Briefly: Thanksgiving Day bombshell amid B.C.’s election, where Surrey is the battleground. NDP’s David Eby and Conservative John Rustad comment after Canada expels ambassador and five other diplomats. Top RCMP officials offer investigation update.
Bob Mackin
Ten seats are up for grabs in the Oct. 19 British Columbia election in Surrey, where the next government could be decided.
It is also the ultimate epicentre for a diplomatic crisis between Canada and India that erupted on Thanksgiving Day when Canada expelled High Commissioner Sanjay Kumar Verma and five other diplomats.
Indian High Commissioner Sanjay Verma Kumar (second from left) and Vancouver Consul General Manish (second from right) with NDP MLAs Aman Singh, Jagrup Brar, Jinny Sims, Speaker Raj Chouhan, and Harwinder Sandhu with Clerk Kate Ryan-Lloyd on March 2, 2024 in Victoria (X/Indian High Commission)
RCMP Comm. Michael Duheme and Asst. Comm. Brigitte Gauvin held an extraordinary, virtual news conference in Ottawa after news broke that Indian officials in Canada had refused to co-operate in the investigation of the 2023 Surrey assassination of Khalistani separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
Duheme said the RCMP is investigating the role of Indian agents and organized crime targeting the South Asian community and interfering in democratic processes.
“We reached a point where we felt it was imperative to confront the Government of India and inform the public about some very serious findings that have been uncovered through our investigations,” Duheme said.
It is not yet known whether Vancouver Consul General Masakui Rungsung is among those expelled. Rungsung replaced the previous consul general, a four-year veteran known as Manish who left in May to take up a post in Cyprus. Manish and Kumar both visited the B.C. Legislature on March 2 and met with NDP government officials.
Gauvin said RCMP attempts to engage law enforcement partners in India have been unsuccessful and the outcome of a meeting with Indian officials over the weekend “was not what we had hoped.”
“We are open and would like to continue to work with our law enforcement partners in India, and we urge them to take up, take us up on our offer,” Gauvin said.
Premier David Eby took a break from the NDP election campaign to call the “unprecedented allegations… profoundly disturbing to me.”
Eby said he had spoken with Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland and Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc to seek “their assurance that federal agencies will keep working with local law enforcement to address these threats and keep people in B.C. safe.”
John Rustad, leader of the Conservative Party of B.C., called for a full investigation of foreign interference in B.C. because it is a violation of Canada’s sovereignty and a threat to the rights and freedoms of every citizen.
“No Canadian, including members of BC’s Sikh community, should ever fear for their safety or freedom of expression because of foreign interference on Canadian soil,” Rustad said in a statement.
India’s external affairs department issued a statement Oct. 14 that said since September 2023 — when Trudeau implicated the Government of India in the House of Commons — Ottawa has not provided “a shred of evidence.” It accused Trudeau of “currying favour at the vote bank” with Khalistani separatists. Moreover, it accused Trudeau of foreign interference in India, with the help of NDP leader Jagmeet Singh, who is campaigning for the B.C. NDP.
“His government was dependent on a political party, whose leader openly espouses a separatist ideology vis-à-vis India, only ag
A banner in memory of slain pro-Khalistan leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar at the Guru Nanak Sikh temple in Surrey’s Newtown district. (Mackin)
gravated matters,” the statement said.
Nijjar was gunned down June 18, 2023 in the rear parking lot of the Guru Nanak Sikh temple in Surrey’s Newton district. The 45-year-old temple president Nijjar was a prominent leader of the overseas movement to create a separate Sikh state within India, called Khalistan. India considers the Khalistani movement to be terrorist.
Almost a year later, on May 3, RCMP announced murder charges against Indian nationals Karan Brar, Karanpreet Singh and Kamalpreet Singh, who were arrested in the Edmonton area. A fourth man, Amandeep Singh, was already in custody in Ontario and charged May 11.
Gauvin indicated the Nijjar murder investigation is not the only case with national security overtones. A national task force created in response to an extortion spree is investigating both foreign interference by agents of India and Canada-based, Khalistani violent extremists.
“The objective here is Canada’s public safety, and therefore sometimes prosecutions and charges are not the best option,” Gauvin said. “Our objective is to disrupt the networks and to stop the violence in our country.”
Gauvin did not name names or specify cities and provinces, but said approximately eight individuals have been arrested and charged in relation to homicides.
Four of the homicide arrestees would be the quartet facing charges in Surrey. Their lawyers appeared Oct. 1 in Provincial Court and are due to return for another administrative hearing on Nov. 21. A trial date has not been announced.
“In relation to extortions, there’s at least 22 individuals that have been arrested and charged. Some of these have connections to the Government of India,” she said.
Entering the Oct. 19 election campaign, the Eby-led NDP government held a 7-2 edge in the existing Surrey ridings. A 10th riding was created due to population-driven redistribution.
When Eby became premier in December 2022, he replaced George Chow with Surrey-Fleetwood MLA Jagrup Brar as the new provincial minister of state for trade.
The move signalled the NDP government’s support for the Liberal government’s new Indo-Pacific foreign affairs and trade policy.
It was aimed at fostering closer ties with India and Southeast Asian countries while reducing reliance on China.
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