Allegations of foreign-led killings on Canadian soil

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 17/10/2024 (406 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The allegations are alarming: that Indian government officials co-ordinated attacks on Canadians in Canada, using members of Indian criminal gangs as their proxies.

The simple issue, beyond all the politics and gamesmanship, was spelled out on Monday by the RCMP.

The police feel they have gathered enough credible evidence to ask the Indian government for permission to interview six Indian diplomats and consular officials about their complicity in attacks on Canadian citizens in Canada — including extortion, harassment, threats, coercion and even killings, including the killing of Sukhdool Singh Gill, who was shot to death in Winnipeg on Sept. 20, 2023. The police also allege that Indian consular staff, including India’s high commissioner to Canada, were linked to the murder of the Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey, B.C., in June 2023

The RCMP released the information because an upcoming trial was likely to make details of the allegations public, and backroom meetings with Indian officials to obtain co-operation had been rebuffed.

The Indian government refused to co-operate in the investigation, and expelled Canadian diplomats after Canada expelled the six consular officials — including India’s High Commissioner to Canada.

This latest round of concerns, coupled with already-released information about India’s involvement in trying to influence the direction of Canadian politics — including efforts to help a particular candidate in a Conservative leadership convention — should be more than enough for Canadians to be asking about the extent of Indian political interference.

As RCMP Assistant Commissioner Brigitte Gauvin put it at Monday’s news conference, “It is extremely concerning … Indian diplomats and consular officials are here to protect the interests of their nationals that are based in Canada and their country’s national interest — and not to be part of criminal activity or intimidation or coercion of these individuals. … That is without a doubt a contravention of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations but also it goes against Canada’s values as a society.”

It’s serious enough that both the government of the United States and the government of Britain saying the Indian government should co-operate with the Canadian investigation, with the British saying, “We are in contact with our Canadian partners about the serious developments outlined in the independent investigations in Canada. The U.K. has full confidence in Canada’s judicial system. … The government of India’s co-operation with Canada’s legal process is the right next step.”

It is the right next step, and one that the Indian government should have taken the moment their representatives were fully briefed on the RCMP’s concerns.

This issue requires nothing less: one sovereign country taking part in extrajudicial actions, including killings, in another sovereign nation is not common practice, nor should it be.

Canadians have a reputation of being too polite. In this case, being polite should not be on the table. A complete and thorough investigation should be.

And while we’re discussing what should and shouldn’t happen, there’s something else that also should not be on the table.

To be absolutely clear, this is such a serious concern that no Canadian federal party should stoop so low as to try and use it as a political football to gain points in the federal arena.

All parties on all sides of the House of Commons should be united on wanting to discover as much as possible about any possibility of a foreign nation clandestinely using criminal gangs to attack Canada and Canadians.

And those same politicians should be completely united in saying that any such behaviour by a foreign nation is both unacceptable and reprehensible.