NDP Chief Jagmeet Singh mentioned Saturday that he thought-about stepping down after being instructed a couple of credible risk to his life in December 2023.
Singh made the revelation to reporters in a marketing campaign cease in London, Ont. as he’s combating for his political life forward of Monday’s remaining vote.
Singh mentioned the RCMP warned him in regards to the risk and put him and his household beneath heavy police safety in late 2023 and early 2024. He mentioned excited about what that risk may imply for his household was unnerving.
“When I got that threat, I was floored,” he mentioned. “When I started thinking about what it meant for me and my family, that I was the target of a real threat to my life, I had the chills.”
On the time his spouse, Gurkiran Kaur Sidhu, was pregnant with their second daughter. His older daughter was then nearly two years previous.
NDP Chief Jagmeet Singh arrives along with his spouse Gurkiran Kaur Sidhu, for the English-language federal election debate, in Montreal, on Thursday, April 17, 2025.
Chris Younger / The Canadian press
“For the first number of days, I just stayed in the basement because they advised me to stay away from windows,” he mentioned. “It was a pretty serious thing.”
Singh mentioned he had some very “tough talks” along with his spouse about whether or not or to not stay on the occasion helm, noting the rationale for the threats was his place as “a prominent elected official.”
The NDP chief mentioned he in the end determined to remain on as a result of he had extra he wished to do, together with finalizing the nationwide dental care program the occasion pushed the Liberals to implement.
Singh mentioned the RCMP didn’t say the place the threats to his life got here from however the “implication” was they originated from a overseas authorities.
Singh was one among a number of MPs and cupboard ministers given RCMP safety lately. Overseas Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly has had fixed safety for greater than a yr.
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Former emergency preparedness minister Harjit Sajjan had an RCMP element for a number of months in 2023 and 2024, as did Conservative Deputy Chief Melissa Lantsman.
None of them, together with Singh, would ever talk about the threats, although the uptick in safety for these 4 coincided with rising threats in Canada following each the Oct. 7 Hamas assault on Israel and the following conflict in Gaza, in addition to Canada’s accusations towards Indian state brokers in relation to the homicide of a Canadian Sikh chief.
Singh was requested in regards to the protecting element round him on the time however he wouldn’t talk about it. His spokeswoman instructed The Canadian Press in 2024 that the occasion was following the “recommendations that are provided to us.”
Singh mentioned he’s sharing his story now after listening to from common folks on the marketing campaign path who’re apprehensive about overseas interference and threats in their very own lives.
“Over the course of this campaign, some really personal things have come up and stories have come up, ideas of how everyday folks are targeted, and everyday folks who are faced with a lot of challenges and meeting with different community groups that came up again and again,” Singh mentioned. “I felt like it was important, after a lot of persuasion, that this might highlight how serious and dangerous foreign interference is for people.”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau rose within the Home of Commons on Sept. 19, 2023 and accused the Indian authorities of being concerned within the homicide of a Sikh activist, Hardeep Singh Nijjar. He was shot whereas sitting in is truck within the car parking zone of his native gurdwara in Surrey, B.C. on June 18, 2023.
Nijjar was a key organizer of unofficial referendums for an impartial Sikh state in India and was regarded by India’s authorities as a terrorist.
Three Indian nationals, all of their 20s, are charged with first diploma homicide and conspiracy to commit homicide.
When Singh visited a gurdwara in Saskatoon on April 9 to fulfill with members of the native Sikh group, he was requested a number of questions on overseas interference.
“It was something I was very reluctant to do in the past that I thought maybe this would be an opportunity, with the platform I have, to share how serious this is,” Singh mentioned.
Everlasting RCMP safety is offered for the prime minister and the governor common, whereas different occasion leaders, ministers and MPs can obtain it as wanted. The associated fee to guard MPs, not together with the prime minister, has risen considerably in the previous couple of years.
Pat McDonell, the sergeant-at-arms within the Home of Commons, instructed a Home committee in Might 2024 that harassment of MPs had risen as a lot as 800 per cent within the final 5 years. Most of it, he mentioned, comes on-line, nevertheless it additionally takes place in particular person.
Singh is making the revelation with two days left within the federal election. His occasion is trailing badly in most polls and is susceptible to shedding official occasion standing after Monday’s vote.
