OTTAWA — Today, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, joined by newly elected NDP MPs, laid out his plan to continue fighting for Canadians amid the fourth wave of COVID-19. As Alberta and Saskatchewan are hit hardest in the fourth wave, Singh committed to keep fighting to extend supports, to bring in a national vaccination passport and better sick leave to help workers.
The NDP announced Thursday that its caucus had elected MPs to fill key jobs, including Vancouver MP Jenny Kwan who will serve as caucus chair and Blake Desjarlais, a two-spirit Metis leader newly elected in Edmonton, as deputy caucus chair.
Former city councillor and provincial MLA Jenny Kwan, now an MP, said she told him once he needed to go down to Main and Hastings, the city’s busiest spot for street drugs, and talk to people.
He did. “To his credit, he stayed for two hours. He came back a changed man,” said Ms. Kwan, who admired how he went “all in despite the pressure from his colleagues.”
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh attended a local event in Vancouver. Mr. Singh went to the Orange Shirt Day walk and ceremony, outside of the Vancouver Aboriginal Friendship Centre, along with NDP MPs Jenny Kwan, Don Davies, Peter Julian and MP-elect Bonita Zarrillo. Orange Shirt Day, which also falls on Sept. 30, is a commemorative day to honour Indigenous children who survived residential schools and remember those who did not.
Re-elected Vancouver East MP Jenny Kwan has reaction to the NDP’s gains and Jagmeet Singh’s influence on the new Liberal minority government. Kwan said her party looks to bring some balance and fix the inequality for Canadians across the country. Kwan said Singh and the NDP Party campaigned to make sure the ultra-rich pay “their fair share.”
In Kwan’s case, Fred Kwok, a high-rolling Vancouverite with a reputation for defending Beijing against charges that it is a totalitarian human rights abuser, organized a free lunch for the Chinese-Canadian community to meet with Kwan’s Liberal opponent, Josh Vander Vies. Kwok later told the Vancouver Sunthat in doing so, he’d inadvertently violated the donation-limit rules under the Elections Act.
As recently as February, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service director, David Vigneault, flagged as “some of the most paramount concerns” efforts by China and Russia to “target politicians, political parties, and electoral processes in order to covertly influence Canadian public policy, public opinion, and ultimately undermine our democracy and democratic processes.”
The federal NDP’s immigration critic, Vancouver East candidate Jenny Kwan, has called on the caretaker Liberal government to immediately provide Afghans who supported the Canadian armed forces during the war on the Taliban with temporary residency permits and travel documents.
Kwan said that many Afghan interpreters, other collaborators, and their extended families have been left in a precarious position as the Taliban has taken over Afghanistan.
OTTAWA – Seniors across the country have been shocked to learn that the benefits they rely on have been cut, either partially or entirely, after receiving pandemic supports such as CERB. New Democrats are demanding that the Liberal government address this devastating policy now so that vulnerable seniors aren’t forced into a desperate situation. Just as panic is rising and many more seniors are now contacting their Members of Parliament in desperation, the Liberals are planning a selfish election.