Expelled Indian diplomats just the latest to be declared ‘persona non grata’ by Canada

Canada’s expulsion last week of six Indian diplomats marks the second time in just over a year that the government has sent foreign representatives from that country packing.

In September of last year, Canada expelled a top Indian diplomat, and a senior Canadian diplomat was expelled from India in return, after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told the House of Commons there was credible intelligence about a potential link between India’s government and the killing of B.C. Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

The following report by The Canadian Press, first published May 8, 2023, lists some earlier examples of expulsions.

Before that, in May of last year, Zhao Wei, a Chinese diplomat, was ordered to leave the country after he was accused of trying to gather information on  Conservative MP Michael Chong’s family in Hong Kong. Zhao was also the first Chinese diplomat to be expelled from Canada since 1977, when two Chinese officials were sent home for trying to infiltrate a Sino-Canadian organization.

It’s rare but not unheard of for Canada to expel diplomats.

Declaring someone persona non grata — literally “a person not welcome” in Latin — is dictated by a 1961 United Nations treaty called the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. It says a receiving state can at any time, without any explanation, declare a member of a diplomatic mission persona non grata and prompt them to leave the country.

Sometimes a hard date is given, but in general diplomats are expected to leave immediately upon being expelled.

Canada adopted that international convention into its domestic laws through the Foreign Missions and International Organizations Act.

Prior to last year, Canada last expelled a diplomat in 2018, when Russians were sent home by Canada in solidarity with the United Kingdom over a Russian-led nerve gas attack on a Russian political dissident.

Venezuela’s ambassador to Canada was kicked out in 2017, two days after Venezuela expelled Canada’s top diplomat in Caracas following political upheaval in the country.

An Eritrean diplomat was expelled in 2013 for inappropriate behaviour. A year earlier, all Syrian diplomats still in Ottawa were booted out in response to the Syrian Civil War.

In 2001, Russian diplomat Andrei Knyazev drove his car onto a sidewalk and killed a pedestrian. He was expelled from Canada and, eventually, found guilty of manslaughter in Moscow before being sentenced to four years in a penal colony.

An Italian diplomat was deemed persona non grata in 1998 for rude behaviour, and a Ukrainian consular employee who claimed diplomatic immunity after being accused of trying to lure young girls into his car was told to leave Canada in 1996.

In 1991, Canada expelled Iraqi diplomats connected to Saddam Hussein’s regime.

Pich-Xuan Ho, a Vietnamese diplomat, was expelled after the RCMP discovered he had been threatening members of the diaspora community in an attempt to gain support in 1979 for the country’s then-socialist government. That same year a Yugoslavian diplomat was ordered to leave for exerting “improper pressures to obtain information on Canadians of Yugolsav origin.”

Canada also kicked out Soviet diplomats and other officials over espionage allegations in 1978, and in 1977 the government ordered the expulsion of five Cubans, including three members of the Cuban diplomatic and consular staff, over allegations that the Cuban Consulate in Montreal was running a spy school for intelligence agents to be sent to Rhodesia.

With files from National Post

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