Jagmeet Singh Shared How Growing Up Was 'Always A Little Bit Scary' For Him & His Siblings
"If it was just me, I wasn't too worried but it was my kid brother," he said. "I couldn't even imagine the thought of him going hungry."
Jagmeet Singh standing behind his parents and embracing them. Right: Jagmeet Singh and his brother Gurratan Singh when they were kids.
Jagmeet Singh has opened up about a "scary" time in his life and how he not only took in his brother to raise him but also helped out his parents financially.
On October 13, he posted a video on Instagram of him sharing a personal story and how what he felt during that time of his life is something he doesn't want any family to feel.
"Growing up for me, my brother and my sister, things were always a bit scary with my dad dealing with his addiction and things got to a head where it was really unsafe for my brother in my early 20s," Singh said.
"We made a decision and I said, 'I'm going to bring Gurratan to live with me.' So he came to live with me when I was in university," he continued.
While his brother was living with him, Singh had to figure out how to feed him, make sure he got to school on time and help him with his homework.
"On top of that, my dad ended up losing work," he revealed. "My mom gave me a call saying, 'We don't have any money and you're going to have to figure things out.'"
"I kind of panicked because I was thinking if it was just me I would figure it out. If it was just me, I wasn't too worried but it was my kid brother. I wanted to make sure he was okay. I couldn't even imagine the thought of him going hungry."
After that, he went out and got three jobs.
"I tried to work as much as I could to make sure I had enough money to buy groceries and pay the bills and send some money to support my mom as well," Singh said.
He also shared that when he thinks about that time of his life now, he remembers how scary it was and how worried he was.
"I realize how much that is the reality for so many Canadians. So many people have to live with that same fear that if they don't earn enough money it's not just them that will go hungry it's their whole family that goes hungry," Singh said.
Who is Jagmeet Singh's brother?
Singh's brother is Gurratan Singh, a community advocate, lawyer and former MPP in Ontario who represented the riding of Brampton East with Ontario's NDP.
The siblings have often posted about each other on social media including a TikTok that shows they're not the same person and a video on Instagram that shows them hyped up when it was announced Gurkiran Kaur was pregnant.
Singh also once revealed that his brother guilt-tripped him into politics and Gurratan said to him, "the only way that you can thrive is if you give back."
What has Jagmeet Singh shared about his family?
Over the years, Singh has shared a lot about his family including how he went to live with family members in India while his parents got settled in Canada and how he was the sole earner for his family while in university.
He also revealed the financial struggles his family faced. "I know what it's like to face financial difficulty, we went through lots of ups and downs, lost our home," Singh said in 2021.
When his brother welcomed a baby back in 2020, Singh said that he didn't know if he was an uncle or a grandpa. That's because he had a parental role in his brother's life.
Singh raised his brother when he was 20 years old and Gurratan was 15 years old.
"I remember registering him for high school, helping him with his homework, sometimes I'd end up doing it," he said in 2022.
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