- The Prime Minister’s accusations come at a time when India and Canada have expelled each other’s envoys.
- Police say they have identified acts of violence against Canadians that were authorized by the Indian government.
- Four Indian nationals were arrested in connection with Najjar’s killing.
Ottawa: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Wednesday there are “clear indications” that India has violated Canadian sovereignty, as the two countries spar over the killing of a Sikh on Canadian soil last year, which Ottawa blamed on New Delhi.
Trudeau’s latest accusations came two days after India and Canada expelled each other’s ambassadors, with Ottawa claiming Indian involvement in a campaign against Sikh separatists went beyond what was previously known.
Tensions have been rising since Canada accused the Indian government of involvement in the murder last year outside a Sikh temple of Hardeep Singh Nigar, an advocate for an independent Sikh state who immigrated to Canada and became a citizen.
At a foreign interference hearing on Wednesday, Trudeau addressed Najjar’s killing, as well as what he described as a broader campaign by Indian government representatives targeting Canadian citizens within Canada.
“We had clear indications, and certainly now even clearer, that India violated Canada’s sovereignty,” Trudeau told the inquiry.
He added that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police had determined that “violence toward Canadians (…) was enabled and directed by the Indian government in many cases.”
Trudeau said that when Ottawa made the accusations to New Delhi, “the Indian response to these allegations and to our investigations was to redouble the attacks against this government (…) but also to arbitrarily expel dozens of Canadian diplomats from India outright.” “There is no reason.”
Trudeau told the inquiry on Wednesday that his government did not want to be in a position “to pick a fight with an important trading partner” with which Canada has deep ties.
But he stressed that he would not hesitate when “defending Canadian sovereignty.”
Najjar – who immigrated to Canada in 1997 and became a citizen in 2015 – had called for the creation of a separate Sikh state, known as Khalistan, carved out of India.
He was wanted by Indian authorities on charges of “terrorism and conspiracy to commit murder.”
Four Indian nationals have been arrested in connection with Nigar’s murder, which occurred in the parking lot of a Sikh temple in Vancouver in June 2023.
India on Monday described the allegations regarding Naggar’s killing as “preposterous” and a “strategy to discredit India for political gain.”
Last year, the Indian government briefly restricted visas for Canadians and forced Ottawa to withdraw its diplomats, and this week threatened further action.