RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme said there has been a “significant reduction” in the threat to public safety since six Indian diplomatic officials were expelled from the country last week.

“I can confirm that there has been a significant reduction in threats, thanks to the different techniques that we use in the normal investigation and that we reach out to the public,” Duheme told CTV’s Question Period host Vassy Kapelos in an interview that aired Sunday. .

“When you look at some of the key players — and I said this in my statement on Thanksgiving Day — there were consular officials as well as diplomats working on behalf of the Government of India, as well as agents,” Duheme said. “So you see that the Government of Canada’s deportation of these six individuals has an impact on what we’re seeing in South Asian communities.”

Asked by Kapelos whether replacing these diplomats would cause the public security threat to return, the commissioner said it would most likely happen.

“Based on what I know, I think I would have a concern.”

In a pair of news conferences on Thanksgiving Monday, the RCMP and the federal government accused Indian diplomats and consular officials in Canada of engaging in undercover activities linked to serious criminal activity in that country, including murder and extortion.

Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly went a step further, calling the RCMP persons of interest in the killing of Sikh separatist leader and Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh, along with five other Indian diplomats, Indian High Commissioner Sanjay Kumar Verma, who has since been deported to Canada. He said it was accepted as Nijjar was at BC last summer.

Verma and his colleagues were declared persona non grata for refusing to waive their diplomatic immunity to be questioned by law enforcement.

“There has always been a separate and distinct investigation into the Government of India’s involvement in criminal matters in Canada, and we found out at the time that this was specific and had nothing to do with the Nijjar case before the courts. Duheme said Kapelos was expelled for Nijjar’s murder.” He answered the question of whether he made the same connection with Joly among the high commissioners.

He also said, “We are investigating diplomats, consular officials who have a direct connection through agents up to the Government of India regarding different crimes like murder, coercion, harassment, as I mentioned, without making a direct link between other open investigations and investigations.” Nijjar case.

Duheme said he had “never seen this” in his 35 years of police work, adding that “it’s actually a little surreal when you look at all of this.”

Duheme also said, “I cannot say that the threat will be eliminated forever.” “Because like any organized crime group or those in crime, they reorganize and find a different way of doing things.”

Then-RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme expects to appear before the Procedure and Internal Affairs committee in Ottawa on Tuesday, June 13, 2023. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)

The RCMP commissioner added that the problem is not unique to Canada, but instead has similar examples in other countries, namely the United States, where a recently partially unsealed U.S. Department of Justice indictment linked an Indian government official to a thwarted assassination attempt in 1945. A dual Canadian-US citizen in New York.

The indictment also links the alleged assassination attempt in the United States to Nijjar’s murder in Canada.

In an exclusive interview on CTV’s Question Period last week, Verma denied any involvement in Nijjar’s killing and insisted that “not even a shred of evidence” was shared by Canada with the Indian government.

Duheme denied this statement, saying that both law enforcement and political officials tried to contact their Indian counterparts “on many occasions” to share the evidence, but to no avail, and the evidence was eventually handed over during a meeting in Singapore.

“So maybe… the high commissioner never saw the evidence, but it was shared with the Indian government official,” Duheme said.

“There was evidence showing how agents worked for the Indian government in Canada through the diplomatic process and official consular process, how missions were carried out, how information flowed back to the Indian government, to organized crime groups, and then back again.” “To Canada,” he said.

Verma also said in an interview with CTV News that he chose not to waive his diplomatic immunity because the lack of evidence presented to him prevented him from defending himself during questioning.

However, Duheme said that if Verma presented himself for an interview, “evidence would be shared.”

Asked about Verma’s criticism that the Canadian government was risking diplomatic relations with one of its largest trading partners because of intelligence as opposed to evidence, Duheme specifically said the RCMP made its accusations based on evidence on Thanksgiving Day.

“The evidence that we have has been presented to the prime minister, it’s been presented to a minister, it’s been presented to the Canadian Minister of Global Affairs, and I would say that our evidence is strong enough for the government to take a position to expel six diplomats.” he said.

In his interview, Duheme also discussed the procedural stall in the House of Commons over unedited documents related to the now-defunct Canadian Sustainable Development Technology.

You can watch Duheme’s entire interview in the video player at the top of this article.