Canada’s first Sikh Defence Minister, Harjit Sajjan, was heckled in Parliament with an Opposition member shouting that MPs needed an “English-to- English” translation as he spoke, an act dubbed as “racist”.
Veteran Conservative MP Jason Kenney sparked a controversy in the question period in Parliament with the heckle directed at Mr. Sajjan while the Minister was responding to a query on the military mission against the Islamic State (IS).
Mr. Kenney, a former Defence Minister himself, said MPs needed an “English-to-English” translation of Mr. Sajjan’s responses.
Mr. Sajjan (45) was in November named Canada’s Defence Minister as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s 30-member Liberal Cabinet was sworn in. He is a combat veteran and has served in Bosnia and had three deployments to Kandahar, Afghanistan.
He was born in India and moved to Canada with his family at the age of five.
Mr. Sajjan’s fellow Liberals were quick to pounce on Kenney, describing his heckling on Monday as racist, the Huffington Post Canada reported.
After question period, Liberal Kevin Lamoureux rose on a point of order asking Kenney to apologise for an “inappropriate comment” directed at the Defence Minister.
