Carney defends decision to restore diplomacy with India, calls it ‘foundational’

OTTAWA – Reinstating key diplomats in Canada and India is a “foundational” step toward restoring the relationship between the two countries, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Thursday.

But Carney still refused to say whether he raised the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in his meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Alberta on Tuesday.

Several Sikh organizations, including Sikhs for Justice, have called on the prime minister to be more transparent about what India is doing to co-operate with police investigations here, including the probe into the 2023 murder of Nijjar, a Sikh separatist activist.

“I never make it a policy to give a line-by-line transcript readout of exactly what’s said in a meeting, and I’m not about to start now,” Carney told a press conference on Parliament Hill.

Carney said he did talk about transnational repression with Modi and Canada has made it “very clear” that it won’t be tolerated from any source.

The prime minister also would not say what India has done since Canada expelled six top Indian diplomats in October in response to allegations that agents of India or their proxies engaged in violent crimes against Canadians, including murder, extortion and coercion.

India also expelled six Canadian diplomats in October. Carney and Modi agreed in their meeting to appoint new high commissioners.

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service identified India as one of the main drivers of foreign interference in its annual report, released publicly on Wednesday.

Former prime minister Justin Trudeau and the RCMP have linked agents of the Indian government to Nijjar’s murder.

Former NDP leader Jagmeet Singh received a “duty to warn” from the RCMP in December 2023 about an imminent threat to his life. According to a recent Global News report, Singh was being followed by agents of the Indian government at the time.

Carney said Thursday that exchanging high commissioners is a “basic, first step” in having a relationship with India.

“There are very deep ongoing ties, people-to-people, certainly of Indo-Canadians but Canadians as a whole with India. We don’t have a high commissioner in India right now. We’re not serving Canadians in India right now because of where we are,” he said.

“So just having a basic level of engagement is in many respects a duty of the government. I’m glad we came to that agreement and understanding.”

Carney said this “understanding” is based on several factors, including law enforcement co-operation.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 19, 2025.