Joe Biden accused of plagiarizing from Jack Layton’s final letter in nomination speech

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Sandy Hudson, an activist with Black Lives Matter, tweeted Biden’s speech reminded her of Layton.

“So very very Jack Layton,” tweeted Hudson.

However, the sentiments Layton made also channel lines from a speech former prime minister Wilfrid Laurier gave in 1916.

“Let me tell you that for the solution of these problems you have a safe guide, an unfailing light if you remember that faith is better than doubt and love is better than hate,” said Laurier.

Laurier’s speech was meant to promote unity among Canadians during World War I and build connections between English and French-Canadians.

Biden has been accused of plagiarism in the past. Most famously, he plagiarized a speech in 1987 from former British Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock.

Kinnock’s speech said, “Why am I the first Kinnock in a thousand generations to be able to get to university? Why is Glenys (his wife) the first woman in her family in a thousand generations to be able to get to university? Was it because all our predecessors were thick?”

Biden’s speech said, “I started thinking as I was coming over here, why is it that Joe Biden is the first in his family ever to go to a university? Why is it that my wife who is sitting out there in the audience is the first in her family to ever go to college? Is it because our fathers and mothers were not bright?”