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  Canada’s Sikh minister heckled with ‘racist’ remarks

Canada’s Sikh minister heckled with ‘racist’ remarks

AFP
Published : Feb 5, 2016, 4:16 am IST
Updated : Feb 5, 2016, 4:16 am IST

Canada’s first Sikh defence minister Harjit Sajjan has been heckled in Parliament with an Opposition member shouting that MPs needed an “English-to-English” translation as he spoke, an act dubbed as “

Harjit Sajjan
 Harjit Sajjan

Canada’s first Sikh defence minister Harjit Sajjan has been heckled in Parliament with an Opposition member shouting that MPs needed an “English-to-English” translation as he spoke, an act dubbed as “racist”.

Veteran Conservative MP Jason Kenney sparked a controversy in the question period in Parliament with the heckle directed at Mr Sajjan while the minister was responding about the military mission against ISIS.

Mr Kenney, a former defence minister himself, said MPs needed an “English-to-English” translation of Mr Sajjan’s responses.

Mr Sajjan, 45, was in November named Canada’s defence minister as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s 30-member Liberal Cabinet was sworn in. He is a combat veteran and has served in Bosnia and had three deployments to Kandahar, Afghanistan.

Mr Sajjan’s fellow Liberals were quick to pounce on Mr Kenney, describing his heckling on Monday as racist, Huffington Post Canada reported.

After question period, Liberal Kevin Lamoureux rose on a point of order asking Mr Kenney to apologise for an “inappropriate comment” directed at the defence minister.

Mr Lamoureux charged that Mr Kenney “stated from across his seat that we need to have English-to-English translation” while Mr Sajjan was speaking. “I’m wondering if the member would do the proper thing and apologise or at the very least explain his comments,” Mr Lamoureux was quoted as saying.

“Shame on @jkenney for his racist remarks during today’s qp toward #harjitsajjan. His refusal to apologise is unacceptable,” Indian-origin Liberal MP Ruby Sahota tweeted.

Mr Kenney rejected calls to apologise in the House of Commons. Later, he took to Twitter to explain why he made the comment, saying he found the minister’s answer “totally incoherent”.

Another Indian-origin MP Raj Grewal said, “Kenney should apologise for his comments in question period today when Harjit Sajjan was speaking.”

Mr Kenney responded saying he respects Mr Sajjan. “Unfortunately, I find his answers on ending combat against ISIS to be at best unpersuasive (and) at worst incoherent,” Mr Kenney wrote, adding he was sorry if his comment was “misconstrued in any way”.

Location: Canada, Ontario, Toronto