TORONTO – Not only China: while Canada focused on “Beijing” interference, there were Indian diplomats – according to the RCMP, the Canadian federal police – intent on gathering information and then transmitting it to various criminal organizations that undertook violent actions, like extortion and murder, right in Canada. Among these actions, the killing in Vancouver, in June 2023, of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, Canadian Sikh leader of the movement calling for the independence of Khalistan in India: a group considered “terrorist” by the Indian government.
“Extremely worrying” accusations, those that led to the expulsion of the six Indian diplomats: according to the Conservatives, it proves once again how Canada led by Justin Trudeau and the Liberals has not taken foreign interference and national security seriously.
In addition to the Conservatives, Jagmeet Singh’s NDP, which until “the day before yesterday” supported the Trudeau government, is also going on the attack. “All Indian diplomats involved in criminal activities in Canada must be subjected to severe sanctions” the NDP leader thundered today. But India has rejected the charges against its diplomats and, in turn, expelled six Canadian diplomats.
RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme explained that his deputy commissioner had actually attempted to share evidence against the six diplomats with Indian police last week, but was not listened to. Last weekend, Canadian Deputy Foreign Minister David Morrison, together with the RCMP, had in turn presented the evidence to India in meetings held in Singapore: Canada had then asked India to waive diplomatic immunity of the six individuals, but India had refused. And precisely for this reason, as explained by the Foreign Minister of Canada, Melanie Joly, in the end it was decided to declare the six diplomats “persona non grata” (i.e. not welcome), which is one of the most severe sanctions that Canada can impose under the Vienna Convention.
Meanwhile, today an Air India flight en route from New Delhi to Chicago had to make an emergency landing in Iqaluit, Nunavut, following what the RCMP called “a bomb threat”. The flight (Air India 127) landed in Nunavut at around 5.21am local time, with all 211 passengers and crew deplaning and transferring to Iqaluit International Airport.
Another Air India flight, 182, was blown up with a bomb almost forty years ago while flying between Canada and the United Kingdom: 329 people died in the attack, attributed to Canadian Sikh separatist terrorists. Today’s bomb threat, in light of what happened in the last few hours, inevitably brought back memories of that terrorist attack, the worst in Canadian history.
In the pic above, the Prime Minister Justin Trudeau guest at Sikh ceremony in 2019 (from Twitter X – @JustinTrudeau)
