Canadian diplomats are still struggling to understand both the precise motivations and the math behind India’s recent demand for parity with Canada in diplomatic representation — a demand that led to the sudden departure of 41 Canadian diplomats from India at the end of last week.
That two-thirds reduction in Canada’s diplomatic presence in India is just the latest consequence of the steep decline in bilateral relations since Prime Minister Justin Trudeau last month accused agents of India of involvement in the killing of Sikh-Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar said Sunday that India “invoked parity because we had concerns about continuous interference in our affairs by Canadian personnel.”
“We haven’t made much of that public. My sense is over a period of time more stuff will come out and people will understand why we had the kind of discomfort … which we did,” he added.
India presented Canada with a list of the people it wanted out of the country. Canadian officials have not made that list public.
Normally, the staffing complement at the Canadian High Commission in New Delhi includes two Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) officers, a contingent of Canada Border Services Agency officers, representatives of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada and the Department of National Defence, and foreign service and trade officers from Global Affairs Canada.
Not clear where India’s numbers come from
Former and current diplomats contacted by CBC News expressed surprise and dismay at the fact that India did not follow the ordinary procedures for removing unwanted Canadian representatives under the Vienna Convention, which allows a host state to declare foreign representatives “persona non grata.”
Instead, India simply announced that the listed individuals would lose their diplomatic immunity on Friday, October 20.
The experts also agreed that India could have accomplished the same goals without violating the Vienna Convention. Former Canadian ambassador Dennis Horak told CBC News that the differences between ejecting a diplomat under the convention and doing it the way India did amount to “legal hair-splitting.”
Former Canadian ambassador to Saudi Arabia Dennis Horak said India did not need to violate the Vienna Convention. (Sylvia Thomson/CBC)
“It amounts to the same thing basically — you’re being expelled,” he said.
India had demanded that Canada reduce its presence in India to a mere 21 diplomats, in order to match what India says is the number of diplomats it has in Canada.
But no matter how one counts India’s representatives in Canada, they do not add up to 21.
Canada’s decision to leave behind only full-status diplomatic agents, with the highest level of legal immunity, shows that Canadian officials were not willing to risk exposing consular officials with lower levels of immunity to the risk of arrest and official harassment in India.
But a look at India’s presence in Canada shows New Delhi doesn’t share the same concerns about what might happen to its diplomats here.
There are 62 Indian diplomats in Canada. Two of them don’t represent India to the Canadian government but are attached to the International Civil Aviation Organization in Montreal.
That leaves 60 who can really be compared to Canada’s representation in India — not 21.
When ‘parity’ is not parity
The list also includes two Indian military attaches who are accredited as full diplomats in Canada but spend most of their time in Washington (they also have diplomatic status with the U.S. government).
Of the 60 diplomats who represent India in Canada, twenty-five are attached to the High Commission in Ottawa (including the military attaches), 20 work at the Toronto consulate and another 15 are stationed at the consulate in Vancouver.
But of the 60, only 15 have full diplomatic immunity — not 21.
All 15 “diplomatic agents” work at the High Commission in Ottawa. They include the two military attaches who spend most of their time in the U.S. and, of course, High Commissioner Sanjay Kumar Verma and his deputy Chinmoy Naik.
Indian representatives in Canada of all kinds now outnumber the Canadian representatives in India by almost three to one.
Safe at work, not at leisure
While many people are familiar with the Vienna Convention and its protections for diplomats, it’s less widely understood that there are in fact two Vienna Conventions — one on diplomatic relations and one on consular relations, with different levels of immunity from arrest, search, prosecution and imprisonment.
While the blanket immunity in the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations leaves little room for ambiguity, different countries sometimes apply slightly different interpretations of how immunity under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations interacts with national laws.
As a general rule, those who work in consulates — which are focused on safeguarding the interests of their citizens while in a foreign country — can be subject to local laws if they commit a serious offence.
India’s move on diplomats ‘contrary to international law,’ PM says
Featured VideoPrime Minister Justin Trudeau says the government of India’s move to revoke diplomatic immunity from dozens of Canadian staff posted there is a violation of international law and something countries all over the world should be worried about.
One former senior Canadian diplomat who served in New Delhi told CBC News that India interprets the treaty to mean that consular officials are immune from arrest while at work — but not outside of work hours.
In theory, a Canadian consular officer working at the Canadian consulate in Chandigarh, Punjab, is safe while at the consulate but could be arrested while driving home from the office.
It also explains why Canada found it necessary to suspend operations at all three of its functioning consulates in India, in the cities of Mumbai, Chandigarh and Bengaluru.
Different levels of immunity
India’s staff in Canada, in addition to the 15 diplomatic agents in Ottawa, include 21 consular officials, 13 consular employees, 9 administrative/technical staff and two service staff (a category that includes cooks).
The levels of diplomatic immunity vary with the job description.
For example, a consular official is immune from search at airports, but a consular employee is not.
Both have legal immunity, both civil and criminal, only with respect to their exercise of official functions. Diplomatic agents have blanket immunity, unless their government agrees to waive it. Diplomats have in the past used that immunity to escape prosecution for serious crimes in Canada.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, wife, Sophie Gregoire Trudeau and son Xavier take part in a hockey event with Hayley Wickenheiser and the Indian women’s national ice hockey team at the Canadian High Commission of Canada in New Delhi, India on Saturday, Feb. 24, 2018. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)
To arrest a consular officer, Canadian authorities must first obtain a warrant charging a “grave crime” carrying at least a potential five years in prison, and must also show that public safety is at risk. A consular employee, on the other hand, can be arrested and charged for more mundane crimes such as drinking and driving.
Diplomatic agents are immune from search, whether they’re at home, travelling, or at their place of work. A consular officer or employee’s workplace cannot be searched, but his or her home or car can be.
The fact that India, unlike Canada, has chosen to leave in place representatives with lower levels of immunity suggests that it does not share Canada’s concern that its agents may face official harassment or reprisals.
Indian diplomat complained about Sikh protest
S. Jaishankar suggested Sunday that while relations with Canada are going through “a difficult phase,” India could reverse its decision to stop issuing visas to Canadians if Ottawa gives it more assurances about the security of its diplomats.
Members of the government of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi have claimed that Indian diplomats and Hindus in Canada feel physically threatened by the presence of Sikh separatists, sometimes referred to as Khalistanis.
“But I do want to say the problems we have are with a certain segment of Canadian politics and the policies which flow from that,” S. Jaishankar added.
He did not specify what Canada might do to reassure India about its diplomats’ security.
India’s High Commissioner Sanjay Kumar Verma had complained about a Sikh protest in March, during which demonstrators shook the fence outside the embassy. Some Indian media reports, citing unnamed sources in the country’s National Investigation Agency, reported that the protest was actually an attack involving two grenades.
CBC News spoke with the Montreal man named in Indian media as the grenade attacker; he described the allegations as “ridiculous”.
Ottawa police have said smoke bombs may have been set off during the protest, but no grenades were used.
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
