The RCMP said Monday it has obtained evidence of “serious criminal activity” happening in Canada with connections to agents of the government of India.
RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme told reporters in Ottawa that investigations revealed what he called four main issues:
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Links tying agents of the government of India to homicides and violent acts.
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The use of organized crime to create a perception of an unsafe environment targeting the South Asian community in Canada.
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Interference into democratic processes.
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Investigations have also revealed that 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.
The RCMP said an “extraordinary situation” compelled it to publicly disclose information about ongoing investigations into agents of the government of India who have allegedly used a wide variety of entities in Canada and abroad to collect information.
Duheme said there have been “well over a dozen” credible and imminent threats to members of the South Asian community, specifically members of the pro-Khalistan movement.
Duheme said RCMP Deputy Commissioner Mark Flynn attempted to meet with law enforcement counterparts in India to present evidence that government agents were involved in criminal activity in Canada.
‘Violent, extremist threat in Canada’
The attempts were unsuccessful, so Flynn met with officials of Indian government, along with the national security adviser Nathalie Drouin, and Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs David Morrison over the weekend.
“There’s a violent, extremist threat in Canada that Canada and India have been working on over the years,” said Duheme. “However, these threats are impacting Canada and India’s ability to collaborate.”
Canada expelled six Indian diplomats after police said they collected evidence alleging those officials were part of an Indian government “campaign of violence,” a government source told CBC News on Monday.
RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme, who held a news conference on Monday about allegations Indian agents were involved in crime in Canada, was asked to specify what the public safety threat is to Canadians.
The Washington Post earlier reported the diplomats had been expelled. India withdrew its envoy to Canada on Monday along with other officials and diplomats whom Ottawa named as persons of interest in a matter related to an investigation in the country, the Indian foreign ministry said.
New Delhi rejected the “preposterous imputations” of the Canadian assertion, made in a diplomatic communication on Sunday, saying it was part of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s “political agenda” centered around “vote bank politics.”
The foreign ministry also said it summoned the Canadian chargé d’affaires on Monday and informed him that the “baseless targeting” of Indian diplomats and officials in Canada was “completely unacceptable.”
“We have no faith in the current Canadian Government’s commitment to ensure their security. Therefore, the Government of India has decided to withdraw the High Commissioner and other targeted diplomats and officials,” it said in a statement.
India also conveyed that it “reserves” the right to take further steps in response to the Canadian government’s “support for extremism, violence and separatism against India,” the statement said.
Relations between New Delhi and Ottawa have been frosty since September 2023, when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canada was “pursuing credible allegations of a potential link” between Indian agents and the killing of a Canadian Sikh separatist leader that year, prompting a strong reaction from New Delhi, which denied the allegation.
India has repeatedly said Canada has not shared any evidence to back its claim.
“This latest step follows interactions that have again witnessed assertions without any facts. This leaves little doubt that on the pretext of an investigation, there is a deliberate strategy of smearing India for political gains,” it said.
“India now reserves the right to take further steps in response to these latest efforts of the Canadian Government to concoct allegations against Indian diplomats.”
It also alleged that the Trudeau government “has consciously provided space to violent extremists and terrorists to harass, threaten and intimidate Indian diplomats and community leaders in Canada.”
Canada pulled out more than 40 diplomats from India in October 2023 after New Delhi asked Ottawa to reduce its diplomatic presence.
In June, a committee of Canadian parliamentarians had named India and China as the main foreign threats to its democratic institutions, based on input from intelligence agencies.
India’s envoy in Ottawa, Sanjay Kumar Verma, called the report politically motivated and influenced by Sikh separatist campaigners.
Earlier this year, Trudeau said that he hoped India would “engage with us so that we can get to the bottom of this very serious matter.”
Soon after Canada’s allegation, the U.S. claimed that Indian agents were involved in an attempted assassination plot of another Sikh separatist leader in New York in 2023, and said it had indicted an Indian national who was working at the behest of an unnamed Indian government official.
Unlike its angry response to Canadian allegations, however, India expressed concern after the U.S. raised the issue, dissociating itself from the plot, and has launched an investigation.
The assassination plots against Sikh separatist leaders in Canada and the U.S. have tested their relationship with India, as the Western nations hope to forge deeper ties with New Delhi to counter China’s rising global influence.