Singh considered stepping down in 2023 after being told of threat to his life

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh speaks with a supporter while delivering baked goods and chocolates to volunteers at the London Centre and London West NDP campaign office, in Windsor, Ont., Saturday, April 26, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

LONDON — NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh says he considered stepping down after being told about a credible threat to his life in December 2023.

Singh made the revelation to reporters in a campaign stop in London, Ont. as he is fighting for his political life ahead of Monday’s final vote.

Singh said the RCMP warned him about the threat and put him and his family under heavy police protection in late 2023 and early 2024. He said thinking about what that threat could mean for his family was unnerving.

“When I got that threat, I was floored,” he said. “When I started thinking about what it meant for me and my family, that I was the target of a real threat to my life, I had the chills.”

At the time his wife, Gurkiran Kaur Sidhu, was pregnant with their second daughter. His older daughter was then almost two years old.

“For the first number of days, I just stayed in the basement because they advised me to stay away from windows,” he said. “It was a pretty serious thing.”

Singh said he had some very “tough talks” with his wife about whether or not to remain at the party helm, noting the reason for the threats was his position as “a prominent elected official.”

The NDP leader said he ultimately decided to stay on because he had more he wanted to do, including finalizing the national dental care program the party pushed the Liberals to implement.

Singh said the RCMP did not say where the threats to his life came from but the “implication” was they originated from a foreign government.

Singh was one of multiple MPs and cabinet ministers given RCMP protection in recent years. Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly has had constant protection for more than a year.

Former emergency preparedness minister Harjit Sajjan had an RCMP detail for several months in 2023 and 2024, as did Conservative Deputy Leader Melissa Lantsman.

None of them, including Singh, would ever discuss the threats, though the uptick in security for those four coincided with rising threats in Canada following both the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza, as well as Canada’s accusations against Indian state agents in relation to the murder of a Canadian Sikh leader.

Singh was asked about the protective detail around him at the time but he would not discuss it. His spokeswoman told The Canadian Press in 2024 that the party was following the “recommendations that are provided to us.” 

Singh said he is sharing his story now after hearing from regular people on the campaign trail who are worried about foreign interference and threats in their own lives. 

“Over the course of this campaign, some really personal things have come up and stories have come up, ideas of how everyday folks are targeted, and everyday folks who are faced with a lot of challenges and meeting with different community groups that came up again and again,” Singh said. “I felt like it was important, after a lot of persuasion, that this might highlight how serious and dangerous foreign interference is for people.”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau rose in the House of Commons on Sept. 19, 2023 and accused the Indian government of being involved in the murder of a Sikh activist, Hardeep Singh Nijjar. He was shot while sitting in is truck in the parking lot of his local gurdwara in Surrey, B.C. on June 18, 2023.

Nijjar was a key organizer of unofficial referendums for an independent Sikh state in India and was regarded by India’s government as a terrorist.

Three Indian nationals, all in their 20s, are charged with first degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder. 

When Singh visited a gurdwara in Saskatoon on April 9 to meet with members of the local Sikh community, he was asked several questions about foreign interference.

“It was something I was very reluctant to do in the past that I thought maybe this would be an opportunity, with the platform I have, to share how serious this is,” Singh said.

Permanent RCMP protection is provided for the prime minister and the governor general, while other party leaders, ministers and MPs can receive it as needed. The cost to protect MPs, not including the prime minister, has risen significantly in the last few years.

Pat McDonell, the sergeant-at-arms in the House of Commons, told a House committee in May 2024 that harassment of MPs had risen as much as 800 per cent in the last five years. Most of it, he said, comes online, but it also takes place in person.

Singh is making the revelation with two days left in the federal election. His party is trailing badly in most polls and is at risk of losing official party status after Monday’s vote.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 26, 2025.

David Baxter, The Canadian Press