Perspective: Leave Jagmeet Singh Alone … Support BLM

June 22, 2020 | By Hopeton O’Connor-Dennie |

There has been considerable debate since the only Racialized Canadian party leader has come out swinging against what he perceived as a racist gesture by a Bloc member. Jagmeet Singh 41, an attorney-at-law has every right to take a stand and object to what he perceived as a racist gesture during a debate in Parliament on racism in the RCMP.  We have a saying in Jamaica: “Who feels it knows it.”

Bloc

It is my perspective that The Bloc of all parties should be extremely sensitive to racism. They have long complained about the way in which they have been treated and the failure of English Canada to even recognize their language rights. So strong they held two Referendums to leave Canada. They got very close. Approximately 94 percent of all voters in Quebec voted. It was a tense evening as the results came in that fateful night of the latest referendum vote in November 1995.

So for you as a party who represent people in the second largest province of the Nine provinces and Territories that make up the Confederation that calls itself Canada to be blocking attempts at dealing with a motion to get changes to stamp out racism from the RCMP … Canada’s National Police Force is shocking. There have been questionable take downs and abuses by the RCMP in Quebec and elsewhere across Canada.

Is Bloc’s Behaviour “Racism” ?

Such behaviour of the Bloc speaks volumes of their commitment to racial cohesion in Quebec and by extension the wider Canadian Society.

Bloc Only has Seats In Quebec

Is this apparent narrow mindedness that has led the Bloc to be seen as a Quebec party only? In the 2019 Federal elections the Bloc got no seats outside Quebec.

French

Jagmeet Singh of the NDP has not only walk the walk, but has learned to talk the talk … by learning a second language. French could be that second language. He may not be as fluent as he would like … such is understandable. This is not his mother’s tongue.

Commentary

We watch carefully to see if the Speaker of the Federal Parliament Anthony Rota, a Liberal MP, from December 2019, the 37th Speaker, will be influenced to further punish Singh. The NDP leader has already been ejected from the Parliament and we feel that any punishment should match the “crime”. To attempt to use a sledge hammer to kill a mosquito is unnecessary and could serve to divide instead of uniting our Parliament and by extension our nation. We have long opined that “Racism is an affront to decency”. That is what Jagmeet Singh was likely, trying to say and we think he should be supported and not instead be marginalized.

Asked about the ‘racist’ accusation comment by Singh … PM Trudeau said inter alia “It is not my place to tell a party leader what to say” PM Justin Trudeau declared. Trudeau has long declared that there is systematic racism not only in the RCMP but otherwise.

We say leave Singh alone. Instead support Black Lives Matter (BLM). We are proud to know that Jagmeet Singh stood up for Racialized Canadians.

Police Shooting-Toronto

An apparent mentally disturbed non-white man has been killed by the lawmen called to assist the family. The Police were not called to kill this father of four on Father’s Day of all days. The family was in tears on CBC The National last night. We await the investigation before further comment. The Police Chief expressed his regret. They await the autopsy on the victim’s body. There is a real problem.

This is our perspective. What is yours? Feel free to disagree.

Hopeton O’Connor-Dennie is Senior National & International Correspondent for Vision Newspaper.