OTTAWA — Some Canadian Sikhs are calling on the federal government to take a firmer stand on India as Prime Minister Mark Carney prepares to journey there this week on a mission to broaden Canada’s non-U.S. commerce.
B.C. Sikh activist Moninder Singh, who obtained a warning from Vancouver police on Sunday a few credible menace to his life, stated he suspects that menace is linked to the Indian authorities.
Singh stated that is the primary duty-to-warn report he’s obtained from police since 2022. This one is completely different, he added, as a result of it’s the primary warning to be prolonged to his spouse and kids.
“No different Sikh activist, with a dozen plus of us having (obtained police warnings) throughout the nation, has had the household introduced into it,” Singh stated in a cellphone interview with The Canadian Press.
“That was a bit alarming, that underhandedness has reached out to individuals’s households as nicely relating to Indian transnational repression.”
The continued tensions threaten to forged a shadow over Carney’s commerce mission.
Requested Wednesday throughout a pre-trip briefing with reporters if brokers of the Indian authorities are at present concerned in extortion or threats of violence in Canada, a federal official stated Ottawa has a really strong diplomatic engagement with India.
The official, who was talking on background, stated Canada is assured the exercise isn’t persevering with, and stated if it was Canada wouldn’t be having the sorts of dialogue being held.
He stated if Canada believed India was actively interfering in Canada’s democracy, Carney wouldn’t be taking this journey.
At a press convention Wednesday evening, Overseas Affairs Minister Anita Anand stated “no nation will ever have a go when it comes to the home security and safety of Canada.”
She stated the rule of regulation and adherence to the Prison Code are of “utmost significance” to the federal government.
The minister additionally stated there’s an ongoing “regulation enforcement dialogue” going down between India and Canada, which is able to proceed in 2026 and past.
Singh stated he suspects he’s been focused by the Indian authorities resulting from his work on a marketing campaign calling for the creation of a separate Sikh homeland out of Indian territory. He stated different Sikh separatist activists throughout Canada have obtained comparable warnings.
Singh labored with Hardeep Singh Nijjar, whose 2023 homicide in Surrey, B.C., was linked to brokers of the Indian authorities by each then-prime minister Justin Trudeau and the RCMP. Each Singh and Nijjar obtained duty-to-warn notices from police a few 12 months earlier than Nijjar’s homicide, Singh stated.
Inderjeet Gosal, a Khalistan referendum co-ordinator with Sikhs for Justice, stated he has additionally been warned by police about threats to his life.
Sikhs for Justice held a rally on Parliament Hill Wednesday. Gosal described it as an effort to push the federal government to demand accountability and justice for Nijjar’s homicide.
Carney invited Modi to the G7 in Kananaskis, Alta., final 12 months. Each Canada and India reinstalled high diplomats after that assembly.
Canada expelled six high Indian diplomats in October 2024 after the RCMP stated they’d refused to co-operate with a police investigation into allegations that Indian brokers had engaged in violent prison exercise and acts of harassment in Canada.
India expelled six high Canadian diplomats in response.
The aim of Carney’s upcoming journey is to broaden commerce ties with India — a part of his authorities’s work to diversify commerce relations in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s efforts to upend world commerce together with his tariff regime.
Public Security Minister Gary Anandasangaree stated Wednesday the RCMP commissioner and different high safety officers proceed to debate public security and nationwide safety with Indian officers.
The minister added that India’s nationwide safety adviser, Ajit Doval, was in Canada for talks two weeks in the past.
Anandasangaree additionally stated talks with India about safety and public security are largely not taking place on the political stage — an obvious reversal of Ottawa’s method to the problem since September 2023, when Trudeau publicly linked the Indian authorities to Nijjar’s homicide on the ground of the Home of Commons.
“We’ll proceed to have these conversations. A few of them are very tough conversations, however we’re very clear that any points round security and safety might be on the stage of the officers,” Anandasangaree stated.
“They are going to proceed to emphasize the significance, and definitely (India has) shared some irritants that they’ve in Canada, and we are going to work towards collaboration on problems with transnational organized crime … So there’s a dialogue that’s ongoing that may guarantee the security and safety of all Canadians.”
The connection between India and Canada has for many years been hindered by tensions over Sikh separatists in Canada calling for the creation of an impartial nation, to be known as Khalistan, out of Indian territory.
India has lengthy claimed Canada is permitting Sikh extremists to threaten and commit violence in each international locations and that Ottawa hasn’t performed sufficient to forestall a repeat of the 1984 Air India bombing.
Ottawa has lengthy insisted that acts of violence should be prosecuted, however peaceable requires Sikh separatism are protected free speech in Canada. India has claimed that Canada is defending Canadians, Indians and twin nationals who’re responsible of terrorism.
B.C. Liberal MP Sukh Dhaliwal, who represents the using the place Nijjar’s homicide befell, stated Wednesday he has shared his constituents’ considerations about Carney’s journey with the Prime Minister’s Workplace.
“Canadian lives matter and Canadian lives and the rule of regulation takes precedence. That’s what I’m going to say,” Dhaliwal stated on his means into the weekly Liberal caucus assembly.
“We now have to do commerce with different nations, however on the similar time our file on human rights, defending the rule of regulation, Canadian lives and Canadian sovereignty is our obligation.”
Then-NDP chief Jagmeet Singh revealed final spring that he had obtained a warning a few credible menace to his life from the RCMP and was positioned below police safety.
Singh stated that whereas the RCMP didn’t inform him the particular supply of the menace, the implication was that it got here from a overseas authorities.
Gosal stated on the Parliament Hill rally that he and others are able to make their voices heard on the poll field if MPs don’t maintain India accountable.
“We’ll make it possible for we don’t vote for you. We put our votes to somebody that might be our voice,” he stated.
Moninder Singh stated a coalition of Sikh organizations has despatched letters to twenty Sikh MPs and social gathering leaders calling for a public inquiry into Indian transnational repression and “most disclosure” of details about Indian overseas interference.
Singh stated that if these MPs don’t observe by, they received’t be welcome to talk at Sikh occasions or at 40 Gurdwaras between B.C. and Quebec.
Singh stated that he and his household are attempting to go about their regular lives, at the same time as this newest menace hangs over their heads.
“Our children have watched since Hardeep’s assassination the whole lot that’s been taking place round them. In order that they’re understanding, however I feel it does type of change issues — the place you may go, like going to the mall or the films or dinner … for me, that was over years in the past with these obligation warrants. And now now we have to start out that as a household unit as nicely,” he stated.
“So there’s issues that change and it’s on no account the tip of the world, however an obligation to warn of an imminent menace to somebody’s life might be the tip their world in the event that they’re not cautious.”
— With information from Kyle Duggan.