Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly confirmed Thursday that 41 Canadian diplomats have left India after New Delhi threatened to revoke their diplomatic immunity. CBC News reported earlier that a large number of them had departed the country overnight.
The departures followed two weeks of negotiations between India and Canada after India issued a demand for “parity” in the number of diplomats present in the two countries, a source with knowledge of the situation told CBC News.
That demand was part of an angry reaction by the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s allegation last month that Indian agents were involved in the murder of a Canadian citizen, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, in Surrey, B.C. on June 18.
India claimed to have only 21 accredited diplomats in Canada and said that Canada had 62 in India, spread across its High Commission in New Delhi and four consulates in Mumbai, Chandigarh and Bengaluru.
Canada ‘will not reciprocate’ after India revokes diplomats’ immunity: Joly
Featured VideoForeign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly says Canada facilitated the safe departure of 41 diplomats who were at risk of having their diplomatic immunity stripped by India. She also said Canada will not retaliate by threatening India’s diplomats in Canada with the same treatment.
Joly said Canada will have to pause in-person diplomatic services in all the offices except for the one in New Delhi because of the reduced staff complement.
Immigration Minister Marc Miller told reporters that visa application centres will operate normally because they are run by a third-party contractor. He added processing those applications likely will now take more time.
“Clients might see that their applications take longer to process and other questions take longer to answer,” he said.
Government officials speaking to reporters on background said visa processing will be severely affected, noting that immigration officials review applications from India, Nepal and Bhutan. They said the number of Canadian immigration officials in India has been pared down from 27 to five.
Officials said that 45 per cent of Canada’s international students, 27 per cent of new permanent residents and 22 per cent of temporary foreign workers come from India.
New Delhi gave Canada until October 10 to withdraw 41 diplomats to make the two diplomatic contingents equal in size, sources said. If the diplomats remained in the country, India said, they would lose their diplomatic immunity from arrest and prosecution.
Those conversations now appear to have come to an end. Joly said Thursday that India had said it would remove diplomatic immunity from the 41 Canadians and their families by Friday, a date she called “arbitrary.”
“A unilateral revocation of diplomatic privilege and immunities is contrary to international law,” she said. “Threatening to do so is unreasonable and escalatory.”
Canada won’t retaliate, Joly says
Canadian officials have questioned India’s arithmetic, which they say does not give an accurate picture of the respective sizes of the two diplomatic missions.
India’s claim to have only 21 accredited diplomats in Canada appears to conflict with the registry of accredited foreign representatives in Canada, which shows that India has 60 in Canada.
Joly wouldn’t comment on the number of India’s diplomats but said the government doesn’t plan to retaliate by expelling any from Canada because it would put other diplomats at risk.
“Because this is so unprecedented and would put so many countries’ different diplomats around the world in danger, we decided not to reciprocate,” she said.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Melanie Joly responds to a question during a news conference, Thursday, October 19, 2023 in Ottawa. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)
The Indian demand came as a rude surprise for Canada, as it represented a dramatic escalation from the earlier tit-for-tat expulsions.
“I can’t think of another instance … short of breaking diplomatic relations with another country and taking everybody out,” said former Canadian diplomat Gar Pardy. “I can’t think of another incident over the last 40 or 50 years where something like this has happened. Even in our worst days of our relationship with the Soviet Union, usually there were smaller numbers are involved.”
Former Canadian diplomat Jeff Nankivell, president of the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, agreed that the sanction was extraordinary.
“I can’t think of a of a precedent, certainly no precedent in the Canada-India relationship, and to do it on on the scale that is being reported certainly would be a significant drag on Canada’s diplomatic operations across India,” he said.
Nankivell said Canada needs large consular operations in India to handle the volume of visa applications from that country, which is both the top source country for international students to Canada and the top source country for immigrants to Canada overall.
Mike Burgess, head of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), told Australia’s public broadcaster on Wednesday that he had no reason to doubt the allegation that the Indian government was involved in Nijjar’s death.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A linebacker at Division II West Virginia State was fatally shot during what the university said Thursday is being investigated by police as a home invasion.
The body of Jyilek Zyiare Harrington, 21, of Charlotte, North Carolina, was found inside an apartment Wednesday night in Charleston, police Lt. Tony Hazelett said in a statement.
Hazelett said several gunshots were fired during a disturbance in a hallway and inside the apartment. The statement said Harrington had multiple gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene. Police said they had no information on a possible suspect.
West Virginia State said counselors were available to students and faculty on campus.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with Jyilek’s family as they mourn the loss of this incredible young man,” West Virginia State President Ericke S. Cage said in a letter to students and faculty.
Harrington, a senior, had eight total tackles, including a sack, in a 27-24 win at Barton College last week.
“Jyilek truly embodied what it means to be a student-athlete and was a leader not only on campus but in the community,” West Virginia State Vice President of Intercollegiate Athletics Nate Burton said. “Jyilek was a young man that, during Christmas, would create a GoFundMe to help less fortunate families.”
Burton said donations to a fund established by the athletic department in Harrington’s memory will be distributed to an organization in Charlotte to continue his charity work.
West Virginia State’s home opener against Carson-Newman, originally scheduled for Thursday night, has been rescheduled to Friday, and a private vigil involving both teams was set for Thursday night. Harrington previously attended Carson-Newman, where he made seven tackles in six games last season. He began his college career at Division II Erskine College.
“Carson-Newman joins West Virginia State in mourning the untimely passing of former student-athlete Jyilek Harrington,” Carson-Newman Vice President of Athletics Matt Pope said in a statement. “The Harrington family and the Yellow Jackets’ campus community is in our prayers. News like this is sad to hear anytime, but today it feels worse with two teams who knew him coming together to play.”
DETROIT (AP) — Joe Schmidt, the Hall of Fame linebacker who helped the Detroit Lions win NFL championships in 1953 and 1957 and later coached the team, has died. He was 92.
The Lions said family informed the team Schmidt died Wednesday. A cause of death was not provided.
One of pro football’s first great middle linebackers, Schmidt played his entire NFL career with the Lions from 1953-65. An eight-time All-Pro, he was enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1973 and the college football version in 2000.
“Joe likes to say that at one point in his career, he was 6-3, but he had tackled so many fullbacks that it drove his neck into his shoulders and now he is 6-foot,” said the late Lions owner William Clay Ford, Schmidt’s presenter at his Hall of Fame induction in 1973. “At any rate, he was listed at 6-feet and as I say was marginal for that position. There are, however, qualities that certainly scouts or anybody who is drafting a ballplayer cannot measure.”
Born in Pittsburgh, Schmidt played college football in his hometown at Pitt, beginning his stint there as a fullback and guard before coach Len Casanova switched him to linebacker.
“Pitt provided me with the opportunity to do what I’ve wanted to do, and further myself through my athletic abilities,” Schmidt said. “Everything I have stemmed from that opportunity.”
Schmidt dealt with injuries throughout his college career and was drafted by the Lions in the seventh round in 1953. As defenses evolved in that era, Schmidt’s speed, savvy and tackling ability made him a valuable part of some of the franchise’s greatest teams.
Schmidt was elected to the Pro Bowl 10 straight years from 1955-64, and after his arrival, the Lions won the last two of their three NFL titles in the 1950s.
In a 1957 playoff game at San Francisco, the Lions trailed 27-7 in the third quarter before rallying to win 31-27. That was the NFL’s largest comeback in postseason history until Buffalo rallied from a 32-point deficit to beat Houston in 1993.
“We just decided to go after them, blitz them almost every down,” Schmidt recalled. “We had nothing to lose. When you’re up against it, you let both barrels fly.”
Schmidt became an assistant coach after wrapping up his career as a player. He was Detroit’s head coach from 1967-72, going 43-35-7.
Schmidt was part of the NFL’s All-Time Team revealed in 2019 to celebrate the league’s centennial season. Of course, he’d gone into the Hall of Fame 46 years earlier.
Not bad for an undersized seventh-round draft pick.
“It was a dream of mine to play football,” Schmidt told the Detroit Free Press in 2017. “I had so many people tell me that I was too small. That I couldn’t play. I had so many negative people say negative things about me … that it makes you feel good inside. I said, ‘OK, I’ll prove it to you.’”
VICTORIA – British Columbia’s Environment Assessment Office has fined Coastal GasLink Pipeline Ltd. $590,000 for “deficiencies” in the construction of its pipeline crossing the province.
The office says in a statement that 10 administrative penalties have been levied against the company for non-compliance with requirements of its environmental assessment certificate.
It says the fines come after problems with erosion and sediment control measures were identified by enforcement officers along the pipeline route across northern B.C. in April and May 2023.
The office says that the latest financial penalties reflect its escalation of enforcement due to repeated non-compliance of its requirements.
Four previous penalties have been issued for failing to control erosion and sediment valued at almost $800,000, while a fifth fine of $6,000 was handed out for providing false or misleading information.
The office says it prioritized its inspections along the 670-kilometre route by air and ground as a result of the continued concerns, leading to 59 warnings and 13 stop-work orders along the pipeline that has now been completed.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
