A Canadian politician is winning praise on social media this week for his surprising response to a racist attack at Sunday’s MuslimFest in Mississauga.
Gurratan Singh, who represents the Ontario district of Brampton East, went viral for declining to correct a man’s ignorant string of Islamophobic comments directed at him ― despite the fact he is not Muslim.
“I will never respond to an Islamophobe by stating, ‘I am not a Muslim,’” the Sikh politician tweeted.
“Instead, I will always stand with my Muslim brothers and sisters and say hate is wrong.”
In the video of the incident, which has been viewed more than 1.2 million times since it was posted on Sunday, Singh condemns the man’s Islamophobic comments and tells him it has “no place in Canada.”
“It’s not hate, it’s the truth buddy,” the man says at one point, denying repeatedly that he’s a racist. “What about sharia? Political Islam? You’re hiding bud. I’ll debate you anytime.”
The man in the video is Stephen Garvey, the leader of a minor federal political party called the National Citizens Alliance (NCA) which is known for its anti-immigration policies.
NCA streamed the same incident live to Facebook, stating “National Citizens Alliance’s agenda is Canadian First, and opposition to political correctness and third world migrant populism.”
Singh’s brother, leader of the federal New Democratic Party Jagmeet Singh, famously told a heckler he loved and supported her in response to racist remarks in 2017.
Watch the video of the incident below.