Canada puts Indian diplomats on notice over alleged criminal acts

Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly on Friday put the last of India’s diplomats in the country “on notice” that Canada will not tolerate any more criminal activity on its territory.

The warning follows the expulsion earlier this week of six Indian diplomats after Canada’s national police force said there is ample evidence of murder and extortion by agents in Canada operating on orders from New Delhi.

India’s high commissioner was among those kicked out of Canada after he was identified as a person of interest in the June 18, 2023, assassination of Canadian Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in British Columbia.

India has hotly denied the charges and it ordered six Canadian diplomats to leave the country.

But Joly said evidence shows that New Delhi has used criminals in Canada for violent acts, including the targeting of Sikh separatists who want to carve out a Sikh state in India.

"There was definitely a threat and that's exactly why the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) decided to take the extraordinary measure of making public the fact that Canadians were being intimidated, victims of extortion or even (received) death threats because agents and diplomats from India were linked to these criminal actions," Joly said at a news conference in Montreal, reported the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

“We’ve never seen that in our history. That level of transnational repression cannot happen on Canadian soil.”