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September 23rd, 2019

Justin Trudeau Refuses to Denounce Bernier’s Debate Participation Despite Neo-Nazi, Hate Group Ties

This morning it was revealed that among the founding members of Maxime Bernier’s People’s Party of Canada are members of extreme far-right, anti-immigrant hate groups.

These include a former member of neo-Nazi group the Soldiers of Odin and a prominent member of Islamophobic hate group Pegida Canada.

Despite these disturbing developments, Justin Trudeau is refusing to call on the Independent Debate Commission to reconsider their decision to allow Maxime Bernier to participate in upcoming leaders’ debates.

This morning a reporter asked:

“This morning Global News published a story showing some of the founding signatories to the People’s Party of Canada have either current or past ties to neo-nazi groups, Soldiers of Odin, far right groups. In light of this, would you ask the debate commissioner to reconsider the decision to allow Mr. Bernier in the debate?”

Trudeau refused to denounce Bernier’s participation, instead blaming Stephen Harper for being selective about which debates he attended back in 2015.

Jagmeet Singh has written to the debate commission to advocate against Bernier’s participation.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh:

“It’s disappointing that Justin Trudeau has refused to denounce Maxime Bernier’s participation in the debates, even after we learned that founding members of his party are members of known hate groups. Canadians expect Justin Trudeau to do everything possible to fight racism. He should be saying clearly that we should not be giving a national platform to hateful beliefs.”