NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh confronted protesters outside the legislature on Tuesday after they slammed him as a “corrupt bastard.”
Federal politicians have reported facing intense harassment from the public in recent days, with anti-government protesters stationed on Wellington Street in Ottawa threatening public servants on their way to Parliament.
A video posted to X, formerly known as Twitter, shows at least two protesters tailing Singh through a parking lot, with one asking him whether he supports a motion of no confidence in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government. As Singh keeps walking, someone nearby calls him a “corrupt bastard.”
Visibly upset, Singh turned around and approached the protesters following him, pointing at each of them and asking repeatedly: “Who said that?”
After the men denied the insults, Singh told one of the men he was a “coward” for not criticising him. [his] face.”
As Singh turned around, he could hear one of the protesters say, “Is that aggression a reason to choose war with Russia?”
PM Singh slams ‘bullies’ in capital online
An NDP spokesman said protesters outside Parliament were “intimidating” and “harassing” politicians, their staff and others.
“Jagmeet Singh does not tolerate bullying and does not condone violence,” the spokesman said in an emailed statement.
You’ve probably already seen the video.
Over the past few days, bullies in Ottawa have been spewing hate and harassing Canadians who don’t agree with them.
Indigenous women are being called Nazis, staff are being harassed, journalists are being shouted at.
That is Pierre Poirièvre’s country…
Singh released a statement late on Tuesday. His own X accountcommenting on the incident, slammed the recent actions of “bullies” in the nation’s capital.
“We believe we need to stand up to bullies and shut down hate,” he said.
NDP MP Charlie Angus called the clashes between protesters and Singh a “national disgrace” and said “our national leadership was left to fend for itself while security forces stood by and watched.”
“We’re now in an increasingly dangerous and toxic environment for politicians of all stripes,” Angus said. “Someone is going to get hurt.”
Calls for increased security
Alexandre Brelis, NDP MP for Montreal’s Rosemont-la-Petite-Pâtry riding, said Tuesday that intimidation is a problem both in parliament and in his parliamentary office.
He pointed to the example of fellow NDP MP Leah Gazan, who represents Winnipeg Centre, who said in an online post on Sept. 13 that someone had thrown a brick through the window of her constituency office twice in the past two weeks.
“We are lucky no one was hurt, just broken glass,” Ghazan wrote on Facebook.
In July, the constituency office of Immigration Minister Mark Miller was defaced, with vandals writing the words “Mark Miller, Child Killer” on the building and on the sidewalk.
Since then, former Public Security Minister Marco Mendicino has called for “protected zones” to be established around constituency offices to protect MPs and their staff from increasingly threatening behaviour.
Bouleris said he believed MPs and federal party leaders should receive tighter security.
“Unfortunately, Jagmeet has been subject to some insults and sometimes physical attacks from people,” Bouleris said. “I don’t want him to be in a situation where he has to physically defend himself, so I think he should have a bodyguard.”
Singh has been the target of many protesters in recent years, and in 2022 was the target of intense verbal harassment during a speech in Peterborough, Ont.
The federal NDP leader was attending a rally at the provincial NDP candidate’s campaign office when protesters approached Singh and yelled expletives in his face as he left the rally.
According to Michel Paradis, deputy commissioner of protective policing for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), requests for protection for members of Parliament have more than doubled since 2018.