Relations between Canada and India have been under pressure for years, as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi have quarreled over Sikh separatist elements in this country.
Canada is home to the largest Sikh community outside of India — about 770,000 people, or about 2.1 per cent of the country’s population, according to federal data.
Some of those Sikh Canadians (experts suggest they make up a relatively small share of the whole) support the creation of a separate Sikh homeland independent from India. They have sent money and resources to support the cause and have staged unofficial referendums here in Canada, actions that have been condemned by India’s leadership.
Trudeau, like his predecessors, has said Canada supports a “united India.”
He hasn’t cracked down on Sikh separatist discourse, despite intense Indian pressure to do so. Some Sikh Canadians have defended the push for an independent “Khalistan” as a peaceful movement for greater Sikh autonomy in India.
The fractious relationship came to a head last fall when Trudeau said publicly that Canadian authorities have been “actively pursuing credible allegations of a potential link” between agents working for the Indian government and the murder of Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar outside his Surrey, B.C. gurdwara in June 2023.
India rejected Trudeau’s claim as “absurd” and accused Canadians of interfering in “internal matters.” Both countries subsequently kicked out each other’s diplomats.
On Friday, Canadian police arrested members of a hit squad alleged to have carried out the Nijjar killing. Investigators have said they believe the alleged assassins were retained by the Indian government.
Speaking to Punjabi media in Canada on the Sunday before those arrests, Trudeau said the Nijjar investigation will reveal some “very, very clear things that everyone around the world — including in India — will see as to the responsibilities and involvement.”
Here is a timeline of some of the events that have complicated Canada’s bilateral relationship with India, the world’s largest democracy.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau comes in for criticism after a troubled trip to India — a week-long visit meant to bolster relations with the world’s largest democracy.
Trudeau had intended to use the trip to smooth over long-simmering tensions about support for Sikh separatism in the Canadian diaspora, and to bolster Canada’s relatively weak trading relationship with India.
But the visit gets derailed when news emerges that Jaspal Atwal, a B.C. man convicted of attempting to murder an Indian politician in Canada, was invited by a Liberal MP to two functions attended by Trudeau.
The invitation, while not sanctioned by Trudeau, is a diplomatic embarrassment.
Justin Trudeau has been in damage control mode on his India trip following the revelation that a man convicted of attempting to kill a politician was invited to an event with the Canadian prime minister. Jaspal Atwal, a former member of a Sikh extremist group who was convicted in 1986 for the attempted assassination of an Indian politician, was also photographed with Sophie Gregoire-Trudeau. It’s just the latest bit of controversy on a trip that’s already been heavily criticized for a lack of purpose by pundits and Trudeau’s opponents
Trudeau and his family are also mocked for wearing traditional Indian garb during the visit, which attracts negative scrutiny at home and abroad.
Trudeau’s national security adviser accuses India of being one of the top sources of foreign interference in Canada, a public designation Ottawa had largely limited to authoritarian states up to that point.
In early June, India’s foreign minister, S. Jaishankar, criticizes Canada for allowing a float in a parade depicting the 1984 assassination of then-Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her bodyguards. India sees the float as an effort to glorify violence by Sikh separatists.
Two weeks later, on the evening of June 18, Sikh community leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar is shot dead outside his gurdwara in Surrey, B.C. Congregants immediately call his killing a politically motivated attack.
Members of B.C.’s Sikh community say gurdwara president Hardeep Singh Nijjar was targeted by gunmen in the temple’s parking lot.
Nijjar’s death leads to heated protests against Indian officials throughout the summer.
The group Sikhs for Justice calls for people to “besiege” Indian consulates and offers cash rewards for the home addresses of Indian diplomats.
In an unexpected move, Canada pauses talks on a proposed trade treaty with India. International Trade Minister Mary Ng also postpones a mission to India, planned for October.
There is visible tension in New Delhi between Trudeau and Modi during the G20 leaders’ summit.
A week later, on Sept. 18, Trudeau reveals that Canadian intelligence agencies are “pursuing credible allegations of a potential link” between India’s government and Nijjar’s death.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Canada is not looking to ‘provoke or escalate’ after he said in the House of Commons there were credible allegations linking India to the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Canadian who backed the creation of a Sikh homeland in India.
India subsequently restricts visas for Canadians ahead of the country’s wedding season. It ultimately restores visa access in November.
New Delhi says it had concerns about the safety of its diplomats in Canada, despite Indian High Commissioner Sanjay Kumar Verma saying weeks before that he had no such concerns.
India brands Canada a “safe haven for terrorists, extremists” and “anti-India activities.”
Sources tell CBC News the Canadian government had amassed both human and signals intelligence, including communications involving Indian officials and Indian diplomats present in Canada, as part of the investigation into Nijjar’s killing. Some of the intelligence was provided by an unnamed ally in the Five Eyes intelligence alliance, according to the sources.
India cancels diplomatic immunity for 41 Canadian diplomats, along with security protection for their relatives.
That effectively forces two-thirds of Canada’s diplomats in the country to go home.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the government of India’s move to revoke diplomatic immunity from dozens of Canadian staff posted there is a violation of international law and something countries all over the world should be worried about.
Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly decries the move but pledges to hold further conversations with India in private.
A New York court unseals an indictment alleging a foiled murder-for-hire plot led by an Indian diplomat against a Sikh separatist earlier that year.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi says he will ‘look into any evidence’ that his country planned the assassination of perceived enemies on Canadian and American soil — his first remarks on the matter since Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau brought them out publicly in August.
American officials allege the organizers behind the plot were pondering three other assassinations in Canada, including that of Nijjar.
The independent inquiry into foreign interference in Canadian affairs asks Ottawa to share information about possible meddling by India in elections.
New Delhi rejects the suggestion it is behind any such acts and repeats its longstanding view that Canada allows Sikh separatists to intervene in its affairs.
Bloomberg reports that the Indian government gave the U.S. a report which acknowledges that Indian agents were involved in the U.S. murder plot, but claims they were rogue operatives.
Exclusive security video obtained by CBC’s The Fifth Estate reveals the elements of the highly co-ordinated attack that ended with the killing of Nijjar.
The Fifth Estate shows how the killing of a Sikh Canadian activist was carried out, allegedly by agents of the government of India.
CBC News reports that Canadian police have arrested members of an alleged hit squad investigators believe was tasked by the government of India with killing Nijjar.
