In a stunning news conference Monday, the head of the RCMP accused the Indian government of playing a role in “widespread violence” in Canada, including homicides, and warned that it poses “a serious threat to our public safety.”
Commissioner Mike Duheme laid out the national police force’s allegations just hours after Canada expelled six Indian diplomats.
“The team has learned a significant amount of information about the breadth and depth of criminal activity orchestrated by agents of the government of India and consequential threats to the safety and security of Canadians and individuals living in Canada,” he said during a rare news conference at RCMP headquarters on Thanksgiving Monday.
“Despite law enforcement’s actions, the harm has continued, posing a serious threat to our public safety.”
Duheme said his officers, working with other law enforcement agencies, have obtained evidence linking Indian government agents to homicides and other violent acts in Canada, including coercion and extortion.
The commissioner 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.
RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme, speaking at a news conference about allegations of violent criminal activity linked to agents of the Indian government, said Monday that among other things, ‘investigations have revealed that Indian diplomats and consular officials based in Canada leveraged their official position to engage in clandestine activities.’
Duheme told reporters in Ottawa that Mounties have also collected evidence showing 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.
“Some of these individuals and businesses were coerced and threatened into working for the government of India,” he said.
“The information collected by the government of India is then used to target members of the South Asian community.”
Duheme said police have also identified serious issues of violent extremists working in both India and Canada; the use of organized crime to create perceptions of unsafe environments and target people in the South Asian community in Canada; and interference in democratic processes.
The ongoing inquiry into foreign interference has already heard evidence that India interfered in the last two Canadian elections.
When asked how many Indian diplomats are alleged to be involved in the serious allegations the RCMP detailed, Duheme said he could only say “several” given the ongoing nature of the investigations.
He said while the RCMP is usually reluctant to share details of ongoing investigations, the “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.
Canada presented evidence to India over the weekend
Duheme said the Mounties’ evidence was presented directly to the government of India.
He 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.
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, said Duheme, reading from a prepared statement.
“There’s a violent, extremist threat in Canada that Canada and India have been working on over the years,” he said. “However, these threats are impacting Canada and India’s ability to collaborate.”
India was asked to waive diplomatic and consular immunities and to cooperate in the investigation, but didn’t, according to a statement Global Affairs Canada.
That prompted the Canadian government to issue six expulsion notices to Indian diplomats and consular staff.
In response, India’s ministry of external affairs announced that it is withdrawing its envoy, High Commissioner Sanjay Kumar Verma, along with “other targeted diplomats and officials” from Canada.
India also retaliated and announced it is expelling six Canadian diplomats, including acting high commissioner Stewart Wheeler. The Canadians have until Saturday night to leave the country.
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.
In a statement, New Delhi rejected the “preposterous imputations” of the Canadian assertion, accusing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of having a “political agenda” centred around “vote bank politics,” a term referring to voting blocs from specific communities.
“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.
Wheeler on Monday reiterated Trudeau’s accusation, saying in a statement: “Canada has provided credible, irrefutable evidence of ties between agents of the Government of India and the murder of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil.
“Now, it is time for India to live up to what it said it would do and look into those allegations.”
The World Sikh Organization of Canada said the RCMP’s announcement confirms “the lived experience of Sikhs for the past four decades.”
“India’s criminal activities in Canada must end. India’s targeting of Sikhs must end. We expect Canada’s elected officials to unite in condemning India’s foreign interference and its efforts to obstruct justice,” said president Danish Singh.
Tensions escalating between 2 countries
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 Canadian Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar 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 in that case.
“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.”
A U.S. indictment bolstered Justin Trudeau’s claim that the killing of Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada was carried out by the Indian government. We speak to other alleged targets and give exclusive insight into the plot.
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.
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.
Following the arrest of three suspects in the killing of Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, others in the Sikh community in Canada are worried about being assassinated and want the federal government to do more to ensure their safety.