Independent candidate Kornelis Klevering furiously called out the rest of the panellists for not standing up for democracy Monday at an all-candidates federal debate at College Heights Secondary School.
Klevering, who asked moderators to refer to him as Dr. Kush on stage, said he was not welcome when he went to the 100 Debates on the Environment event on Oct. 3.
“While I was on stage hoping to join the other candidates here for a debate, none of these other candidates stood up on my behalf or on behalf of fair vote or equality or any inclusiveness,” said Klevering.
“They all sort of sat there like a lump of coal while I was called away and told to sit in the audience with the rest of the participants.”
Klevering proceeded to say that this sort of thing has got to stop as he stood on stage with Communist Party of Canada candidate Juanita Burnett, Green Party of Canada candidate Steve Dyck, NDP candidate Aisha Jahangir, Liberal Party incumbent Lloyd Longfield and Peoples Party of Canada candidate Mark Paralovos.
He asked them to pledge that they will not participate in an all-candidates meeting unless all candidates are represented and able to seek their points of view.
Klevering was soon asked to stop by moderator and guidance counsellor Greg Smith once his three minutes were up and was met with a round of applause by 150 students and staff in the audience.
“Democracy is kind of broken on this stage and unless we fix it, that we're all treated equally, what's the point of asking questions at all,” said Klevering.
Conservative Party candidate Dr. Ashish Sachan was invited to the event but declined to participate.
Towards the end of the one-hour debate, which surrounded the topics of free speech, climate and jobs, Burnett too, voiced her concern for not being included in previous debates.
“One of the strong forms of free speech that I believe in is a protest. I find it frustrating that I was also not invited to a number of debates. I accepted that. I protested in the past. Some of them I'm going to fight, some of them I'm not,” said Burnett.
“It really bothers me that with the growth of far-right populist and fascist movements, I think it's really disturbing that the party that split from another party almost in half suddenly has a spot at the debate table and is talking about not having free speech,” said Burnett as she seemed visibly emotional on stage.
Grade 12 student Zoltan Vamos, who asked the first question: “will you be supporting free speech in Canada?” said any candidate’s exclusion from debates is not right.
“I don't believe that it was a good thing for him to be excluded because I felt that that was unfair,” said Vamos about Klevering.
“For me, when it comes to free speech I think that it's something that people should consider and not go into violence over. When violence turns into something bigger and people see that’s the only way to solve a problem, that's where I draw the line.”
