‘Fundamental mistake,’ says Trudeau, accuses India of supporting criminal activity in Canada amid diplomatic row

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday accused the Indian government of making a “fundamental mistake” by supporting criminal activity in Canada. At a news conference in Ottawa, Trudeau highlighted ongoing tensions between the two nations and stressed the importance of an upcoming meeting of their national security advisers, scheduled for this weekend in Singapore.

“When I spoke to Prime Minister Modi late last week, I emphasized how incredibly important this weekend’s meeting of our national security advisers in Singapore would be. “He knew about this meeting and I urged him that the meeting needed to be taken very, very seriously,” Trudeau said.

Also present at the press conference were Canadian Minister of Public Safety and Intergovernmental Affairs Dominic LeBlanc and Foreign Minister Melanie Joly.

Trudeau further spoke about the broader implications for Canada-India relations, claiming that the Indian government made a “fundamental mistake” by supporting criminal activity against Canadians.

“The Indian government made a fundamental mistake when it thought it could support criminal activity against Canadians here on Canadian soil, be it murder or extortion. This is absolutely unacceptable,” Trudeau claimed.

Trudeau maintained that Canada was ready to work with India despite the tensions.

“This is not a decision that Canada has made to cool Canada-India relations. India is an important democracy, a country with which we have deep people-to-people business ties at a time when instability around geopolitics means democracies.” That’s why we must stand together when the intelligence agencies made it clear to us that India may, if not likely, was behind the assassination of Nijjar (Hardeep Singh) and the murder of a Canadian on Canadian soil last summer India says: “We know that happened. Work with us to resolve the issue,” he claimed.

“We don’t want to fight this fight, but obviously as a country we cannot ignore the killing of a Canadian on Canadian soil,” he added.

Trudeau said Canada has taken a transparent approach and sought to cooperate with Indian authorities. “So we have informed India what we know at every step. “I have spoken directly to Prime Minister Modi. The Indian government’s response to the House of Commons decision last September was to deny, obscure and attack my person and the integrity of the Canadian government and its officials and police departments,” he said.

He further claimed that Canada has made efforts to work with India to ensure the safety of Canadians.

Trudeau said Canadian authorities have tried to work with India to ensure the safety of Canadians.

“We have simply said that we will allow our authorities to do the work, particularly the transition from intelligence gathering by authorities to police investigations that lead to arrests, trials and consequences within a rigorous, robust and independent justice system . That was our goal.” In fact, last week, as the RCMP reached out to their law enforcement counterparts in India, there was a way we could work together to ensure accountability and changes and steps that led to compliance “The safety of Canadians is our top priority,” he said.

However, Trudeau said these efforts were rebuffed by India.

“The Indian government rejected these moves and rejected our attempts to find a way out. And that brought us to the point where we had to disrupt the chain of operations that goes from Indian diplomats here in Canada to criminal organizations to direct violent impact on Canadians across the country,” he added.

The diplomatic fallout follows allegations from Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Commissioner Mike Duheme, who claimed he had information about certain criminal activities by Indian government agents.

India expelled six Canadian diplomats on Monday, hours after summoning Canada’s Chargé d’Affaires Stewart Wheeler and saying the “unfounded attacks” on the Indian High Commissioner and other diplomats and officials in Canada were completely unacceptable.

The move reportedly came after Canada expelled six Indian diplomats after police collected evidence that they were part of a “campaign of violence” by the Indian government, Reuters news agency previously reported, citing a Canadian government source.

Earlier on Monday, India “strongly” rejected a diplomatic note from Canada that said the Indian High Commissioner and other diplomats were “persons of interest” in an investigation, calling it “absurd insinuations” and part of India’s political agenda Justin Trudeau government.

In a strong statement, India said Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau’s hostility towards India has long been evident and that his government has deliberately given space to violent extremists and terrorists to “harass, threaten and intimidate Indian diplomats and community leaders in Canada.”

Relations between India and Canada deteriorated after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau claimed in a parliamentary speech last year that he had “credible allegations” about India’s involvement in the killing of Khalist terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

Nijjar, who was designated a terrorist by India’s National Investigation Agency in 2020, was shot dead outside a gurdwara in Surrey in June 2023.

India strongly rejected the allegations, calling them “absurd” and “motivated”. It also accused Canada of giving space to extremist and anti-India elements in its country.

(You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel)