Jagmeet Singh says he was warned by the RCMP about a credible threat to his life and placed under police protection two winters ago — and that he considered stepping down as leader of the NDP.
“When I got that threat, I was floored,” Singh told reporters at a campaign event in London, Ont., on Saturday morning. “I had chills thinking about what that could mean for my wife who was pregnant at the time — for my baby girl.”
In winter of 2023-24, Singh received a “duty to warn” from the RCMP, which is how the police force notifies people they’ve become aware of threats to their safety.
Four officers delivered the warning to the NDP leader.
“It was definitely a scary time. I felt this knot in my stomach. For the first number of days, I just stayed in the basement because they advised me to stay away from windows,” Singh said. He was placed under heavy RCMP protection for weeks.
The warning to Singh, first reported by the Toronto Star, came nearly a year before former prime minister Justin Trudeau claimed Canada had evidence linking Indian agents to the killing of Canadian Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
Singh, who is also Sikh, told reporters the RCMP did not specify who was behind the death threat “but the implication was a foreign government.”
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, speaking in London, Ont., on Saturday, responds to reporters’ questions first in English and then French about his decision to speak publicly about RCMP warnings in 2023 of a credible threat to his life. Singh’s account of the threats was first reported by the Toronto Star. His French answer has been excluded for the sake of length.
After being warned, Singh said he and his wife discussed whether he should keep leading the New Democrats.
“She was floored too, and she was afraid. And I thought, ‘Is it worth it for us to continue given a threat to life?’ And so we chatted about it,” Singh said.
Ultimately, Singh said, he decided to stay on because he wanted to complete Canada’s rollout of its new dental care program.
“Millions of Canadians have gotten dental care because we kept that fight,” he said.
“We were just getting close to getting dental care out the door, so I didn’t want to stop. I wanted to keep on fighting no matter what the odds were, no matter what the threat was.”
The threat to Singh lessened in early 2024, according to representatives from his campaign.
CBC News has also reached out to the RCMP for more information.
Singh explains why he’s speaking out now
When asked why he’s disclosing this information now, Singh said Canadians have shared stories with him during the campaign about their experiences with foreign interference.
Singh said those stories made it clear “that maybe sharing a bit of what happened to me would help highlight how serious this is” for others in similar circumstances.
“What about folks that are faced with these threats on a day-to-day basis? What about different community groups that constantly are living with the fear of threats to themselves, to their families?” Singh said.
“And so that’s why foreign interference is such a serious issue.”
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, speaking from Toronto in the final week of the election campaign, says there were two main reasons he didn’t push for an earlier election, which included him wanting Canadians to benefit from dental care and pharmacare and that he did not want Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre and his party form a majority government.
While being an elected official got him “incredible protection from the RCMP, who I’m so eternally thankful for,” Singh acknowledged that not every Canadian can get that level of attention.
Singh made the revelation with two days left in the federal election. His party is trailing badly in most polls and is at risk of losing official party status after Monday’s vote.
