India has withdrawn the immunity of 41 of the 62 diplomats that Canada has in the Asian country, thus forcing their departure from the country, the Canadian Government reported this Thursday.
Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly stated in a press conference that she is organizing the departure of the 41 diplomats and their families and that the Canadian government will not “take similar retaliation” against India. “Given the implications of India’s actions on the safety of our diplomats, we have facilitated their safe departure from India,” she said at a news conference.
The expulsion of the Canadian diplomats comes after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on September 18 implicated Indian authorities in a possible link between Indian agents and the June murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a leader of the 45-year-old Sikh community, who was shot dead outside a Sikh temple in Vancouver.
India called absurd Trudeau’s suspicions that his agents were linked to the murder of Nijjar, a Canadian citizen whom New Delhi had labeled a “terrorist.”
Consequently, New Delhi asked Ottawa to reduce its diplomatic presence. Joly said this move had threatened to unilaterally revoke the diplomats’ official status on Friday unless they left. This measure “was unreasonable and unprecedented and clearly violated the Vienna convention on diplomatic relations,” the minister commented at a press conference.
