Canada’s foreign minister has warned India’s remaining diplomats in the country to be on “clear notice” not to endanger Canadian lives after New Delhi’s top envoy to Canada was named as a person of interest in the murder of a Sikh activist.

India’s High Commissioner was expelled on Monday along with five other diplomats, prompting Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly to compare India to Russia. She said the Canadian National Police has linked Indian diplomats to killings, death threats and intimidation in Canada.

Joly said Friday that Canada will not tolerate foreign diplomats endangering the lives of Canadians.

“We have never seen that in our history. That level of transnational repression cannot take place on Canadian soil. We’ve seen it elsewhere in Europe. Russia has done that in Germany and Britain and we had to stand firm on this issue,” she said in Montreal.

Asked if other Indian diplomats will be deported, Joly said: “They are clearly aware. Six of them have been deported, including the high commissioner in Ottawa. Others came mainly from Toronto and Vancouver and it is clear that we will not tolerate diplomats who contravene the Vienna Convention.”

Justin Trudeau, Canada’s prime minister, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police went public this week with allegations that Indian diplomats targeted Sikh separatists in Canada by sharing information about them with their government back home. They said top Indian officials then passed that information on to Indian organized crime groups that targeted the activists, who are Canadian citizens, with drive-by shootings, extortions and even murder.

India, in turn, has dismissed the Canadian accusations as absurd, and the Foreign Office said it is expelling Canada’s acting High Commissioner and five other diplomats in response.

Canada is not the only country that has accused Indian officials of plotting an assassination attempt on foreign soil. On Thursday, the US Department of Justice announced criminal charges against an Indian government official in connection with an alleged foiled plot to assassinate a Sikh separatist leader living in New York City.

In the case announced by the Justice Department, Vikash Yadav, who authorities say led the New York plot from India, faces murder-for-hire charges in a planned killing that prosecutors previously said was supposed to precede a series of other politically motivated murders. in the United States and Canada.

US authorities have said the killing of the American Sikh man is believed to have occurred just days after Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Canadian Sikh activist, was shot outside a cultural center in Surrey, British Columbia on June 18, 2023. The goal was to kill at least four people in Canada and the US by June 29, 2023, and more after that.

Nijjar’s murder in Canada has soured ties between India and Canada for more than a year, and despite Canada’s claim that it has forwarded evidence of his allegations to Indian authorities, the Indian government continues to deny having any knowledge of it seen.

India has repeatedly criticized the Canadian government for being soft on supporters of the Sikh separatist Khalistan movement, which is banned in India but enjoys support among the Sikh diaspora, especially in Canada.

Trudeau said Wednesday that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi emphasized to him at a G-20 summit in India last year that he wanted Canada to arrest people who have spoken out against the Indian government. Trudeau said he told Modi he believed the actions fell within freedom of expression in Canada.

Trudeau added that he told Modi his government would work with India on concerns about terrorism, incitement to hatred or anything unacceptable in Canada. But Trudeau also noted that advocating separatism, while not Canadian government policy, is not illegal in Canada.

Nijjar, 45, was fatally shot in his pickup truck last year. He was an Indian-born Canadian citizen, owned a plumbing business and was a leader in what remains of a once-strong movement to create an independent Sikh homeland.

Four Indian nationals living in Canada have been charged with Nijjar’s murder and are awaiting trial.