MPP Singh responds to Islamophobic remarks
Brampton representative channelled brother in condemning hate
Brampton East MPP Gurratan Singh condemned Islamophobic remarks made toward him Sunday afternoon at MuslimFest.
Singh, the brother of federal NDP leader Jagmeet Singh, was at the three-day Mississauga event to bring comments about empowering the Muslim community and confronting Islamophobia.
Singh said while he was speaking, he noticed a man acting aggressively and shouting. When he left the stage, he saw the man walk through security, lock eyes with him and “effectively beeline” toward him, he said.
In a video of the incident posted online, Singh speaks to the man while the man says, “I’m not racist. I’m not racist at all.” The man can be seen asking, “What about Shariah? Political Islam? You’re hiding bud. I’ll debate you anytime.” Security in orange construction vests in the background are also heard on the video saying, “Get him out.”
The man in the video is Stephen Garvey, the leader of the National Citizens Alliance, an anti-immigration federal political party. The NCA posted a video of the incident on their Facebook page.
Singh said in that moment, he thought of a lesson his brother taught him: to always confront racism.
“Whenever I am confronted with Islamophobia, my response is not, ‘Yeah, I’m not Muslim,’ (it’s) ‘Hate is wrong,’ ” he said in a tweet from his verified Twitter account.
Jagmeet Singh made headlines when he calmly confronted a heckler at a campaign rally in 2017 while running for the NDP leadership.
“We love you. We support you,” he told the woman, who was shouting about “Shariah” and “the Muslim brotherhood.”
“Those are the messages that I want to communicate, to condemn and confront and name racism, and also stand in solidarity with any community that faces it, Muslim or otherwise,” Gurratan Singh said.
He recounted his response to the man: saying “I condemn your racism” and “This has no place in Canada.”
Organizers came between the two and escorted the man out, though Singh said the man was yelling the whole time.
“It’s really sad that (in) a moment when people are coming together to celebrate who they are, that there’s someone there who’s trying to spread so much hate and divisiveness,” Singh said.
He said he had a great time at the event outside of that experience, and the event was “beautifully inclusive” with lots of love and warmth from the participants. “It’s disheartening to see this, but it’s also great to see people come together to condemn that hatred,” he said, adding that the man’s “threatening and menacing approach” was dealt with in a professional and calm manner. Around 9:30 p.m. Sunday night, while people were leaving the event, there were two men still “engaging” and recording people, said Arif Zia, an organizer of the event and executive director of DawaNet, the parent organization of MuslimFest.
Zia said the event, which saw over 70,000 attendees, centred around unity and bringing together people of different faiths, who he said accounted for 20 to 30 per cent of people there.
He said he admired Singh’s calmness and response. “I appreciate what he does to support Muslims,” he added.