By Canadian Press

Don’t equate plight of Indigenous people with Quebec, Singh says

Sep 10, 2021 | 8:31 AM

OTTAWA — NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh says he doesn’t agree with Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet equating the experience of Indigenous people to the treatment of Quebecers.

In Thursday night’s English-language debate, 18-year-old Marek McLeod, a first-time voter from Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., asked federal party leaders how they would restore trust after more than 150 years of “lies and abuse” to Indigenous people.

In his response, Blanchet said that no one should tell any nation what to do and that every nation, including Quebec, should be recognized as such and treated like an equal.

In Ottawa today, Singh says he wouldn’t equate the injustices faced by Indigenous people to those faced by Quebecers, but also says it is true that francophones across Canada face discrimination in not being able to access some services or education in their mother tongue.

Singh says systemic racism and discrimination is found across Canada and can be seen in the fact that many Indigenous communities don’t have clean drinking water.

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The NDP leader, who has been fending off accusations by Blanchet that he is not doing enough to denounce “Quebec bashing,” is fighting to improve the party’s poor showing in Quebec during the last election, when they eked out just one seat.

 This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 10, 2021.

The Canadian Press