OTTAWA
\nCanada has withdrawn 41 diplomats from India amid a dispute over the murder of a Sikh separatist leader, Foreign Minister Melanie Joly said on Thursday, adding that Ottawa would not take retaliatory steps.
\nNew Delhi last month asked Ottawa to reduce its diplomatic presence after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau cited what he said was credible evidence of a potential link between Indian agents and the murder in June of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, 45, who was shot outside a Sikh temple in British Columbia.
\nJoly said India had threatened to unilaterally revoke the diplomats\u2019 official status by Friday unless they left. This move, she said, was unreasonable and unprecedented and clearly violated the Vienna convention on diplomatic relations.
\n\u201cGiven the implications of India\u2019s actions on the safety of our diplomats, we have facilitated their safe departure from India,\u201d she told a press conference.
\n\u201cIf we allow the norm of diplomatic immunity to be broken, no diplomats anywhere on the planet would be safe. So for this reason, we will not reciprocate,\u201d she said.
\nAround two million Canadians, around 5 per cent of the overall population, have Indian heritage. India is by far Canada\u2019s largest source of global students.<\/p>\n
Canada now has 21 diplomats in India. The 41 who left were accompanied by 42 dependents.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
OTTAWA Canada has withdrawn 41 diplomats from India amid a dispute over the murder of a Sikh separatist leader, Foreign Minister Melanie Joly said on Thursday, adding that Ottawa would not take retaliatory steps. New Delhi last month asked Ottawa to reduce its diplomatic presence after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau cited what he said was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":362922,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-362902","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n