The dust appears to be settling on the initial stage of the diplomatic dispute between Canada and India, as both sides regroup and mull next steps after a week of charged statements, reactions, and media coverage.
In an interview with CTV that aired on Sunday, India’s expelled high commissioner, Sanjay Verma, said that, despite “emotions on both sides,” the bilateral trade relationship, people-to-people ties, and co-operation on education, science, and technology “have got nothing to do with it.”
Canada’s most recent high commissioner to India, Cameron MacKay, spoke along similar lines, telling CBC that “it’s going to take a very long time to dig out of this,” but that “both governments would do well to try to minimize the damage” that the dispute could cause to people-to-people and private-sector links.
India’s external affairs minister, S. Jaishankar, bucked this trend on Monday, criticizing Ottawa’s approach and suggesting that Canada has “double standards” in its dealings with New Delhi. He accused Canadian diplomats in India of “going around collecting information on our military, on our police, profiling people.”
Jaishankar has long argued that Canadian free speech laws excuse what he labels “separatist, terrorist, extremist activities,” understood to mean elements of the Khalistan independence movement.
On Monday, Jaishankar said that the U.S., in contrast, is “not problematic” for India. He said previously that “the U.S. [takes] a much firmer position on misuse of freedoms than we have seen Canada take.”
Indictment links Indian official to murder plot
Last week, an indictment unsealed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York accused an Indian government employee of directing a murder-for-hire plot against Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a dual Canadian-American citizen and high-profile Sikh activist.
Vikash Yadav, an ex-Indian intelligence officer, is accused of directing the plot with help from individuals in India and abroad, including Nikhil Gupta, who allegedly paid a ‘hitman’ — later revealed to be an undercover U.S. agent — to kill Pannun in New York City.
Investigators allege that two days after the death of Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar in June 2023, Yadav sent Gupta an article about Pannun, saying: “It’s a priority now.”
The trial of the four Indian nationals accused of killing Nijjar resumes on November 21.
