New Delhi: Initially, the Canadian police did treat the matter of Nijjar’s killing as a gangland war, and there, the matter should have rested.
Surrey, a sprawling suburban sanctuary in British Columbia, Canada, known for its family neighbourhoods and tree-lined streets, harbours more than just quiet living. It’s also the heart of a vibrant Sikh community and home to some of the most prominent gurdwaras in North America. Among these stands the Guru Nanak Sikh gurdwara, a beacon of faith for over 150,000 Sikhs—about 12% of the city’s 1.2 million residents. Founded in 1970, this gurdwara, nestled along Scott Road between 70th and 72nd Avenue, is steeped in history. But on the evening of 18 June 2023, its legacy would be marked by an event that would shake India-Canada relations to their core.
Outwardly, the day unfolded with the usual suburban tranquillity. A warm breeze drifted lazily through the streets, a football game played out nearby, and traffic on Scott Road moved unhurriedly. But a storm was about to break inside the gurdwara’s parking lot, where Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a 45-year-old Khalistani activist, who was also the head of the gurdwara, sat behind the wheel of his grey pickup truck. Seemingly from nowhere, two hooded gunmen suddenly appeared by his side and opened fire, the bullets shattering the glass and piercing Nijjar’s body. The gunmen fled in a waiting car, leaving Nijjar’s lifeless form slumped in the driver’s seat. But the embers lit on that fateful day were to transcend the confines of what was a gangland killing and create ripples that would ignite tensions across continents and rupture relations between India and Canada.
Who was Nijjar? Born in 1977 in Punjab, Nijjar moved to Canada in 1997 to work as a plumber. He was initially associated with the Babbar Khalsa International (BKI), a Sikh separatist organisation which the National Investigation Agency has listed as a terrorist group, believed to be funded by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). He later became the chief of the Khalistan Tiger Force (KTF), a militant outfit of the Khalistani movement, which the Indian government designated as a terror organisation in February 2023. He was wanted in India for his role in the 2007 cinema bombing in Punjab that killed six people and injured 40 and the 2009 assassination of Rulda Singh Kharoud, a politician and president of Rashtriya Sikh Sangat. Nijjar’s name was also on the list of wanted people that former Punjab Chief Minister, Captain Amarinder Singh, handed over to Prime Minister Trudeau during the latter’s visit to India in 2018. In 2020, the Indian government declared Nijjar a terrorist for his involvement in operationalising, networking, training and financing terrorist activities. In July 2022, he was named as an accused in a chargesheet filed by the NIA related to the murder of a Hindu priest, Kamaldeep Sharma. He was on Delhi’s list of “most wanted” terrorists, with the NIA offering a reward of Rs 10 lakh for information that led to his capture.
With such a track record, why was Nijjar granted Canadian citizenship in 2007? He should rightly have been deported in 1997 for using fraudulent documents to claim asylum in Canada. Commenting on the issue, Maxime Bernier, the founder and leader of the People’s Party of Canada (PPC), criticised the handling of the entire Nijjar episode in his social media post. Nijjar should have been deported after his first fake asylum claim, he said, adding that Canada should, perhaps posthumously, take away his citizenship to correct this administrative error. «This is happening», he said, «because Canada has for decades deliberately invited these foreigners and their tribal conflicts into our country. We should recognise this major blunder and work with the government of India to find solutions instead of jeopardising our relations with a rising world power and an important ally over this issue.»
Initially, the Canadian police did treat the matter of Nijjar’s killing as a gangland war, and there, the matter should have rested. However, pressure from the local Sikh community forced the Canadian Premier to change his stance, as he desperately needed their support to stay in power.
This was confirmed by Mr Trudeau’s testimony before the Foreign Interference Commission on 16 October 2024—a public inquiry into the allegations of foreign involvement in the country’s federal elections—where he stated that it was due to the insistence of some members of the South Asia community (an apparent reference to a section of the Sikh community) that they started to look into the killing being connected with the Government of India. Surprisingly, without a shred of evidence and based solely on hearsay, Mr Trudeau went public with his charge that there was «potential» involvement of Indian agents in the killing of Nijjar.
In September last year, Justin Trudeau took up the matter with Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the G20 meeting in New Delhi but failed to provide credible evidence. On his return to Canada, on 19 September 2023, Ottawa expelled an Indian diplomat and simultaneously also announced that the Canadian government was “actively pursuing credible allegations” linking Indian government agents to Nijjar’s murder. India did a tit-for-tat expulsion of a Canadian diplomat, but that was not the end of the matter. Relations between the two countries continued to sour. Recently, another flashpoint was reached when the Canadian Royal Mounted Police (RMPC) named the Indian High Commissioner to Canada and five other diplomats as persons of interest in the ongoing inquiry into the killing of Nijjar. This was a diplomatic insult, and New Delhi promptly withdrew all six envoys from Canada on 14 October. Six top Canadian diplomats, including the acting High Commissioner, were expelled in a tit-for-tat action.
The downturn in India-Canada relations is directly related to Canada’s support to terrorist groups who openly call for the break-up of India through violence. But it also has much to do with Canada’s internal politics. Michael Rubin, a former Pentagon official and a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, stated in his interview with ANI that Justin Trudeau’s accusations don’t make sense. «What happened in Surrey», he said, appears to be an organised crime—a case of Sikh-on-Sikh gang violence». He further noted that the US allowed Canada to review their «intelligence chatter», but the Canadian premier mistook it as credible evidence, which it wasn’t. Mr Trudeau hoped the US government would defend him, but that would be the politicisation of intelligence. His suggestion that India is somehow controlling the mafia which organised the killing is merely a conspiracy theory which does not add up. The Canadians seem to stir up these issues whenever Justin Trudeau is in political trouble, he said.
Mr Trudeau’s troubles seem to stem from allegations that the Chinese government interfered in the Canadian elections and gave his party support. That was why the Foreign Interference Commission was constituted, and Mr Trudeau also had to testify. Is the spat with India a sideshow that diverts attention from the China issue? A preliminary report from a public inquiry stated that foreign interference is a «stain» on Canada’s electoral process and undermined the right to a system free from «coercion or covert influence.» The report stated that China «stands out as a main perpetrator» of such interference. Understandably, Canada’s opposition parties find this a convenient stick to beat the incumbent government, especially as elections are due next year.
An MP from Canada also expressed anguish at the downturn in India-Canada ties. In his statement on X, Mr Chandra Arya expressed concern about Khalistani violent extremism, among other threats and that recent revelations and developments are impacting Canada and India’s ability to collaborate on this issue.
The persistence of Canadian Khalistani extremism, he said, is rooted in the political patronage these extremists enjoy.
So, where do we go from here? Canada needs to rethink its strategy as both India and Canada are vibrant democracies and need to work together. In any case, India will no longer be pushed around. It behoves the Canadian government to put a curb on groups that threaten violence against the Indian state.
This can no longer be treated as a case of freedom of expression. The West must also shed some of its myopic ideas on what constitutes freedom of speech and action. It certainly cannot be public pronouncements that call for the dismemberment of India and the blowing up of our passenger aircraft. To Mr Trudeau’s unsubstantiated charges, India was forced to issue a strongly worded rebuttal: “Prime Minister Trudeau’s hostility to India has long been in evidence… It also serves the anti-India separatist agenda that the Trudeau government has constantly pandered to for narrow political gains.”
Or do we wait for the upcoming elections in Canada, scheduled for October 25?