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NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh celebrates International Women’s Day in London, Ont.

Singh attended the International Women's Day Breakfast at RBC Place, followed by a tour of My Sisters' Place, a local women's support shelter.
Singh attended the International Women's Day Breakfast at RBC Place, followed by a tour of My Sisters' Place, a local women's support shelter. Sawyer Bogdan/980 CFPL

Federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh stopped by London Friday morning to celebrate a day of recognizing the achievements of women.

Singh attended the International Women’s Day Breakfast at RBC Place, followed by a tour of My Sisters’ Place, a local women’s support shelter.

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Speaking at the breakfast, 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 half a million dollars to go to 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.”
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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.

Click to play video: 'Federal NDP leader Jagmeet Singh discusses opioid crisis, child care while touring the South Okanagan'
Federal NDP leader Jagmeet Singh discusses opioid crisis, child care while touring the South Okanagan

“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.

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“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 agreed.

“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.
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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 told 980 CFPL 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.

-With files from 980 CFPL’s Sawyer Bogdan

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