Canada Letter: Canada’s dramatic charges of a criminal conspiracy by India

Officials said that India used intimidation and even murder to silence its critics in Canada.

View in browser|nytimes.com October 19, 2024 With Unusually Forceful Words, Canada Charges India With a Criminal Conspiracy By Ian Austen Thanksgiving has never been the outsize family gathering time in Canada that it is in the United States. (In Atlantic Canada, it's not even a holiday.) But this year, it was marked in an unusual way. The killing of a Sikh leader, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, outside this Sikh place of worship in Surrey, British Columbia, last year inflamed tensions between India and Canada. Chris Helgren/Reuters The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, a force that normally defaults to stony silence about investigations, called a news conference in Ottawa on Monday. Matina Stevis-Gridneff, The Times's Canada bureau chief, reports that the R.C.M.P. accused the Indian government of running a criminal operation to intimidate and even kill critics of India who live in Canada. [Read: Canada Expels Indian Diplomats, Accusing Them of Criminal Campaign] The Mounties were followed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as well as his foreign and public safety ministers, who announced that as a result of the police investigation, India's high commissioner and five other diplomats from the country had been told earlier that morning that they were being expelled from Canada. While the details of the operation, which includes allegations that India used criminal gangs to carry out its work, were not laid out, the rhetoric at both news conferences was unusually forceful for anything involving international diplomacy. "We will never tolerate the involvement of a foreign government threatening and killing Canadian citizens on Canadian soil, a deeply unacceptable violation of Canada's sovereignty and of international law," Mr. Trudeau told reporters. Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly added that the decision to expel the diplomats was based on "ample, clear and concrete evidence." Commissioner Mike Duheme of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police presented Canada's accusations against the Indian government on Monday. Blair Gable/Reuters Matina and Anupreeta Das, our colleague who covers India and the surrounding region, have put together a guide to what we do and don't know about India's involvement. [Read: Understanding Canada's Fight With India Over a Murdered Sikh Activist] And in the Interpreter newsletter, Amanda Taub explains how diplomatic immunity shields officials from prosecution for even the most serious crimes. [Read: Yes, Ambassadors Can Get Away With Murder] The accusations, though exceptional, were also the latest development in the steady deterioration of Canada's relations with India. The decay began in 1985 with what remains the deadliest terrorist attack in Canada's history, when a luggage bomb exploded aboard an Air India flight from Toronto, killing 329 people. The only person convicted in connection to the bombing was a Sikh crusader for an independent Sikh state. Vincent Rigby, a former national security and intelligence adviser to Mr. Trudeau, told me that Indian governments since then have viewed Canada's efforts to rein in Sikh terrorism as inadequate. And under the current prime minister, Narendra Modi, India's definition of unacceptable activities appears to encompass even allowing lawful demonstrations against the Indian government in Canada. Anupreeta writes that the latest allegations by Canada have also drawn attention to how India's shadowy intelligence services operate. [Read: Trudeau's Move Casts Light on the Reach of India's Intelligence Agencies] This was not the first time that Mr. Trudeau has accused India's government of involvement in a politically motivated murder on Canadian soil. Last year, he said that Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Sikh leader, was shot and killed by "agents" of the Indian government in Surrey, British Columbia. Then and now, India has dismissed the allegations, claiming that they were nothing more than an attempt by Mr. Trudeau to improve his sagging political fortunes. It has also claimed that Canada did not provide substantive evidence to back up its charges. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on his way to the Thanksgiving news conference. Blair Gable/Reuters But as my colleague Norimitsu Onishi reports, Mr. Trudeau told the current inquiry into foreign interference that India had repeatedly rebuffed Canada's efforts to present it with the findings of its investigators. [Read: Trudeau Goes on Offensive Over Foreign Interference Claims] That response stands in contrast with how India is dealing with the United States. This week, federal prosecutors in New York charged a man they say is a senior Indian intelligence officer with trying to orchestrate from abroad a politically motivated killing on U.S. soil. It follows earlier charges against a man U.S. prosecutors say was responsible for setting the plot in motion. [Read: U.S. Charges Indian Official in New York Assassination Plot] "India has been far more accommodating of requests from U.S. federal prosecutors to help in their investigation," Anupreeta writes, while it has dismissed Canada's accusations. [Read: Facing Murder Plot Accusations, India Aids U.S. but Is Stern With Canada] "Justin Trudeau and Canada are relative lightweights the Indian government can afford to take liberties with," Bharat Karnad, an Indian national security expert affiliated with the New Delhi-based Center for Policy Research, told Anupreeta. "But there is a price to pay for alienating Washington." Trans Canada A protest in Brampton, Ontario, against new immigration limits on foreign students. Ian Willms for The New York Times Matina Stevis-Gridneff writes that "after inviting millions of newcomers to Canada in recent years to help lift the economy, the government has reversed course amid growing concerns that immigrants are contributing to the country's deepening challenges around housing, health care and other issues." A woman from Hong Kong pleaded guilty to trying to smuggle 29 Eastern box turtles, a protected species, that were individually wrapped in socks inside a duffel bag, by paddling in an inflatable kayak across a lake from Vermont to Quebec. A Canadian snowboarder who competed at the 2002 Winter Olympics is wanted by the F.B.I. on charges of conspiring to ship hundreds of kilograms of cocaine into Canada and the United States and on suspicion of orchestrating multiple murders, including the killing of two members of a family north of Toronto in a case of mistaken identity. Global carbon emissions from forest fires have increased 60 percent since 2001, according to a new study, and fires in the boreal forests of Canada and Siberia were by far the biggest contributors. Senior aides to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau testified this week that meddling by foreign powers in internal Canadian affairs was "an evolving landscape," and rejected suggestions that the government had been slow to respond, Norimitsu Onishi reports. Canadian researchers have found that bumblebee queens prefer an unexpected feature when looking for hibernation homes: soil full of pesticides and other poisons. From The Athletic: The Ontario Hockey League said that it was aware of a report on CTV's "W5" news program alleging that eight former players sexually assaulted a woman in 2014. The league also said that it would cooperate with any police investigation. Guy Maddin, the Canadian experimental filmmaker, gave Mark Binelli, a writer for The New York Times Magazine, a tour around his hometown, Winnipeg. Mark describes Mr. Maddin's latest film, "Rumours," as "an experiment in normality." Jeannette Catsoulis, a Times film critic, writes that it is "an extremely funny geopolitical satire." She has made "Rumours" an NYT Critic's Pick. Ian Austen reports on Canada for The Times based in Ottawa. Originally from Windsor, Ontario, he covers politics, culture and the people of Canada and has reported on the country for two decades. He can be reached at austen@nytimes.com. More about Ian Austen How are we doing? We're eager to have your thoughts about this newsletter and events in Canada in general. Please send them to nytcanada@nytimes.com. Like this email? Forward it to your friends, and let them know they can sign up here. Need help? Review our newsletter help page or contact us for assistance. You received this email because you signed up for Canada Letter from The New York Times. To stop receiving Canada Letter, unsubscribe. To opt out of other promotional emails from The Times, including those regarding The Athletic, manage your email settings. 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