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OTTAWA — American officials did not condemn India’s response to explosive accusations that its government has been involved in an escalating number of violent crimes in Canada.
On Monday, Ottawa expelled six Indian diplomats after the RCMP said it had credible evidence that Indian agents played a role in extortion, coercion and murder of Canadian citizens on Canadian soil.
U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller would not comment on the substance of these new claims at a news conference on Tuesday, and he did not criticize India’s decision to also expel six Canadian diplomats.
“As we’ve said before, they are serious allegations and we have wanted to see India take them seriously and co-operate with Canada’s investigation. They have chosen an alternate path,” he said.
Miller said the U.S. has long been asking India to co-operate with Canadian authorities. In September 2023, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that Canadian intelligence services were investigating credible information about a potential link between India’s government and the June 2023 killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Sikh activist, in Surrey, B.C.
Miller’s comments came as an Indian delegation visited Washington to discuss an alleged murder-for-hire plot that U.S. officials revealed last November.
An unsealed indictment alleged an Indian government employee had directed an attempted assassination in the United States, and spoke about others, including Nijjar.
Miller said the visit by what he called the Indian inquiry committee, announced on Monday, was unrelated to the allegations made public by Canadian authorities that same day, calling the timing “completely coincidental.”
White House national security spokesman John Kirby said he would not speak about the Canadian case but said the Indian government’s decision to send an inquiry committee to Washington signals that India is taking the situation seriously.
“I wouldn’t speak for the Canadians one way or another,” he said. “But we have expressed our deep concern about this to our Indian counterparts. They have expressed to us that they are taking it seriously,” Kirby said.
India has insisted Canada has provided it no evidence to back up any of the allegations.
RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme said the force’s deputy commissioner tried to share evidence with Indian police last week but was rebuffed. This past weekend, deputy foreign affairs minister David Morrison, along with the RCMP, presented evidence to India in meetings held in Singapore.
Canada sought India’s agreement to revoke the diplomatic immunity of the six individuals so they could be interviewed, but India refused.
Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly said Monday that India’s refusal to co-operate is why Canada declared the six diplomats persona non grata, which is one of the stiffest penalties Canada can impose under the Vienna Convention.
She also said Monday that she had reached out to Canada’s peers in the Five Eyes intelligence alliance about the situation, which includes the U.S. and New Zealand.
New Zealand’s Foreign Minister Winston Peters suggested he would let the judicial processes unfold in a statement that did not mention India.
“The alleged criminal conduct outlined publicly by Canadian law enforcement authorities, if proven, would be very concerning,” Peters wrote on X, saying Ottawa had flagged “ongoing criminal investigations into violence and threats of violence against members of its South Asian community.”
Vina Nadjibulla, research vice-president for the Asia Pacific Foundation, said before these statements that it’s crucial Canada receive support from its allies, possibly through diplomatic moves behind the scenes as well as public statements of support.
“We are in uncharted territory, with implications for the diplomatic relationship as well as for Canada’s public safety and national security,” she said.
Nadjibulla said it was notable that Joly accused active diplomats of involvement in criminality, and that she said violence linked to the Indian government had only increased since Canada made public its concerns about Nijjar’s killing last year.
“Canada did what it thought was necessary,” Nadjibulla said.
“In order for Canada, at this stage, to have any kind of co-operation from India and seek accountability for what has happened, we would need India to feel some pressure; we would need India to feel some reason to co-operate.”
In British Columbia, the Sikh gurdwara where Nijjar was president hosted a news conference at which temple leaders and a Sikh independence group called for India’s consulates in Vancouver and Toronto to be shut down.
Gurkeerat Singh, a spokesman for the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara in Surrey, said that “the safety and the security of Sikhs will still be in question” as long as the missions continued to operate.
Jatinder Singh Grewal of the pro-independence advocacy group Sikhs for Justice, which Nijjar had been involved with, called the consulates “houses of terror” that needed to be shut down.
In Ottawa, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh called Tuesday for “severe sanctions on Indian diplomats” involved in criminal activity. The RCMP said Monday there were six Indian diplomats it sought to question about violent activities in Canada, and those six are the ones Canada expelled.
Singh said Canada must also ban a Hindu group that has been accused of hate speech by Sikh and Muslim groups.
The House of Commons is not sitting this week, preventing an immediate debate on the matter, but Singh said his party will be asking the House public safety committee to study “other steps we can take to keep Canadians safe.”
The Bloc Québécois asked Tuesday for the government to “intensify collaboration with Canada’s allies in terms of intelligence and solidarity, in the face of such acts.” The Conservatives on Monday denounced Canada’s “extremely concerning” allegations as proof that the government had not taken foreign interference and national security seriously.
The Liberal government is also trying to assure Canadian businesses that it wants trade with India to continue even though allegations of illegal activity caused Ottawa to suspend negotiations for a free-trade deal a year ago.
Trade Minister Mary Ng released a statement acknowledging the uncertainty that businesses and investors may have as a result as the diplomatic expulsions. She said the government will continue to support commercial and economic ties between the countries.
“However, we must consider our economic interests with the need to protect Canadians and uphold the rule of law,” she said. “We will not tolerate any foreign government threatening, extorting or harming Canadian citizens on our soil.”
Ng said the government remains “open to a dialogue” with India and looks forward to continuing a “valued relationship.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 15, 2024.
— With files from Kelly Geraldine Malone, Laura Osman and Brenna Owen
Dylan Robertson, The Canadian Press