Canadian Party Leader Ejected From House Of Commons After Refusing To Apologize For Calling Fellow MP A Racist

Indigenous Leaders have expressed a lack of confidence in the RCMP commissioner’s ability to tackle systemic racism after she was unable to say whether it existed in the RCMP

We need systemic changes so that not one more Indigenous person dies at the hands of the RCMP pic.twitter.com/QWupAda6su

— Jagmeet Singh (@theJagmeetSingh) June 17, 2020

Jagmeet Singh, the leader of Canada's New Democratic Party, was ejected from the House of Commons today after refusing to apologize for calling Alain Therrien of the Bloc Québécois a racist. Therrien was the sole member of the House to oppose Singh's motion to recognize systemic racism in the RCMP, and he made a dismissive gesture as he did so.

When the House's Deputy Speaker asked to review the record, Singh saved her the time, standing up and saying: "It's true, I called him a racist and I believe that's so."

When Singh was asked to apologize, he said, "I will not." He was then ordered to leave the Commons for the remainder of the day.

Is the word "racist" now forbidden to be uttered in the House? It's going to be difficult to deal with racism in Canada if saying "racist" is now taboo.

Memo to HoC: Perhaps there is a better way to show you are not racist than to defend the racist and boot the person who pointed the racist out.

Also, how can the RCMP Commissioner deal with systemic racism when she doesn't know what "systemic racism" means?

We don't allow criminals to investigate their own crimes. Anyone suggesting such a thing would be laughed out of the room. The RCMP should not be investigating the RCMP.

Singh explained his reaction to Therrien:

We had a motion to call out the systemic racism in the RCMP and provide some really clear steps to stop it in the future. Anyone who wants to vote against that is a racist, yes. You're facing inequality and injustice, people are being killed, people are being the subject of violence but you're not asking the right way for us to change it. And to me that's an absurd argument to put forward. It was this brazen act of one MP to not just say no, but to say no loudly and to kind of gesture like this [waving his hand as though brushing away a fly].

In that gesture, I saw exactly what has happened for so long. People see racism as not a big deal, see systemic racism and the killing of Indigenous people as not a big deal, see Black people being the subject of violence and being killed as not a big deal. And in that moment I saw the face of racism. That's what it looks like when someone dismisses the reality that people are going through. And so I had a moment of anger in seeing that. ...

I've said it really clearly. I repeat it really clearly. Anyone who votes against a motion that recognizes the systemic racism in the RCMP and that calls for basic fixes for the problem is a racist, yes.

I cannot find a full transcript of Singh's comments, but here are some more snips from Twitter:

If we can't in this moment – when Indigenous people have been killed, when Black people have been killed – agree to basic, straight forward changes to federally regulated policing services, we got some problems.

Someone can act racist in the House of Commons and not get kicked out, and someone can call them out for doing something racist and get kicked out. You figure that one out.

Anytime someone from a marginalized community, someone who faces inequality, tries to demand something is done about it, they're often told they're not asking the right way.

The reaction from the House and many white people online is as predictable as racism is common.

As Singh notes, we have yet another instance of white people explaining to a brown person what the ground rules are when it comes to talking about racism. Be polite. Be respectful. (Of course, when that happens, there is always another excuse, like "this isn't the time" for such comments.) These white people are always far more offended about being called racist then they are about being the actions of a racist.

The action against Singh is similar to what usually happens to whistleblowers. It is only the people who bravely expose the wrongdoing who are punished. The crimes or comments or behaviour are not truly examined and the broken system continues along.

The reaction of the Canadian media reveals its own problems. I looked through numerous Canadian articles online and I could not find a single quote from Therrien. Why didn't anyone ask him what he was signalling with his gesture? Why was he was the lone MP to vote against examining racism in the RCMP? Does he believe racism is completely absent from the RCMP? If not, how much racism does the RCMP need to exhibit before Therrien would admit a problem exists and should be examined?

On Wednesday morning, Singh criticized Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for kneeling with protesters at a rally in Ottawa and called on Trudeau to implement policy changes, including police reform, ending racial profiling, and increasing funding for health-care workers who deal with mental health crises:

Who is he protesting? He is the one who calls the shots. He doesn't have to take a knee, he should take a stand, actually. ... Let's make some real concrete policy changes. The more we acknowledge that it's real [white privilege], we can actually work towards addressing the problems that result, which is people, based on the colour of their skin, are denied opportunities.