More than 530 days after becoming leader of the federal NDP, Jagmeet Singh took his seat in the House of Commons on Monday as the member for Burnaby South.
Singh entered the chamber to applause from fellow New Democrats after being officially sworn in the day before.
He won a byelection in Burnaby South on Feb. 25 to replace former MP and current mayor of Vancouver Kennedy Stewart.
Singh also made history as the first racialized person to lead a federal party in Parliament.
Singh used his first speaking opportunity during question period to press Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on housing.
He repeated a story he told many times during the byelection campaign, saying he met a teacher forced to live in her parents’ basement due to Burnaby’s unaffordable housing market.
Singh asked Trudeau whether the Liberal government would commit to building 500,000 new homes, alluding to the NDP’s proposal to do so over the next 10 years.
Trudeau welcomed Singh to Ottawa and said he hopes New Democrats back the Liberal government’s ongoing efforts to create affordable housing.
Singh also joined many Conservative MPs in calling on Trudeau to allow former attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould to testify in front of the justice committee for a second time to address the the SNC-Lavalin affair. He also repeated his call for the Liberals to launch a public inquiry into the case.
“For Canadians watching at home, this doesn't look any different than when the Conservatives were in power – special access for powerful corporations, a closed door for everyone else,” he said. “Why is this prime minister so afraid to launch a public inquiry?”
Liberal house leader Bardish Chagger deflected the calls from the opposition parties, saying Wilson-Raybould already had her chance to speak.
Singh also addressed the mosque shooting that killed 50 and injured dozens more in New Zealand last week. An avowed white supremacist has been charged in the massacre.
“That attack reverberated across the world. Though it happened in Christchurch, New Zealand, the pain impacted all of us,” he said. “It hurts here in Canada, where Muslim brothers and sisters – our friends, our close ones, people who work with us – are thinking about their own loved ones when they go to masjid, when they go to prayer, and how much it hurts to know that you're being targeted for being who you are.”
Singh said the attack was borne of white supremacist and Islamophobic hatred.
“Hate knows no bounds. Once hate is allowed to grow, it consumes all in its path. Hate is like a fire – once it's allowed to grow, it spreads, consuming everything,” he said.
Singh joined Trudeau and Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer in condemning Islamophobia and other forms of bigotry, but said Canada must go further by addressing the root causes of such hatred.
When people refer to migrants as “illegal” or “barbaric,” they dehumanize them, he said.
“The purpose is to dehumanize and then, once you dehumanize, it leads to fear and hatred,” he said. “Let's be conscious of the words we use so we never create any ground for hate to grow.”
Singh made the comments after Trudeau and Scheer made their own statements condemning the attack and expressing solidarity with the people of New Zealand and Muslims around the world.
Trudeau addressed the various forms of prejudice and discrimination he said lead to terrorist attacks around the world.
“It's anti-Semitic, Islamophobic, anti-black, anti-Indigenous, misogynistic, homophobic – the list goes on and on,” he said. “This rhetoric is dangerous, hateful and vile; it lives and festers online, spilling out into the real world with deadly consequences.”
Scheer expressed similar sentiments.
He said the attack in New Zealand was reminiscent of the 2017 attack on a Quebec City mosque in which a white nationalist killed six men in their place of worship.
Scheer called for unity among political parties in condemning hateful ideologies.
“I say to my colleagues in all parties, we certainly have our differences on important policy matters that deserve rigorous and spirited debate, but on this – the very compassion and humanity of our Canadian society – there can be no debate,” he said.
