Canada Accuses India of Murder

Written by Allan Millward | September 24, 2023

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The Dispute

Diplomatic relations between India and Canada have hit an all-time low after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s speech to the Canadian House of Commons last Monday. “Over the past number of weeks Canadian security agencies have been actively pursuing credible allegations of a potential link between agents of the government of India and the killing of a Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar,” Trudeau stated somberly, “…any involvement of a foreign government in the killing of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil is an unacceptable violation of our sovereignty.” Canada’s foreign affairs minister Melanie Joy then explained that the government had expelled an Indian diplomat who was the head of the Indian intelligence agency in Canada as a consequence. A few hours later Indian leadership angrily offered its response. They rejected Trudeau’s allegations, accused the Trudeau government of harboring terrorists, and expelled a senior Canadian diplomat from India. “That Canadian political figures have openly expressed sympathy for such elements remains a matter of deep concern,” the Indian response stated. Negotiations for a trade deal between the two countries have also stalled. While this diplomatic row is certainly explosive, tensions have been simmering between Canada and India for some time. Back in 2017, Trudeau had been seen attending a Sikh event in Toronto where Sikh separatist flags were flown, and pictures of a dead extremist Sikh leader were displayed. In 2018 when Trudeau visited India his diplomatic calendar was light which many interpreted as a snub by the Indian government for Trudeau’s closeness to Sikh separatists in Canada. At the recent G20 summit in India, Prime Minister Modi did not meet one-on-one with Trudeau but rather on the sidelines where he reportedly conveyed his “strong concerns about continuing anti-India activities of extremist elements in Canada.” Trudeau also explained that he had “personally and directly” confronted Modi about the murder during this conversation.

Hardeep Singh Nijjar and the Canadian Sikh Community

Nijjar was gunned down by masked assailants outside a Sikh temple in British Colombia in June and little progress has been made up until this point. Nijjar was a 45-year-old Canadian citizen, a leader in the Canadian Sikh community, and an outspoken advocate for Sikh separatism in India. He called for the creation of a separate Sikh homeland known as Khalistan which would be carved out of parts of India’s Punjab state which borders Pakistan and is known as the birthplace of the Sikh religion. Nijjar is considered a terrorist by the Indian government with the Indian National Investigation Agency accusing Nijjar of “trying to radicalize the Sikh community across the world in favor of the creation of ‘Khalistan,’” and “trying to incite Sikhs to vote for secession, agitate against the government of India and carry out violent activities.” The Khalistan movement is outlawed in India and is viewed as a national security threat by the increasingly Hindu-nationalist Modi government.

Canada has the largest Sikh community outside of India’s Punjab state with about 770,000 people practicing Sikhism as their religion according to a 2021 census. India has long expressed hostility towards Canada’s Sikh community with some Indians asserting that Canada does not clamp down on Sikh separatists because Sikhs are a politically influential group in the country. While many in the Canadian Sikh community long expected foul play from India regarding the death of Nijjar, they greeted the news with trepidation. “To see a Canadian attacked on Canadian soil by a foreign country — I think we can’t understate how shocking that news is,” World Sikh Organization of Canada board member Mukhbir Singh said Trudeau acknowledged the concern from the community in his speech explaining that many in “the Indo-Canadian community are feeling angry or perhaps frightened right now.” The leader of the New Democratic Party, which entered into a confidence and supply deal with the minority Trudeau government, Jagmeet Singh, himself a Sikh, also spoke about the revelation. “I grew up hearing many stories that if you raised concerns about human rights violations in India that you might be denied a visa. That if you went back to India, you could suffer violence, torture, and even death.” The stories Singh was told as a child seem less scary than the reality. Now it appears that Sikhs speaking out against the Indian government may not even be safe outside of India.