Jagmeet Singh with NDP MP for London-Fanshawe Lindsay Mathyssen at the International Women’s Day Breakfast at RBC Place (Photo: Robert Lothian, X FM News)
Federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh stopped by the city Friday morning to celebrate a day of recognizing the achievements of women.
Singh attended the International Women’s Day Breakfast at RBC Place, and later took a tour of My Sisters’ Place, a local women’s support shelter.
Speaking at the event, Singh called on the federal government to provide more support for women and children in need.
“We want to make sure that [women] are not turned away… [so] we need a permanent solution, and that means affordable housing, assistant housing [and] supportive housing,” said Singh.
“When the richest companies said they needed a break, [Trudeau] wrote off billions of dollars of tax breaks for the richest companies, but when women and children are being turned away from shelters, he tells them to wait.”
Singh said he wants to see half a million dollars go towards new affordable homes across Canada in the next four years to fight against this “really troubling trend.”
Singh also called for three things in order to celebrate International Women’s Day in a “meaningful way [and] to truly be feminists.”
The first is to support more spaces and opportunities for struggling women, second is to invest in more affordable housing and the third is to invest more in universal child care.
“What can be more urgent than a woman and her children not being able to have a place to go to when they’re fleeing violence?” Singh said.
“If anything cries out for urgent investment, that should be something that shames the federal government right away.”
NDP MP for London-Fanshawe Lindsay Mathyssen couldn’t agree more.
“I can’t think for anything more fitting on International Women’s Day than to celebrate sisterhood and [strength], and to continue to support it and go forward,” said Mathyssen.
Karna Trentman is the director of community services at the Canadian Mental Health Association, and My Sisters’ Place is one of the programs she’s involved with.
She says she fully supports Singh’s comments.
“I know that there [are] buckets of money federally that we need to see trickle down to the municipal level and the housing level.”
Trentman adds My Sisters’ Place relies on fundraising and donations to make up 75 per cent of the funds annually to the keep doors open.
