How did a killing at a Sikh temple lead to Canada and India expelling each other's diplomats?

NEW DELHI (AP) — Relations between India and Canada are at a low point as the countries expelled each other's top diplomats over an ongoing dispute about the killing of a Sikh activist in Canada.

Canada said it had identified India’s top diplomat in the country as a person of interest in an assassination plot and expelled him and five other diplomats Monday. India has rejected the accusations as absurd, and its foreign ministry said it was expelling Canada’s acting high commissioner and five other diplomats in response.

It’s the latest in an escalating dispute over the June 2023 killing of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

Nijjar was fatally shot in his pickup truck in June 2023 after he left the Sikh temple he led in the city of Surrey, British Columbia. An Indian-born citizen of Canada, he owned a plumbing business and was a leader in a movement to create an independent Sikh homeland, which is banned in India.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in September 2023 there were credible allegations that India’s government had links to the killing. India denied the allegations at the time but said Nijjar was involved in “terrorism.”

Canada expelled an Indian diplomat over the dispute last year, and in response India expelled a Canadian diplomat and froze consular services for Canadians for nearly two months.

Tensions boiled over again in May, when Canadian police said they had arrested three Indian nationals accused of involvement in Nijjar’s killing and were “investigating if there are any ties to the government of India.” India rejected the allegations, saying Canada had a “political compulsion” to blame India.

Now, Canada says that India's top diplomat in the country is a person of interest in the killing, and that police have uncovered evidence of an intensifying campaign against Canadian citizens by agents of the Indian government.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said it had found evidence of the involvement of Indian agents “in serious criminal activity in Canada," including links “to homicides and violent acts” and interference in Canada's democratic processes, among other things.

Meanwhile, Canada’s foreign minister, Mélanie Joly, tied the Indian officials to Nijjar's assassination and said Canada had gathered “ample, clear and concrete evidence which identified six individuals as persons of interest in the Nijjar case.”

She said India had been asked to waive diplomatic immunity and cooperate in the investigation but refused.

In a statement Monday, India’s foreign ministry said that the Canadian government “has not shared a shred of evidence” with the Indian government, “despite many requests from our side.” The ministry also called the accusations part of “a deliberate strategy of smearing India for political gains.”

Nijjar was a local leader in what remains of a once-strong movement to create an independent Sikh homeland known as Khalistan. The Khalistan movement is banned in India, but has support among the Sikh diaspora, particularly in Canada.

India designated Nijjar a terrorist in 2020, and at the time of his death was seeking his arrest for alleged involvement in an attack on a Hindu priest in India.

New Delhi’s anxieties about Sikh separatist groups in Canada have long been a strain on the relationship, but the two countries have maintained strong defense and trade ties, and share strategic concerns over China’s global ambitions. However, India has increasingly accused Canada of giving free rein to Sikh separatists.

Sikhs make up nearly 2% of Canada's population, and more than a dozen are members of the country's parliament.

People wait outside the Canadian high commission in New Delhi, India, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024 after India and Canada expelled each other’s top diplomats over an ongoing dispute about the killing of a Sikh activist in Canada. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

A cyclist pedals past the Canadian high commission in New Delhi, India, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024 after India and Canada expelled each other’s top diplomats over an ongoing dispute about the killing of a Sikh activist in Canada. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

Policemen guard a road leading to the Canadian high commission in New Delhi, India, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024 after India and Canada expelled each other’s top diplomats over an ongoing dispute about the killing of a Sikh activist in Canada. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

The High Commission of India in Canada is seen in Ottawa, Ontario, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press via AP)

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau listens as Minister of Foreign Affairs Melanie Joly speaks at a news conference on the investigative efforts related to violent criminal activity occurring in Canada with connections to India, on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, on Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press via AP)

FILE -Members of Sikh community hold a protest against the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, in Lahore, Pakistan, Sept. 20, 2023. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary, File)

FILE -People sit on the lawn of the the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara, below a picture of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey, B.C. on Friday, May 3, 2024. (Ethan Cairns/The Canadian Press via AP, File)

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, centre, Minister of Public Safety, Democratic Institutions and Intergovernmental Affairs Dominic LeBlanc, left, and Minister of Foreign Affairs Melanie Joly participate in a news conference on the investigative efforts related to violent criminal activity occurring in Canada with connections to India, on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Ontario, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press via AP)

FILE - Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, left, walks past India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi as they take part in a wreath-laying ceremony at Raj Ghat, Mahatma Gandhi's cremation site, during the G20 Summit in New Delhi, Sept. 10, 2023. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press via AP, File)

LEWISTON, Maine (AP) — Lawyers representing 100 survivors and family members of victims of the deadliest shooting in Maine history have begun the formal process of suing the Army and an Army hospital for failing to act to stop the reservist responsible for the tragedy, attorneys announced Tuesday.

The individual notices of claim say the Army was aware of the reservist's mental health decline that left him paranoid, delusional and expressing homicidal ideations, producing a “hit list” of those he wanted to attack.

“It is difficult to conceive of a case in which Army personnel could have more warning signs and opportunities to intervene to prevent a service member from committing a mass shooting than what happened in the case of Army Reservist Robert Card,” lawyers wrote in their notices mailed Friday.

The notices of claim by four law firms are a required step in suing the federal government. The Army will have six months to determine whether to respond, after which a lawsuit may be filed.

Eighteen people were killed when the 40-year-old Card opened fire at two locations he'd frequented — a bowling alley and a cornhole league hosted by a bar and grill — on Oct. 25, 2023. Another 13 people were injured. Card was found dead two days later from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

An independent commission appointed by Maine's governor concluded that there were ample opportunities to intervene by both civilian law enforcement and the Army. For now, lawyers for victims and family and friends who suffered loss are focusing on the Army, and not a private hospital that treated Card or civilian law enforcement.

The Department of Defense, U.S. Army and Army Keller Hospital “broke its promises, failed to act reasonably, violated its own polices and procedures and disregarded directives and orders,” the claim said.

In September 2023, when Card threatened to “shoot up” an armory and his friend warned of "a mass shooting,” the Army failed to provide critical background about two doctors recommending that Card not have access to weapons when it requested that local law enforcement officers check on his well being. Card's commanding officer even downplayed the threat by undercutting the credibility of the soldier who issued the warning, and by declining to share all information at his disposal, the claims said.

Cynthia Young, whose husband William and 14-year-old son Aaron were killed at the bowling alley, said in a statement that pain and trauma never goes away. “As terrible as the shooting was it’s even more tragic that there were many opportunities to prevent this and they were not taken,” she added.

The filings said there may have been a time when mass shootings were so rare that they couldn’t be predicted but “that has not been true in America for decades.”

“Mass shootings, like what happened in Lewiston, are an epidemic in America. Consequently, those in positions of responsibility and authority are required to appreciate the warning signs and behaviors that telegraph the risk of mass violence, take them seriously, and act to prevent their occurrence," the claims said.

FILE - A man photographs a make-shift memorial at the base of the Lewiston sign at Veteran's Memorial Park, Oct. 29, 2023, in Lewiston, Maine. (AP Photo/Matt York, File)

FILE - A woman visits a makeshift memorial outside Sparetime Bowling Alley, the site of a mass shooting, Oct. 28, 2023, in Lewiston, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, File)

FILE - Rain-soaked memorials for those who died in a mass shooting sit along the roadside by Schemengees Bar & Grille, Oct. 30, 2023, in Lewiston, Maine. (AP Photo/Matt York, File)

FILE - Law enforcement personnel are staged in a school parking lot during a manhunt for Robert Card in the aftermath of a mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine, Oct. 27, 2023. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)

FILE — In this image taken from New York State Police body camera video that was obtained by WMTW-TV 8 in Portland, Maine, New York State Police interview Army reservist Robert Card, the man responsible for Maine's deadliest mass shooting, at Camp Smith, in Cortlandt, N.Y., July 16, 2023. (WMTW-TV 8/New York State Police via AP, File)

FILE - Law enforcement gather outside Schemengee's Bar and Grille, Thursday, Oct. 26, 2023, in Lewiston, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, File)