OTTAWA — Police are investigating after a video circulated on social media showed people hurling verbal abuse at NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh during a protest in Peterborough, Ont., this week.

The federal NDP leader had dropped by the campaign office for Jen Deck, the Ontario NDP candidate for Peterborough-Kawartha in the provincial election, on Tuesday afternoon.

A video shows Singh encountering protesters as he left the campaign office, who can be heard shouting expletives at him and calling him a "traitor" as he gets inside a vehicle.

Tim Farquharson, the acting chief of the Peterborough Police Service, says in a video posted to YouTube today that police are "actively investigating" after receiving a complaint.

He says anyone who sees the video "should find it disheartening (and) morally unacceptable" and police are also encouraging anyone with more video or information to come forward.

Singh told reporters today that he found the experience "intense, threatening (and) insulting" but that he is more worried about what it means for politics in general.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 12, 2022.

The Canadian Press