Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath is standing by one of her star candidates after a photo of him holding a sign that reads “FUCK THE POLICE” was brought to light.
The photo of Brampton East candidate Gurratan Singh taken at a demonstration in Toronto in 2006 was published on the Toronto Sun’s front page Tuesday. Gurratan Singh is the younger brother of federal NDP leader and former Ontario MPP Jagmeet Singh.
Speaking with reporters Tuesday, Horwath called the sign “abhorrent” and it’s message “despicable”.
But the NDP leader says Singh is not the man he once was.
“Gurratan has changed his life around since his early twenties when he was holding that sign,” Horwath said. “He in fact then went to law school and now actually upholds the law and the justice system as opposed to rallying against it.”
Singh, who was a practicing crimson defence lawyer before the provincial campaign tells the Sun he is now “deeply ashamed” of the sign, before apologizing to police officers, their family members and true police community.