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

“I can confirm, from the different techniques that we use in normal investigations and reaching out to the community, I can confirm that there has been a significant reduction in threats,” Duheme told the period host. questions from CTV, Vassy Kapelos, in an interview broadcast Sunday. .

“You look at some of the key players – and I said this in my statement on Thanksgiving Day – you had diplomats, as well as consular officials, who were involved, working on behalf of the Indian government, in addition to the agents as well. Duheme said. “So if you look at the Government of Canada deporting these six people, it has had an impact on what we are seeing in South Asian communities.”

Asked by Kapelos whether the potential replacement of these diplomats would result in the return of the threat to public safety, the commissioner said that would likely be the case.

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

In two Thanksgiving Monday news conferences, the RCMP and federal government accused Indian diplomats and consular officials based in Canada of engaging in clandestine activities linked to serious criminal activity in that country, including homicides and extortion.

Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly went further than the RCMP and declared that the since-expelled Indian High Commissioner to Canada, Sanjay Kumar Verma, along with five other Indian diplomats, were considered persons of interest in the murder of Sikh separatist leader and Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh. Nijjar in British Columbia last summer.

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

“There has always been a separate investigation into the Indian government’s involvement in crime in Canada, and that’s when we revealed that this one was specific to that, and had nothing to do with it. see with the Nijjar affair, which is before the courts. » replied Duheme, asked by Kapelos if he made the same link as Joly between the murder of Nijjar and the expulsion of the high commissioner.

“We are investigating diplomats and consular officials who have direct links with the Indian government through agents in different crimes, as I mentioned, homicide, coercion, harassment,” he also said. declared, without establishing a direct link between other open investigations and the Nijjar affair.

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

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

Mike Duheme, then acting commissioner of the RCMP, waits to appear before the Procedure and House 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 rather there have been similar examples in other countries, including the United States, where a recently partially unsealed indictment by the US Department of Justice links an Indian government official to the foiled alleged assassination attempt on a dual Canadian-US citizen in New York.

This indictment also establishes links between the alleged assassination attempt in the United States and Nijjar’s murder in Canada.

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

Duheme refuted this statement, saying that although law enforcement and political officials attempted “numerous times” to contact their Indian counterparts to share evidence, to no avail, evidence was ultimately provided during a meeting in Singapore.

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

“There was evidence demonstrating how agents working for the Indian government here in Canada, through the formal diplomatic and consular process, how tasks were accomplished, how information got back to the Indian government, to organized crime groups, and then were coming back. in Canada,” he also said.

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

But Duheme said “evidence would have been shared” if Verma had shown up for an interview.

Asked about Verma’s criticism that the Canadian government was risking diplomatic relations with one of its largest trading partners because of intelligence, not evidence, Duheme specifically said the RCMP made its accusations on Thanksgiving Day based on evidence.

“The evidence that we have has been presented to the prime minister, has been presented to a minister, has been presented to the minister of the government of Global Affairs Canada, and I would say our evidence is strong enough that the government has taken a position to expel six diplomats. “, he said.

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

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