Jagmeet Singh: Systemic racism exists in Canada

People have asked what happened in the House today.

Here are my thoughts. pic.twitter.com/VV8hX5Tq0u

— Jagmeet Singh (@theJagmeetSingh) June 18, 2020

New Democratic Party (NDP) Leader Jagmeet Singh emphasized the existence of “systematic racism” in Canada, on the day that he was made to leave the country’s parliament for calling an MP a ‘racist.’

“For a lot of racialized people, for a lot of Black, and Indigenous, and people of colour, this has been a problem in Canada as well. Systemic racism exists in Canada,” he told reporters on Wednesday.

With racism one of the hottest global issues right now, as well as the “horrible examples in the past couple of months,” Singh did not deny on Wednesday that he got angry.

“But I’m sad now,” he said pausing, before adding, “Because why can’t we act? Why can’t we do something to save people’s lives? We can do something. And why would someone say no to that?” He turned emotional in this part of the speech, after detailing what happened in that day’s session.

Singh accused Alain Therrien of the Bloc Québécois party of being a racist after the latter said no to a motion that acknowledges that systematic racism exists in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).

The said motion laid out “really clear steps,” Singh said, which included de-escalation as a priority of the police, the review of the use of force, and for healthcare workers to be funded in this time of health crisis instead of the police.

“Tackling systemic racism is gonna take a lot of work and a lot of effort, but there’s some clear steps we can take,” Singh said.

While the majority gave their nod to the motion, the NDP leader narrated that he heard one “no” which Speaker Anthony Rota did not hear.

“And then that MP repeated louder so he could be heard, and I looked back, and he saw me look back, and I was kind of shocked that anyone would say no to this motion. Federal jurisdiction, clear path to do something about systemic racism in a moment where everyone is demanding action, and I looked back and saw that MP not only say no, but make eye contact with me but also brush his hand, dismiss it,” Singh said.

Right after the vote, Singh said that he called Therrien “a racist and I believe that’s so” adding that he would not apologize for it. With these developments, Rota ejected him for the rest of the day.

Meanwhile, Bloc Québécois, in a tweet, urged Singh to apologize for ‘tarnishing’ Therrien’s reputation.

Singh, a Sikh, is the first federal political leader to be from the minority.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau supported the NDP leader.

“It is important that we recognize when the only racialized leader in the House of Commons makes a statement like that, that it comes from a place that yes, will make people uncomfortable, but needs to be dealt with as we move forward as a country,” he said on Thursday.