Although across the world from each other, India and Canada, are in the midst of a peaceful conflict. Both counties had a stable relationship and growing trade beforehand, so what happened seemingly overnight to spark this situation?
It started September 18 of 2023, when the Canadian Prime minister Justin Trudeau claimed that he had credible information connecting India and the assassination of a Canadian Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijar. Nijar was an outspoken supporter of a separatist Sikh state called Khalistan that would include lands in India. India is very opposed to Khalistan as the movement is completely banned in India and is considered a national security threat. Trudeau said in the Canadian House of Commons that “Any involvement of a foreign government in the killing of a Canadian citizen … is an unacceptable violation of our sovereignty.” He also said that he wasn’t trying to “provoke” or “escalate” the situation, but he was only “laying out the facts.”
India, however, denied the allegations with its foreign ministry saying in a statement, “We reject any attempts to connect Government of India to such developments” also are calling Canada’s claims “absurd and motivated.”They then accused Canada of harboring terrorists and claimed that Canada’s inaction towards extremists had been a “long-standing” concern. India also started denying all visas to Canadian citizens blaming security threats.
After making the claims, Canada expelled a senior Indian diplomat from the country, which was a “consequence” according to Canada’s foreign affairs minister. India soon followed by expelling a senior Canadian diplomat. Both diplomats were important to their countries’ intelligence.
Hardeep Singh Nijar’s death was shocking to his fellow Sikh community members. Nijar was gunned down outside of a community center this june. Canadian police have not yet made any arrests, however, they have been questioning three suspects. Canada has the highest number of Sikhs outside of India, with around 770,00 people practicing Sikhism in the county.
Tensions recently escalated even further when India told Canada it needed 41 Canadian diplomats and their families living in India to leave the country before October 20 and threatened to have their diplomatic immunities revoked if Canada did not comply. This cuts the amount of diplomats Canada had in India by about two thirds. This hurts Canada because India has been Canada’s largest source of new migrants.
As it stands, it’s hard to see India and Canada returning back to normal soon. However, Canada is one of India’s top investors both diplomatically and economically. Additionally, Canada is home to a large Indian population. The two countries have a salvageable relationship that can only be fixed with time.
