Indo-Canadian candidate suspended over offensive social media posts

An Indo-Canadian candidate running in the Ontario election has been suspended by Canada’s Liberal Party after offensive social media posts attributed to him came to light.

The suspension was announced by the party on Friday, according to the agency Canadian Press.

Viresh Bansal was a candidate for the riding (as constituencies are called in Canada) of Oshawa. On Tuesday, he had issued a public apology for the comments made in X and Facebook posts in 2023.

Those posts related to the killing of pro-Khalistan figure Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey, British Columbia, on June 18, 2023, and a homophobic slur against Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

The posts included a response to New Democratic Party leader Jagmeet Singh accusing India of involvement in Nijjar’s killing

The emergence of these posts led to demands for Bansal’s candidature to be cancelled by the provincial Liberal Party. No such announcement has been made as yet.

The race in the riding is primarily between sitting member of the provincial parliament (MPP) Jennifer French of the NDP, and the ruling Conservative Party’s Jerry Ouellette.

The ruling Conservatives have called snap elections, which will be held on February 27. They are expected to comfortably retain power with recent polling showing them leading the Liberals by a dozen points or more.