Ontario Liberals suspend campaign of Oshawa candidate Viresh Bansal

A photo of Oshawa Ontario Liberal candidate Viresh Bansal (X / Viresh Bansal).

Oshawa’s Liberal candidate in the upcoming provincial election has been suspended.

The Ontario Liberal Party has confirmed to CP24 that it has suspended Viresh Bansal’s campaign.

On Tuesday, Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie denounced a social media post from Bansal.

In 2023, Bansal had responded to an NDP statement on the killing of Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the government had “credible allegations” linking agents of the Indian government to the fatal shooting in B.C.

“You can thank India for cleaning trash people. Ask your gay friend @JustinTrudeau to do the same,” Bansal wrote.

He later wrote an apology after the World Sikh Organization of Canada called on Crombie to withdraw him as the Liberal candidate.

“I want to sincerely apologize, especially to the Sikh and LGBTQ2S+ communities,” he wrote in a social media post Tuesday that has since been deleted. “My words were offensive and wrong, and I take full responsibility for the harm they caused.”

“He managed to offend two beloved groups in one tweet, and this is completely unacceptable,” Crombie said Tuesday. “It is not who I am. I don’t stand for this. It is not who the Ontario Liberal Party is.”

With files from The Canadian Press.