Canada spat leads India newspapers, as analysts await reactions from peer countries
Canada's decision to expel New Delhi's top envoy and five other diplomats is front-page news in India, as an analyst wonders how other countries will respond.
Relations between India and Canada are at a low point as the countries expelled each other's top diplomats over an ongoing dispute about the killing of a Sikh activist in Canada.
Canada said it had identified India’s top diplomat in the country as a person of interest in an assassination plot and expelled him and five other diplomats Monday. India has rejected the accusations as absurd, and its foreign ministry said it was expelling Canada’s acting high commissioner and five other diplomats in response.
It’s the latest in an escalating dispute over the June 2023 killing of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
Nijjar was fatally shot in his pickup truck in June 2023 after he left the Sikh temple he led in the city of Surrey, British Columbia. An Indian-born citizen of Canada, he owned a plumbing business and was a leader in a movement to create an independent Sikh homeland, which is banned in India.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in September 2023 there were credible allegations that India’s government had links to the killing. India denied the allegations at the time but said Nijjar was involved in “terrorism.â€
Canada expelled an Indian diplomat over the dispute last year, and in response India expelled a Canadian diplomat and froze consular services for Canadians for nearly two months.
Tensions boiled over again in May, when Canadian police said they had arrested three Indian nationals accused of involvement in Nijjar’s killing and were “investigating if there are any ties to the government of India.†India rejected the allegations, saying Canada had a “political compulsion†to blame India.
Now, Canada says that India's top diplomat in the country is a person of interest in the killing, and that police have uncovered evidence of an intensifying campaign against Canadian citizens by agents of the Indian government.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said it had found evidence of the involvement of Indian agents “in serious criminal activity in Canada," including links “to homicides and violent acts†and interference in Canada's democratic processes, among other things.
Meanwhile, Canada’s foreign minister, Mélanie Joly, tied the Indian officials to Nijjar's assassination and said Canada had gathered “ample, clear and concrete evidence which identified six individuals as persons of interest in the Nijjar case.â€
She said India had been asked to waive diplomatic immunity and cooperate in the investigation but refused.
In a statement Monday, India’s foreign ministry said that the Canadian government “has not shared a shred of evidence†with the Indian government, “despite many requests from our side.†The ministry also called the accusations part of “a deliberate strategy of smearing India for political gains.â€
Nijjar was a local leader in what remains of a once-strong movement to create an independent Sikh homeland known as Khalistan. The Khalistan movement is banned in India, but has support among the Sikh diaspora, particularly in Canada.
India designated Nijjar a terrorist in 2020, and at the time of his death was seeking his arrest for alleged involvement in an attack on a Hindu priest in India.
New Delhi’s anxieties about Sikh separatist groups in Canada have long been a strain on the relationship, but the two countries have maintained strong defense and trade ties, and share strategic concerns over China’s global ambitions. However, India has increasingly accused Canada of giving free rein to Sikh separatists.
Sikhs make up nearly 2% of Canada's population, and more than a dozen are members of the country's parliament.
Canada's decision to expel New Delhi's top envoy and five other diplomats is front-page news in India, as an analyst wonders how other countries will respond.
Striking images from the Sahara Desert show large lakes etched into rolling sand dunes after one of the most arid, barren places in the world was hit with its first floods in decades.
Israeli strikes in the southern Gaza Strip killed at least 15 people overnight, including six children and two women, Palestinian medical officials said Tuesday.
The father of a 10-year-old girl found dead in her home in England fled to Pakistan and called U.K. police from there to say he had killed her, a jury heard Monday.
Four guests at an Airbnb east of Toronto made off with a quarter of million dollars worth of jewelry following their stay, police say.
A major American retailer has stopped selling its new winter-themed candle over backlash from shoppers who said its design resembled Ku Klux Klan hoods.
Canadians are set to receive carbon pricing rebates Tuesday, as the Liberals defend one of their most embattled policies.
'Escalating incidents' between two Hamilton high schools are believed to be connected to a car crash last week that left a 15-year-old boy dead, police say.
The 15th-century explorer Christopher Columbus was a Sephardic Jew from Western Europe, Spanish scientists said on Saturday, after using DNA analysis to tackle a centuries-old mystery.
Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish Nation) Chef Paul Natrall, the man behind Indigenous food truck Mr. Bannock, is bringing cooking classes on First Nations fare to schools and offices throughout Metro Vancouver.
The Celtic Colours Festival is taking place at venues around Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia from Oct. 11 to 19.
Sometimes love is written in the stars, but for one couple, it’s written in the aurora borealis.
Canadian hip hop artist Dillan King says running 100 marathons in 100 days was not only the hardest thing he has ever done, but the 'proudest accomplishment' of his entire life.
James Taylor never expected to be walking home with a bag full of groceries he didn't buy.
This weekend marks the fifth anniversary of a large blizzard that paralyzed Manitoba.
There was an eye-catching mix of rainbows and lightning over Vancouver following a brief downpour this week.
Jeff Warner from Aidie Creek Gardens in the northern Ontario community of Englehart has a passion for growing big pumpkins and his effort is paying off in more ways than one.
Saskatchewan’s Jessica Campbell has made hockey history, becoming the first ever female assistant coach in the National Hockey League (NHL).