Canada no longer linking Indian government to violent crimes – media

Ottawa is no longer linking the Indian government to violent crimes, according to a media report from a press briefing which was held ahead of Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s trip to Mumbai and New Delhi.

Carney is slated to arrive in India on his first official visit on February 27 and will be there until March 2.

This reflects a major shift in the Canadian government’s perspective, the Toronto Star reported.

“We have a very robust diplomatic engagement, including between national security advisers, and I think we can say we’re confident that that activity is not continuing,” the report quoted a senior official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, as saying.

“I really don’t think we’d be taking this trip if we thought these kinds of activities were continuing,” the official said, according to the paper.

Relations between India and Canada deteriorated after the G20 Summit in New Delhi in 2023.

During a meeting with then-Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on the sidelines of the event, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi raised concerns about the activities of alleged anti-India extremist groups in Canada.

The relationship reached a low in October 2024, when Ottawa alleged that Indian diplomats were involved in the targeting of Sikh activists in Canada, resulting in a tit-for-tat expulsion of diplomatic staff. India has repeatedly rejected the charges.

During Modi’s talks with Carney on the margins of the G7 Summit in Canada last June, the leaders decided to reset ties. New Delhi and Ottawa have since agreed to mutually increase staff numbers at their respective diplomatic missions.

A small number of Sikh extremists in Canada continue to use the country as a base for funding political violence in India, the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service said last June. These groups are fighting to carve out a country named Khalistan from the Indian state of Punjab.