Canada expels diplomat over allegations India involved in murder of Canadian

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau delivered an urgent speech to lawmakers in Parliament on Monday afternoon, informing them that Canadian security agencies had for weeks been pursuing “credible allegations of a potential link between Indian government agents” and the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar earlier this summer. Canadian soil.

“Canada has expressed its deep concerns to the Indian government’s top intelligence and security officials,” Trudeau said when he announced the news in an urgent statement to Canadian lawmakers in Parliament. “Last week, at the G20, I presented them personally and directly to Prime Minister Modi, in clear terms.”

This comes as Canada’s bilateral relations with India are increasingly strained.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi raised concerns with Trudeau on the sidelines of the G20 summit last week over Sikh separatist protests in Canada.

Canada abruptly suspended a trade mission with India on Friday amid strained relations between the two countries.

Canada’s Liberal government had prioritized stronger relations with India, a key partner in its trade and diplomatic strategy in the Indo-Pacific.

Nijjar, a Sikh leader from British Columbia who was part of a separatist movement and designated a terrorist by New Delhi, was fatally shot inside his car in the parking lot of a Sikh temple in Surrey, British Columbia, on June 18.

“We have made it clear that we will not tolerate any form of foreign interference,” Joly told reporters.

Joly said she has raised the issue with her key allies and plans to raise the issue with her G7 counterparts this evening in New York.

“At present, we know that we are in an international security crisis and that one of the fundamental rules that underpin the stability and security of the world is the protection of the sovereignty of each country,” he said. she declared. “We consider this possible violation of sovereignty to be completely unacceptable. »

Trudeau has already raised the issue with President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Joly said.

Canadian Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc said the prime minister’s national security and intelligence adviser, Jody Thomas, and the head of Canada’s intelligence agency have visited several times in recent weeks in India to confront Indian intelligence with these allegations.

The news came on the same day that Canada’s new commissioner charged with overseeing an independent public inquiry into foreign interference took up her new role. She has until the end of next year to produce a final report, according to the terms of the investigation.