Federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh says he’s worried about the message being sent to children after a Saskatchewan legislature member and former teacher called him a terrorist.
Speaking to reporters in Richmond, B.C., Singh said he didn’t care personally about the comment but questioned why Saskatchewan Party MLA Racquel Hilbert would even say such a thing.
“This is an MLA, someone who’s an elected official, respected member of their community, a former teacher,” Singh said on the federal election campaign trail Wednesday. “What’s happened in this MLA’s life for them to say that about me?
“Why would they lie in that way?”
Hilbert, the MLA for Humboldt-Watrous, made the remarks during a budget debate in the legislature on March 25. She told the house the Saskatchewan Party government has worked to build trade relations and open new markets.
But she added it’s been “more difficult due to challenges presented by the federal government, propped up by the federal NDP, (a) federal NDP supported by this Opposition.”
“We did not hear the Opposition denounce their federal leader as being a terrorist in India and denounce the collateral trade damage to Western Canada,” Hilbert said.
Hilbert later went on to accuse the NDP of unhelpful “virtue signalling.”
At the end of her speech, house Speaker Todd Goudy told Hilbert, “I just want to caution the member on some of the accusations there — virtue signalling and others. Just please be careful with your comments.”
Hilbert addressed the issue in the house on Wednesday.
“During my budget response speech, I made an inappropriate comment regarding the federal NDP leader,” she said.
“I wish to apologize and withdraw my comment.”
Saskatchewan Opposition NDP MLA Tajinder Grewal, in a statement, said Hilbert’s comments were an attack on the Sikh community.
“Saskatchewan’s motto is ‘From Many Peoples, Strength,'” he said. “Racism has no place in our province and certainly no place in the provincial government.”
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