WARMINGTON: Conservative MP Leslyn Lewis won’t be called racist by blackface PM

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Saying she will never accept being called “vile and intolerant” by a man “who wore blackface,” Conservative MP Dr. Leslyn Lewis is demanding Prime Minister Justin Trudeau apologize to her and her colleagues — and immediately resign from office.

“He is going to sit across from this black woman and know I know exactly who he is,” the Haldimand Norfolk MP said Friday night. “I want an apology from him” and “he should step down as PM because he is destroying this country.”

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Her strong reaction came after Trudeau told reporters “the Conservatives need to own up and either really disassociate themselves from hateful vile intolerant rhetoric or tell the truth and explain that they actually have room for those rhetoric’s and that intolerance within their party.”

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Lewis said her own humanitarian work as a lawyer, as well as the life-long work done by Allision and Carrie on helping people from all walks of life, should have granted them the benefit of doubt rather than a political “smear.”

While Lewis said she had not talked to Poilievre about his statement commenting on Anderson, she did not hold back on what Trudeau said.

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And what Lewis said is she will not be “belittled” or lectured by a man who dressed up in blackface on many occasions and was dismissive of female MPs who are no longer in the House of Commons.

“I was deeply, deeply hurt as a black Canadian watching the person holding the highest office in the land dress up as a black slave, dancing around, stepping and fetching and mocking black people, my ancestors, putting a banana in his pants and denigrating and objectifying black men,” she said. “I want an apology (from Trudeau) for wearing blackface.”

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“I won’t allow him to throw another woman under the bus,” Lewis said, adding, “all he does is try to divide, demonize and try to destroy women’s careers, primarily minority woman, and now he’s attempting to do the same thing to me and I am starting to believe (there was) a reason he wore blackface.”

Lewis let previous things go but draws the line at being called intolerant for merely meeting a visiting parliamentarian.

She said the notion that Trudeau has “the nerve to call me, a black woman, that has worked her entire life in this country supporting the most vulnerable, including blacks, Muslim, Jewish, and LGBTQ+,” intolerant is “incredulous.”

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She said the irony is “this person, who has based his entire career on virtue signalling, dividing and demonizing this country” is “in the middle of a scandal where he compromised our entire democracy and our electoral  system, and he knew that it was compromised with the Chinese communist party,” but she and her peers are slandered for dropping into a lunch.

Lewis said no one is ever going to get away with treating her as she was treated Friday.

“I want him (Trudeau) to resign over blackface because I cannot stomach anymore to sit across from him and see this man” who “will do anything he can to destroy minority women,” Lewis said. “He destroyed (Liberal MPs) Celina Caesar-Chavannes and Jody Wilson-Raybould” and “now he is trying to destroy me.”

Maintaining she “won’t let him,” Lewis said it’s Trudeau who she will be putting under scrutiny.

jwarmington@postmedia.com