By: Mason Mattu, SFU Student

Canada has expelled six Indian diplomats, including India’s High Commissioner to Canada, from the country. The announcement was made after the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) stated on October 14 that there were threats against Sikh Canadians in an alleged intelligence-gathering campaign by Indian diplomatic officials. 

RCMP commissioner Mike Duheme said the RCMP recently uncovered a “significant amount of information” on the criminal activity “orchestrated by agents of the government of India and consequential threats to the safety and security” of Canadians. Further, he accused the Indian government of homicide against Canadians, especially pro-Khalistan Sikhs.

The Khalistan movement is an independence movement calling for a separate state named “Khalistan” in Punjab and parts of northern India. The Khalistan movement is based on years of oppression by the Indian government towards the country’s Sikh minority, including actions taken against the community in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. It “developed momentum among the Sikh diaspora in recent years” due to human rights abuses in India. 

A key actor in organizing events related to the Khalistan movement is Sikhs for Justice. They organized the non-binding Khalistan Referendum, a vote asking diaspora Sikhs and people living in Punjab if Punjab should be an independent country. The group hopes to gain “independence through democratic, non-violent, and peaceful ways.” The movement is outlawed in India due to being “considered a grave national security threat by the government.”

The Canadian government’s recent announcement also comes over a year after what CBC called a “highly-coordinated” murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar just outside of the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara in Surrey. Nijjar was a Canadian citizen, president of this Gurdwara, and advocate for the Khalistan movement. According to PBS, “India designated Nijjar as a terrorist in 2020, and at the time of his death was seeking his arrest for alleged involvement in an attack on a Hindu priest in India.” The Canadian government said they have “ample, clear, and concrete evidence” which ties six individuals from the consulate to the death of Nijjar. Following Nijjar’s death in 2023, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated in a speech to parliament that there were “credible allegations that India’s government had links to the killing.” 

“No country, particularly not a democracy that upholds the rule of law, can accept this fundamental violation of its sovereignty,” said Trudeau, addressing the topic of Indian interference in a press conference this month. “The RCMP chose to come out today and disrupt the pattern of Indian diplomats collecting — through questionable and illegal means — information on Canadian citizens.”

Canada is not the only country suspicious of alleged crimes committed by the Indian government. This October, the US indicted a former Indian intelligence officer, Vikash Yadav, in the attempted murder of a Canadian American dual citizen and organizer of the Khalistan Referendum, Gurpatwant Singh Pannun. 

In response to the newest announcement from Canada, the Indian government also expelled Canadian diplomats. The government of India continues to deny any involvement in the murder of Nijjar and what the RCMP is accusing them of. “No evidence presented. Politically motivated,” stated Sanjay Kumar Verma, India’s former High Commissioner to Canada who was expelled, on the subject of the RCMP’s allegations. 

Canada’s Sikh population has been reacting en masse to this latest development. Demonstrations have occurred outside of the Indian consulate in Vancouver, with some protestors calling for the closure of the Indian consulates in Vancouver and Toronto to prevent further threats by the Indian government. 

“Gurdwaras are supposedly the Sikhs’ safest place, but the Indian state assassinated our leader at the back gate of our Gurdwara Sahib letting us know that it will come to attack us anywhere if we try to ask for our own land,” stated one demonstrator, Imren Kaur, at a Vancouver demonstration. “It is good to know that India is being exposed in front of the entire world and that we are not looking like the ones that are just spreading our own propaganda,” she told Global News.

There is uncertainty about how these new developments will impact trade relationships between the two countries. India stated that it “reserves the right to take further steps” to address the situation, whereas minister of foreign affairs Mélanie Joly said all options, including sanctions, are plausible on Canada’s behalf.  

The Peak reached out to the SFU Sikh Students’ Association for an interview but did not receive a response by the publication deadline.