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.
Montreal Alouettes wide receiver Tyson Philpot has announced he will be out for the rest of the CFL season.
The Delta, B.C., native posted the news on his Instagram page Thursday.
“To Be Continued. Shoutout my team, the fans of the CFL and the whole city of Montreal! I can’t wait to be back healthy and write this next chapter in 2025,” the statement read.
Philpot, 24, injured his foot in a 33-23 win over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on Aug. 10 and was placed on the six-game injured list the next week.
The six-foot-one, 195-pound receiver had 58 receptions, 779 yards and five touchdowns in nine games for the league-leading Alouettes in his third season.
Philpot scored the game-winning touchdown in Montreal’s Grey Cup win last season to punctuate a six-reception, 63-yard performance.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa sustained a concussion for the third time in his NFL career, leaving his team’s game Thursday night against Buffalo after running into defensive back Damar Hamlin and hitting the back of his head against the turf.
Tagovailoa remained down for about two minutes before getting to his feet and walking to the sideline after the play in the third quarter. He made his way to the tunnel not long afterward, looking into the stands before smiling and departing toward the locker room.
The Dolphins needed almost no time before announcing it was a concussion. The team said he had two during the 2022 season, and Tagovailoa was diagnosed with another concussion when he was a college player at Alabama.
Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel said Tagovailoa would get “proper procedural evaluation” and “appropriate care” on Friday.
“The furthest thing from my mind is, ‘What is the timeline?’ We just need to evaluate and just worry about my teammate, like the rest of the guys are,” McDaniel said. “We’ll get more information tomorrow and take it day by day from here.”
Some players saw Tagovailoa in the locker room after the game and said they were encouraged. Tagovailoa spoke with some players and then went home after the game, McDaniel said.
“I have a lot of love for Tua, built a great relationship with him,” said quarterback Skylar Thompson, who replaced Tagovailoa after the injury. “You care about the person more than the player and everybody in the organization would say the same thing. Just really praying for Tua and hopefully everything will come out all right.”
Tagovailoa signed a four-year, $212 million extension before this season — a deal that makes him one of the highest-paid players in the NFL — and was the NFL’s leading passer in Week 1 this season. Tagovailoa left with the Dolphins trailing 31-10, and that was the final score.
“If you know Tua outside of football, you can’t help but feel for him,” Bills quarterback Josh Allen said on Amazon following the game. “He’s a great football player but he’s an even greater human being. He’s one of the best humans on the planet. I’ve got a lot of love for him and I’m just praying for him and his family, hoping everything’s OK. But it’s tough, man. This game of football that we play, it’s got its highs and it’s got its lows — and this is one of the lows.”
Tagovailoa’s college years and first three NFL seasons were marred by injury, though he positioned himself for a big pay bump with an injury-free and productive 2023 as he led the Dolphins into the playoffs. He threw for 29 touchdowns and a league-best 4,624 yards last year.
When, or if, he can come back this season is anyone’s guess. Tagovailoa said in April 2023 that the concussions he had in the 2022 season left him contemplating his playing future. “I think I considered it for a time,” he said then, when asked if he considered stepping away from the game to protect himself.
McDaniel said it’s not his place to say if Tagovailoa should return to football. “He’ll be evaluated and we’ll have conversations and progress as appropriate,” McDaniel said.
Tagovailoa was hurt Thursday on a fourth-down keeper with about 4:30 left in the third. He went straight ahead into Hamlin and did not slide, leading with his right shoulder instead.
Hamlin was the player who suffered a cardiac arrest after making a tackle during a Monday night game in January 2023 at Cincinnati, causing the NFL to suspend a pivotal game that quickly lost significance in the aftermath of a scary scene that unfolded in front of a national television audience.
Tagovailoa wound up on his back, both his hands in the air and Bills players immediately pointed at him as if to suggest there was an injury. Dolphins center Aaron Brewer quickly did the same, waving to the sideline.
Tagovailoa appeared to be making a fist with his right hand as he lay on the ground. It was movement consistent with something that is referred to as the “fencing response,” which can be common after a traumatic brain injury.
Tagovailoa eventually got to his feet. McDaniel grabbed the side of his quarterback’s head and gave him a kiss on the cheek as Tagovailoa departed. Thompson came into the game to take Tagovailoa’s spot.
“I love Tua on and off the football field,” Bills edge Von Miller said. “I’m a huge fan of him. I can empathize and sympathize with him because I’ve been there. I wish him the best.”
Tagovailoa’s history with concussions — and how he has since worked to avoid them — is a huge part of the story of his career, and now comes to the forefront once again.
He had at least two concussions during the 2022 season. He was hurt in a Week 3 game against Buffalo and cleared concussion protocol, though he appeared disoriented on that play but returned to the game.
The NFL later changed its concussion protocol to mandate that if a player shows possible concussion symptoms — including a lack of balance or stability — he must sit out the rest of the game.
Less than a week later, in a Thursday night game at Cincinnati, Tagovailoa was concussed on a scary hit that briefly knocked him unconscious and led to him being taken off the field on a stretcher.
His second known concussion of that season came in a December game against Green Bay, and he didn’t play for the rest of the 2022 season. After that, Tagovailoa began studying ways where he may be able to fall more safely and protect himself against further injury — including studying jiu-jitsu.
“I’m not worried about anything that’s out of my hands,” McDaniel said. “I’m just worried about the human being.”
NEW YORK (AP) — When her husband turns on the television to hear news about the upcoming presidential election, that’s often a signal for Lori Johnson Malveaux to leave the room.
It can get to be too much. Often, she’ll go to a TV in another room to watch a movie on the Hallmark Channel or BET. She craves something comforting and entertaining. And in that, she has company.
While about half of Americans say they are following political news “extremely” or “very” closely, about 6 in 10 say they need to limit how much information they consume about the government and politics to avoid feeling overloaded or fatigued, according to a new survey from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and USAFacts.
Make no mistake: Malveaux plans to vote. She always does. “I just get to the point where I don’t want to hear the rhetoric,” she said.
The 54-year-old Democrat said she’s most bothered when she hears people on the news telling her that something she saw with her own eyes — like the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol — didn’t really happen.
“I feel like I’m being gaslit. That’s the way to put it,” she said.
Sometimes it feels like ‘a bombardment’
Caleb Pack, 23, a Republican from Ardmore, Oklahoma, who works in IT, tries to keep informed through the news feeds on his phone, which is stocked with a variety of sources, including CNN, Fox News, The Wall Street Journal and The Associated Press.
Yet sometimes, Pack says, it seems like a bombardment.
“It’s good to know what’s going on, but both sides are pulling a little bit extreme,” he said. “It just feels like it’s a conversation piece everywhere, and it’s hard to escape it.”
Media fatigue isn’t a new phenomenon. A Pew Research Center survey conducted in late 2019 found roughly two in three Americans felt worn out by the amount of news there is, about the same as in a poll taken in early 2018. During the 2016 presidential campaign, about 6 in 10 people felt overloaded by campaign news.
But it can be particularly acute with news related to politics. The AP-NORC/USAFacts poll found that half of Americans feel a need to limit their consumption of information related to crime or overseas conflicts, while only about 4 in 10 are limiting news about the economy and jobs.
It’s easy to understand, with television outlets like CNN, Fox News Channel and MSNBC full of political talk and a wide array of political news online, sometimes complicated by disinformation.
“There’s a glut of information,” said Richard Coffin, director of research and advocacy for USAFacts, “and people are having a hard time figuring out what is true or not.”
Women are more likely to feel they need to limit media
In the AP-NORC poll, about 6 in 10 men said they follow news about elections and politics at least “very” closely, compared to about half of women. For all types of news, not just politics, women are more likely than men to report the need to limit their media consumption, the survey found.
White adults are also more likely than Black or Hispanic adults to say they need to limit media consumption on politics, the poll found.
Kaleb Aravzo, 19, a Democrat, gets a baseline of news by listening to National Public Radio in the morning at home in Logan, Utah. Too much politics, particularly when he’s on social media sites like TikTok and Instagram, can trigger anxiety and depression.
“If it pops up on my page when I’m on social media,” he said, “I’ll just scroll past it.”
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Sanders reported from Washington. David Bauder writes about media for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder.
The AP poll of 1,019 adults was conducted July 29-August 8, 2024, using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 4.0 percentage points.
