Canada was excoriated as a racist, hypocritical failure Tuesday as MPs who don't intend to seek re-election said their official farewells to Parliament.
Mumilaaq Qaqqaq, the New Democrat MP for Nunavut, used the opportunity to blast Canada as a country built on the oppression of Indigenous People and whose history is "stained with blood.".
"People like me don't belong here in the federal institution," she told the House of Commons.
"Every time I walk onto House of Commons grounds, speak in these chambers, I am reminded every step of the way I don't belong here," she said.
Qaqqaq said security guards on the Hill have jogged after her down hallways, "nearly put their hands on me and racial profiled me.".
Qaqqaq said she has heard many "pretty words" about reconciliation, diversity and inclusion, but they have proven to be largely empty.
Liberal MP Navdeep Bains, who stepped down as a cabinet minister earlier this year after deciding not to seek re-election, told the Commons he's had similar run-ins with racial prejudice.
Still, Bains said he's "tremendously optimistic for the future.".
In the last 15 years, he has heard "the worst stories of human suffering" as a member of the Commons human rights committee and the "draconian lockdowns" during the COVID-19 pandemic contributed to that, he said.
This is what I'm doing," Sweet said, urging others to do the same
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