Canada-India tensions: What’s happened and how did we get here?

A diplomatic row between Canada and India is back in the spotlight amid mounting foreign interference concerns and the 2023 killing of a Sikh separatist leader in B.C.

A diplomatic row between Canada and India is back in the spotlight amid mounting foreign interference concerns and continued investigations of the 2023 killing of a Sikh separatist leader in British Columbia.

In tit-for-tat moves, both countries expelled each others’ diplomats on Monday. Ottawa said it was expelling six Indian diplomats and consular officials “in relation to a targeted campaign against Canadian citizens by agents linked to the government of India.”

The government acted “to disrupt the chain of operations that go from Indian diplomats here in Canada to criminal organizations, to direct violent impacts on Canadians right across this country,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said.

Global News has learned agents working out of India’s high commission in Ottawa and consulates in Vancouver and Toronto were behind dozens of violent crimes across Canada that targeted opponents of the Narendra Modi government.

Although on paper they held diplomatic and consular positions, the Indian agents played key roles in a wave of shootings, killings, threats, arsons and extortions in Canada, according to senior sources familiar with the matter.

The victims were mostly supporters of the Khalistan movement, which seeks independence for India’s Sikh-majority Punjab region. But others were simply rivals of the government, the sources said.

The revelations come as Canadian law enforcement continues to probe the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey, B.C., where the killers were allegedly tied to Indian government agents.

Trudeau on Monday reiterated his call to New Delhi to co-operate with Ottawa in the ongoing investigation on criminal activity allegedly linked to the Indian government.