Federal NDP leader Jagmeet Singh is the first of the three main political heads in Canada to visit Saskatchewan during the federal election campaign.

Singh went to the Cowessess First Nation, east of Regina, on Friday morning to visit with Chief Cadmus Delorme and visit the site of a former residential school where 751 unmarked graves were found in June.  He used the visit to demand justice for indigenous communities and that looking at the unmarked graves hit hard for him because of the realization of who is to blame.

“The state is supposed to protect people in times of difficulty against any kind of harm.” Singh said. For the state to perpetrate a genocide against its own people is one of the most heinous acts, most heinous crimes that can be committed.”

Singh also got emotional as he talked about the unmarked graves because he is about to become a first-time father.  He wanted to make it clear though that what he felt is not about him, it is about indigenous communities who are suffering,

“It is about what we have to do for them and it is about what this means—a country that killed its own people. “Singh said while choking up. “It’s not about me being a parent. It is about indigenous people being denied justice, being denied dignity.

After visiting Cowessess, Singh is enroute to Regina for an event Friday afternoon.