QUEBEC MP Maxime Bernier’s tweet on Tuesday – “While a statue of our country’s founder is being removed in one city, a park was recently named after Pakistan’s founder in another” – apparently inspired some racists to saw off part of a sign in a city park that is named after Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan.
Winnipeg’s Rashid Ahmed told the media that he intends to file a police report. He said: “You always find some people in a community who put two sides against each other. I think that is what happened here.”
Bernier has been terribly frustrated since he lost the Conservative Party leadership to Andrew Scheer and is now quite obviously trying to sabotage Scheer by appealing to the right-wing nuts in the party.
Pakistan’s High Commissioner to Canada, Tariq Azim Khan, inaugurated the park last May.
Conservative Senator Salma Ataullahjan, a Pakistani-Canadian, told CBC that Bernier’s tweet was an attempt to divide Canadians of Pakistani origin from other Canadians.
She added: “A lot of [Pakistani-Canadians] supported his leadership bid and instead of wishing them well on Pakistan Independence Day he tweets this out … He’s just poking us in the eye for no reason.”
ON Sunday, the controversy drew hundreds of people to the park to celebrate Pakistan Independence Day.
CBC reported that among those who attended were Winnipeg South Liberal MP Terry Duguid, city councillors Janice Lukes and Brian Mayes, and Senator Ataullahjan.
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