TORONTO — Canada expelled a top Indian diplomat Monday as it investigates what Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called credible allegations that India’s government may have had links to the assassination in Canada of a Sikh activist.
Trudeau said in Parliament that Canadian intelligence agencies have been investigating the allegations after Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a strong supporter of an independent Sikh homeland known as Khalistan, was gunned down June 18 outside a Sikh cultural center in Surrey, British Columbia.
Trudeau told Parliament that he brought up the slaying with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the G-20 last week. He said he told Modi that any Indian government involvement would be unacceptable and that he asked for cooperation in the investigation.
Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau delivers a statement Monday in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Ontario.
Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly said the head of Indian intelligence in Canada has been expelled as a consequence.
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“If proven true this would be a great violation of our sovereignty and of the most basic rule of how countries deal with each other,” Joly said. “As a consequence we have expelled a top Indian diplomat.”
The Indian Embassy in Ottawa did not immediately answer phone calls seeking comment.
Canada has a Sikh population of more than 770,000, or about 2% of its total population.
“Over the past number of weeks Canadian security agencies have been actively pursuing credible allegations of a potential link between agents of the government of India and the killing of a Canadian citizen, Hardeep Singh Nijjar,” Trudeau said.
Trudeau said Canada has declared its deep concerns to the Indian government. “Any involvement of a foreign government in the killing of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil is an unacceptable violation of our sovereignty.”
Trudeau said his government has been working closely and coordinating with Canada’s allies on the case.
“In the strongest possible terms I continue to urge the government of India to cooperate with Canada to get to the bottom of this matter,” he said.
Trudeau said he knows there are some members of the Indo-Canadian community who feel angry or frightened, and he called for calm.
Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc said Canada’s national security adviser and the head of Canada’s spy service have travelled to India to meet their counterparts and to confront the Indian intelligence agencies with the allegations.
He called it an active homicide investigation led by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
Joly said Trudeau also raised the matter with U.S. President Joe Biden and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
Joly also said she would raise the issue with her peers in the G7 on Monday evening in New York City ahead of the United Nations General Assembly
Relations between Canada and India have been tense. Trade talks have been derailed and Canada just canceled a trade mission to India that was planned for the fall.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi welcomes Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau upon his arrival Sept. 9 at Bharat Mandapam convention center for the G20 Summit, in New Delhi, India.
Opposition Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre said if the allegations are true they represent ”an outrageous affront to our sovereignty.”
“Canadians deserve to be protected on Canadian soil. We call on the Indian government to act with utmost transparency as authorities investigate this murder, because the truth must come out,” Poilievre said.
Opposition New Democrat leader Jagmeet Singh, who is himself Sikh, called it outrageous and shocking. Singh said he grew up hearing stories that challenging India’s record on human rights might prevent you from getting a visa to travel there.
“But to hear the prime minister of Canada corroborate a potential link between a murder of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil by a foreign government is something I could never have imagined,” Singh said.
The Khalistan movement is banned in India, where officials see it and affiliated groups as a national security threat. But the movement still has some support in northern India, as well as beyond, in countries like Canada and the United Kingdom which are home to a sizable Sikh diaspora.
The World Sikh Organization of Canada called Nijjar an outspoken supporter of Khalistan who “often led peaceful protests against the violation of human rights actively taking place in India and in support of Khalistan.”
“Nijjar had publicly spoken of the threat to his life for months and said that he was targeted by Indian intelligence agencies,” the statement said.
This morning’s top headlines: Iran-US prisoner swap; Russell Brand allegations; NFL scores and highlights
Iran-US prisoner swap; Russell Brand allegations; NFL scores and highlights; and more top news this morning:
Americans held for years in Iranian custody walked arm-in-arm off a plane into freedom. Monday’s release was part of a painstakingly negotiated deal between the United States and Iran. The U.S.-Iran prisoner swap saw the Biden administration agree to the release of nearly $6 billion in frozen Iranian assets owed by South Korea. Despite the release, tensions remain high between the U.S. and Iran over Tehran’s nuclear program and other matters. Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi suggests the deal could be used to build trust with the U.S. But the exchange has unfolded during ongoing disputes between the two rivals and an American military buildup in the Persian Gulf.
Former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark was acting within the scope of his official duties when he wrote a letter expressing concern about alleged concerns with the 2020 election in Georgia, his lawyer said as he sought to move charges against Clark to federal court. Clark is charged along with former President Donald Trump and 17 others, accused of participating in a wide-ranging scheme to overturn Democrat Joe Biden’s presidential election victory. All 19 defendants have pleaded not guilty. The judge who presided over the Monday hearing on Clark’s attempt to move his case to federal court from Fulton County Superior Court earlier this month rejected a similar effort from Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.
For two years, it was the coronavirus pandemic. Then, it was Russia’s war in Ukraine. Throughout it all, the perils of climate change, poverty and inequality have steadily, increasingly thrummed through each convening of world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly. As the 78th session opens this week, there’s no one clear crisis set to dominate the General Debate, as none of them have been resolved. The high-level meeting will be set against the backdrop of many challenges. Among them are ongoing war, new political crises in West Africa and Latin America, ripples from the pandemic, economic instability, widening inequality and fresh natural disasters in the forms of devastating earthquakes, floods and fires.
British police say they received a sexual assault allegation after media outlets published claims against comedian Russell Brand. Promoters have scrapped the remaining dates in a string of live gigs by Brand after the allegations, which he denies. Four women told a Channel 4 television documentary and The Times and Sunday Times newspapers that Brand assaulted them. London’s Metropolitan Police force said that after the allegations were published it had received “a report of a sexual assault which was alleged to have taken place in Soho in central London in 2003.” That is three years before the earliest of the alleged assaults reported by the media outlets. Brand denies all the claims, saying his relationships were “always consensual.”
Authorities are asking for the public’s help and offering a $250,000 reward as investigators search for the assailant who shot and killed a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy as he sat in his patrol car at an intersection. Deputy Ryan Clinkunbroomer, 30, died Saturday at a hospital. Sheriff Robert Luna says Sunday that detectives are searching for a “vehicle of interest” that pulled next to the deputy’s car moments before the shooting. Luna says he believes the shooting was a “targeted attack,” but the motive is not yet known.
A trial is underway for three Tacoma, Washington, police officers charged in the death of a 33-year-old Black man who was tackled, punched, shocked with a stun gun and held face down on a sidewalk in March 2020. Jury selection started Monday in the death of Manuel Ellis, who was known as Manny. Officers Christopher Burbank and Matthew Collins were charged with second-degree murder, and Timothy Rankine with first-degree manslaughter. They have pleaded not guilty. Witnesses say the officers used a stun gun, chokehold, handcuffs, a hobble and a spit hood. Ellis could be heard on a security camera saying, “Can’t breathe, sir.”
Atlantic storm Lee made landfall at near-hurricane strength, bringing destructive winds, rough surf and torrential rains to New England and Maritime Canada. It kept weakening Sunday after officials withdrew warnings for the region and predicted the storm would dissipate on Tuesday. The U.S. National Hurricane Center reported early Sunday that the post-tropical cyclone was about 135 miles west of Channel-Port Aux Basques, Newfoundland. The center has discontinued a tropical storm warning for the coast of Maine and reports that tropical storm warnings for Canada also have been discontinued.
Jann Wenner, a founder of both Rolling Stone magazine and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, has been removed from the hall’s board of directors after making disparaging comments toward Black and female musicians. The move came a day after Wenner’s comments were published in a New York Times interview. Late Saturday, Wenner apologized for “badly chosen words.” Wenner created a firestorm doing publicity for his new book “The Masters,” when he said Joni Mitchell “was not a philosopher of rock ’n’ roll” and that Marvin Gaye and Curtis Mayfield ”just didn’t articulate at that level” of genius.
“The Nun 2” and “A Haunting in Venice” virtually tied for the No. 1 spot in U.S. and Canadian theaters over the weekend, with a slight edge carrying the horror sequel over the Hercule Poirot mystery. That is according to studio estimates Sunday. In its second weekend of release, Warner Bros.′ “The Nun 2” grossed $14.7 million. If numbers hold, that will give “The Nun 2” the top spot at the box office for the second straight week. Very close behind was “A Haunting in Venice,” Kenneth Branagh’s third Agatha Christie adaptation following 2017’s “Murder on the Orient Express” and 2022’s “Death on the Nile.” It opened with $14.5 million. Final box-office figures will be released Monday.
Patrick Mahomes threw two touchdown passes, including one to returning star Travis Kelce, and the Kansas City Chiefs overcame three early turnovers to beat Jacksonville 17-9 on Sunday for their third victory against the Jaguars in 10 months. In Denver, Sam Howell threw for two touchdowns and Washington rallied from an 18-point deficit to beat the Broncos, holding on after Russell Wilson connected with Brandon Johnson on a 50-yard Hail Mary but failed to complete the tying 2-point try. A roundup of Sunday’s NFL action.
No. 13 Alabama is out of the top 10 of The Associated Press college football poll for the first time in eight years and Georgia remains No. 1. The Bulldogs received 57 first-place votes in the AP Top 25. Michigan held at No. 2 with two first-place votes. No. 3 Texas flipped spots with No. 4 Florida State. The Longhorns received three first-place votes and the Seminoles got one. After scraping by South Florida on Saturday, Alabama saw its streak of consecutive AP poll appearances ranked in the top 10 snapped at 128.