian government.
Pursuant to the results of their investigation, the RCMP found “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.” Moreover, widespread information collection within Canada done by the Indian government, often involving the use of coercion and threats, was used to subsequently harass members of the South Asian community within the country.
From the report, there were four key takeaways the RCMP presented as central issues in the relations between the two countries:
- Violent extremism impacting both countries
- Links tying agents of India to homicides and other violent acts
- The use of organized crime to create a perception of an unsafe environment targeting the South Asian community in Canada; and
- Interference in democratic processes
During the investigation, Mark Flynn, Deputy Commissioner of Federal Policing claims to have made several attempts to reach out to Indian law enforcement representatives and government officials, and to have presented all evidence of these concerns to Indian officials.
In response, the Indian Ministry of Foreign Affairs accused the Canadian government of creating the allegations for political purposes and failing to collaborate with the government on extradition requests and evidence gathering in respect of “terrorists and organized crime leaders” in Canada. “The Government of India strongly rejects these preposterous imputations and ascribes them to the political agenda of the Trudeau Government that is centered around vote bank politics,” the statement reads. Specifically, the statement claims the allegations are an attempt to distract from the ongoing investigation into foreign interference in the 2019 and 2021 Canadian elections and garner electoral support among allegedly “anti-Indian” proponents. Moreover, the statement also claims the Indian government has requested, and not received any evidence of Canada’s accusations.
The expulsion of ambassadors is a severe diplomatic measure provided by the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961. By notifying the sending State that an ambassador is a persona non grata, the sending State shall recall the person concerned or terminate his functions within the mission.
Tensions between the Canadian and Indian governments began to flare in 2023 following the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a prominent pro-Khalistan advocate, which U.S. intelligence identified the Indian government as playing a role in. The murder caused a significant rift between Canada and India, inciting both states to expel diplomats and issue travel warnings against one another.
