Thomas Mulcair

Thomas Mulcair is a Canadian politician who led the New Democratic Party from 24 March 2012 to 1 October 2017 and was Leader of the Official Opposition from 24 March 2012 to 4 November 2015. He was born in Ottawa on 24 October 1954. Before federal politics he was Quebec's Minister of Sustainable Development, Environment and Parks from 2003 to 2006, and he sat as the Member of Parliament for Outremont from 2007 to 2018 (Wikipedia).

On 1984. As NDP leader he spoke on the 1984 events in statements to the Sikh community. A SikhNet item dated 25 July 2012, republished from the advocacy site sikhactivist.net, says that his statement of 4 June 2012 called for justice for the victims and survivors of 1984 and closely matched an earlier letter from his predecessor Jack Layton. According to that item, when the Indian Ambassador made remarks about it, Mulcair replied that he would not be told he could not take the position the NDP had always taken, and that justice delayed is justice denied.

Global News reported on 6 November 2012 that Mulcair, in a recent release, had referred to the 1984 events as pogroms and said that the victims and survivors had waited too long for recognition of their plight.

Key moments

• 24 March 2012: becomes NDP leader and Leader of the Official Opposition.
• 4 June 2012: issues a statement on 1984 calling for justice.
• November 2012: describes the 1984 events as pogroms in a release (Global News, 6 November 2012).
• 1 October 2017: leaves the NDP leadership; Jagmeet Singh won the leadership race that year (Wikipedia).

What he is remembered for. In the Sikh record he is remembered for taking the NDP's position on 1984 from the benches of the Official Opposition, in the line of Jack Layton and before Jagmeet Singh.