Singh calls on PM to address police’s ‘systemic racism’

OTTAWA — If the Rideau Hall intruder had been a person of colour, the outcome of last week’s events in Ottawa would have been very different, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said Wednesday.

Singh, speaking to reporters on Parliament Hill, said the incident, contrasted with others in recent weeks when police in Canada killed Indigenous people and people of colour during visits to check on their welfare, “reminds us all of how systemic racism is real.”

Military reservist and Manitoba businessman Corey Hurren is in an Ottawa jail facing 22 charges for allegedly carrying weapons and making a threat against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Police say they arrested Hurren on July 2, about 200 metres from Trudeau’s front door, after he allegedly rammed his pickup truck through gates at Rideau Hall, then ran with a loaded gun through the grounds toward Trudeau’s residence.

Police say they spoke to Hurren, who was still carrying at least one gun, for an hour and 42 minutes before he was arrested without anyone getting hurt.

Singh said he is thankful for the safety of Trudeau and his family — who were not home at the time — and said he sees the event as an episode of “domestic terrorism.”

Asked if he thought there would not have been a peaceful end to the event if the suspect had been a person of colour, Singh said: “Yes.”

Singh mentioned Ejaz Choudry, a 62-year-old man who was shot by police in Mississauga, Ont., on June 22, after his family called a non-emergency helpline out of concern Choudry was not taking his medication. Choudry had schizophrenia, his family said after his death.

“That contrast — someone showed up to potentially kill the prime minister of Canada, or with weapons at his residence, and that person was arrested without any violence and you had a person who in his own home was killed,” said Singh. “That, to me, is what systemic racism in policing is all about, that difference.”

Other recent incidents involving police that ended in deaths include: • Chantel Moore, 26, a First Nations woman from Port Alberni who was shot and killed by police called to do a wellness check in Edmundston, N.B., on June 4 • Rodney Levi, a 48-year-old First Nations man struggling with his mental health who was killed by police near Miramichi, N.B. on June 12 • Regis Korchinski-Paquet, a 29year-old Black woman from Toronto who died after falling from a 24th-storey balcony while police were at the apartment for a family conflict that had left Korchinski-Paquet in distress.

Green party MP Elizabeth May spoke some of their names into the official record of debates for the House of Commons Wednesday as she asked whether it was time to reconsider how so-called “wellness checks” are carried out via a federal inquiry.

Federal Public Safety Minister Bill Blair suggested that most of the time such incidents end peacefully, but he said the government is working with all levels of government to create national standards on police use of force and de-escalation training.

Last week, RCMP Deputy Commissioner Mike Duheme denied race was a factor in what took place at Rideau Hall.