Trudeau Levels Hollow Allegations After India's Firm Rebuke to Canada as Diplomatic Row Escalates

New Delhi: Diplomatic tensions between India and Canada have intensified again after India responded to Canada's disgraceful remark on the High Commissioner who the latter called a ‘person of interest’. Stepping up for the nation, India in a major step, expelled six Canadian diplomats and asked them to leave the country; in a tit-for-tat move, Canada also expelled six Indian envoys and Trudeau has now made an attempt to justify this move.

Trudeau Attempts to ‘Justify Tit-for-Tat Move’ of Expelling Envoys

Terming his official statement as ‘Statement by the Prime Minister on the ongoing investigation on violent criminal activity linked to the Government of India’, Justin Trudeau has made blasphemous claims about Indian diplomats and has yet again called them ‘persons of interest in criminal activities’. Trudeau has said, “As the Commissioner of the RCMP, Mike Duheme, stated earlier today, the RCMP has clear and compelling evidence that agents of the Government of India have engaged in, and continue to engage in, activities that pose a significant threat to public safety. This includes clandestine information gathering techniques, coercive behaviour targeting South Asian Canadians, and involvement in over a dozen threatening and violent acts, including murder. This is unacceptable.”

He further said, “While attempts have been made by the RCMP and national security officials to work with the Government of India and Indian law enforcement counterparts on this matter, they have been repeatedly refused. That is why, this weekend, Canadian officials took an extraordinary step. They met with Indian officials to share RCMP evidence, which concluded six agents of the Government of India are persons of interest in criminal activities. And despite repeated requests to the Government of India, they have decided not to co-operate. Given that the Government of India still refuses to co-operate, my colleague, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mélanie Joly, had only one choice."

“Today, she issued a deportation notice for these six individuals. They must leave Canada. They will no longer be able to act as diplomats in Canada, nor to re-enter Canada, for whatever reason. Let me be clear: the evidence brought to light by the RCMP cannot be ignored. It leads to one conclusion: it is necessary to disrupt the criminal activities that continue to pose a threat to public safety in Canada. That is why we acted. Because we will always – first and foremost – stand for the right of Canadians to feel safe and secure in their own country. We will never tolerate the involvement of a foreign government in threatening and killing Canadian citizens on Canadian soil – a deeply unacceptable violation of Canada’s sovereignty and of international law", the statement added.

‘India and Canada Have A Long-Storied History But…’

Mentioning India and Canada's long-storied history, Trudeau has said in the statement, “Canada will always defend the rule of law and the fundamental principles on which free and democratic societies are based. We urge the Government of India to do the same. I know the events of the past year and today’s revelations have shaken many Canadians, particularly those in Indo-Canadian and Sikh communities. Many of you are angry, upset, and frightened. I get that. This shouldn’t happen. Canada and India have a long and storied history rooted in strong people-to-people ties and business investments, but we cannot abide by what we are seeing right now. Canada fully respects the sovereignty and territorial integrity of India, and we expect India to do the same for us.”

‘India Was Possibly if not Probably Behind Nijjar’s Killing'

Accusing India of being ‘possibly involved in the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar', Justin Trudeau has said in another press interaction, “This is not a choice that Canada made to create a chill in Canada-India relations. India is an important democracy is a country with which we have deep historical people-to-people business ties at a time where the instability around geopolitics means democracies have to stick together. That is why when we started to understand through intelligence agencies that India was possibly if not probably, behind (Hardeep Singh) Nijjar's killing, the killing of a Canadian on Canadian soil last summer, our first choice to the government of India to say, we know this has happened, work with us to fix this. We don't want to be having this fight, but obviously the killing of a Canadian on Canadian soil is not something that we can ignore as a country. So every step of the way we have apprised India of what we know.”

‘I’ve Spoken Directly with Prime Minister Modi…'

The Canadian PM has further said, “I've spoken directly with Prime Minister Modi. We have engaged with intelligence counterparts, and unfortunately, every step of the way, both after I made the statement in the House of Commons last September and till now, the response of the Indian government has been to deny, to obfuscate, to attack me personally and the integrity of the government of Canada and its officials and its police agencies. We have simply said we're going to allow our agencies to do the work, particularly to move from intelligence collection from agencies to police investigations that result in arrests, trials and consequences within a rigorous robust and independent judicial system. That has been our approach every step of the way.”