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'Indians feeling unsafe in Canada': New Delhi envoy's big remark amid concerns
Dinesh Patnaik said Indian nationals in Canada don't feel safe, adding that he finds it unusual for a high commissioner to require security in the country.
Amid concerns over a record increase in the number of Indians being forced out of Canada, India's new High Commissioner to the country, Dinesh K Patnaik, has raised concerns over the safety of Indian nationals there.
In a recent interview, Patnaik said Indian nationals in Canada do not feel safe and added that he finds it unusual for a high commissioner like himself to require security in the country. “Canada cannot look at this situation as an Indian problem. It’s a Canadian problem. There are Canadians who are creating this problem,” Patnaik told CTV News in the interview.
Without citing pro-Khalistan extremism in Canada, Patnaik also said: “Security scenarios where there is a group of people who are actually terrorizing, keeping the relationship under hostage...how do we deal with them? How do we deal with the law-and-order situation?”.
Patnaik's remarks come amid reports of an uptick in Indian nationals being removed from Canada. In 2024, 1,997 Indians were subject for forced removals in the country, an exponential hike from the 625 figure of 2019.
Data from the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) showed that 1,891 Indians were asked to leave the country up until July 2025, which suggests that the total number for this year could well surpass last year's figure.
Canada is on track with the United States in terms of its anti-immigration push. Prime Minister Mark Carney recently said that there were plans to speed up the deportation of foreign criminals. “The short answer is yes, there are plans to make in faster, to make it better resources and to improve the tracking. That’s part of a broader set of reforms that we are making to the immigration system here in Canada," he had said.
Indians top the country-wise list for “removals in progress,” with 6,837 cases, followed by 5,170 Mexicans and 1,734 US citizens. Indians also make up the largest group among asylum seekers.
Meanwhile, Dinesh Patnaik also spoke about how Mark Carney was playing a "very big role" in restoring normalcy in India-Canada relations. "We might have been here a little earlier or later. You can't keep two large countries apart for long," Patnaik reportedly said.
Diplomatic ties had nosedived last year after then PM Justin Trudeau alleged Indian involvement in the killing of Hardeep Nijjar in 2023. However, when asked if Trudeau destroyed the diplomatic relationship, Patnaik said: "I don't think any relationship can be destroyed by a single man. It takes a whole ecosystem to do that."
In a significant step towards normalising tensions, India and Canada in August named senior diplomats Dinesh Patnaik and Christopher Cooter as their respective high commissioners in each other’s capitals.
