Meet the Real NDP: Gurratan Singh

6 years ago

Andrea Horwath’s star candidate’s activism against police has included encouraging violence against women and men in uniform

Andrea Horwath has once again been caught indulging offensive and radical elements in her party, Ontario PC candidates Gary Ellis, Roshan Nallaratnam and Steve Clark revealed today. The latest radical and extreme candidate to be publicly exposed is NDP candidate Gurratan Singh who has been caught stalking and harassing police officers while holding signs that read ‘F_ _ _ the Police.’

“I am a former police officer and Steve has family who are in law enforcement. Every single day, our men and women in uniform put themselves at great risk in order to keep our families safe,” said Ellis. “They, and their families, deserve better than profanity and threats. And make no mistake, Mr. Singh’s behaviour was very much an endorsement of violence against police.”

Singh’s revelation is just the latest in a series of scandals enveloping NDP candidates who espouse offensive, radical and non-mainstream views. Other NDP candidates have been caught sharing Hitler memes online, espousing anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, calling Canadian veterans war criminals, calling for violence protests and property destruction, advocating for a 35 cent per litre carbon tax, and the eradication of Ontario’s mining industry.

“Each time an NDP candidate engages in offensive behaviour, Andrea Horwath does nothing,” said Clark. “It is fair to ask whether there is a point at which Ms. Horwath is prepared to stand up to the radical interests in the NDP and stand up for the people who are hurt by her offensive candidates? Time and time again — it is clear the answer is ‘no’.”

Meet the Real NDP

Brampton South NDP candidate Gurratan Singh:
- Held an anti-police sign at a 2006 demonstration.1
Toronto-St. Paul’s NDP candidate Jill Andrew:
- Used a racial slur in reference to the Toronto Police Chief.2
Ottawa Centre NDP candidate Joel Harden:
- Has advocated for a $150/tonne carbon tax, which would be the highest carbon tax in the world.
  - Harden’s carbon tax would increase gas prices by 34.8 cents per litre.3
  - Harden’s carbon tax would increase the cost of heating a home with natural gas by $216 per month, or $2,592 per year.
- In an interview with the Socialist Worker, he said that the readers should see him as “an ally, who won’t change.”4
Mississauga Centre NDP candidate Laura Kaminker:
- Refuses to wear a poppy, writing in a 2014 blog post, “I just wear my peace button on my jacket as always, and wait for the collective brainwashing to blow over. When our masters give the signal, everyone can take off the fake poppy – made with prison labour – and create a bit more landfill. And another annual ritual of war glorification comes to a close.”5
- Has attacked sports teams like the Toronto Maple Leafs, Ottawa Senators, and Toronto Blue Jays who honour our troops at games.6
- A 9/11 conspiracy theorist who strongly believes we should stop memorializing the 3,000 lives lost, including 26 Canadians. In 2010, she wrote “Enough about September 11…for the US. For the world. Enough already,” and in 2011 she wrote “It makes me want to shout: Go away! Go the fuck away! All of you fixating on this one event, the whole world expected to stand in hushed silence because a bad thing happened to Americans.”7
- While she does not want to honour the troops who have fought for the freedom and rights we all hold dear, she does want to wage a war on Christmas, writing ““If there were a war on Christmas, I’d think about signing up.”8
- Is a self-described Marxist, who after a conference wrote that it was a “weekend of inspiration, education, and revolution.”9
Scarborough-Agincourt NDP candidate Tasleem Riaz:
- She shared a pro-Nazi meme on Facebook which featured Adolf Hitler giving a Nazi salute with the quote, “If you don’t like a Rule…Just Follow it…Reach on the top…and Change the Rule” attributed to the German dictator. 10
- She also called our brave men and women in uniform war criminals who are a “slaughtering machine.”11
Scarborough North NDP candidate Dwayne Morgan:
- A 9/11 conspiracy theorist who tweeted, “Now if they could do something about Bush’s role in 9/11, people could finally get closure” 12
University-Rosedale candidate Jessica Bell:
- A professional protester, who co-wrote a handbook on organizing radical protests, and endorses strategies like “occupation,” and “property destruction”13and a manual accusing the police of targeted assassinations.14
- As an activist with the Rainforest Action Network, she was part of a group of paid protesters who climbed a crane in Seattle and were arrested for criminal sabotage.15
Beaches-East York NDP Candidate Rima Berns McGown:
- Rima is known for posting anti-semitic and inflammatory language on her blog, which she has since tried to cover up:
  - “Palestinians have borne the brunt of Jews’ traumatized reaction to the Holocaust — such that a fringe idea at the end of the 19th century has become Jewish identity orthodoxy.”16
  - “Netanyahu and his ilk play the Holocaust card every time they counter international criticism. It’s completely instrumental: how can you say no to a man whose relatives were shoved into an oven while your relatives said nothing? But you must. You must say no.”17
Lanark-Frontenac-Kingston candidate Ramsey Hart:
- A career anti-mining activist who has opposed development of the Ring of Fire.18
- Bragged about the fact that mining companies dislike him.19
- Wants to raise mining taxes as a roundabout way of shutting down mining exploration across the province.20
- Has attacked “the [mining] industry’s dirt and dangerous legacy.21
Ottawa West-Nepean candidate Chandra Pasma:
- She wrote a blog post where she said jobs are not the answer, saying “We need to reconceptualize work and find ways of detaching income security from paid employment,” and “How do we escape the clutches of labourism, with its limited ideas of work and its dehumanizing emphasis on paid labour.”22
Kitchener South-Hespeler candidate Fitzroy Vanderpool:
- Helped to sponsor a Female Oil Wrestling competition featuring bikini-clad women. When he was pressed about his involvement in the event, Vanderpool denied he attended the event, and speculated that it was another person named “Fitz the Whip.”23
Mississauga-Malton candidate Nikki Clarke:
- Ran a company called Beads 4 Health that made jewelry with magnets that she said could relieve arthritis pain and improve circulation.24 Scientific evidence disputes this claim.25