BREAKING: Trudeau won't say if voting against Jagmeet Singh's motion is racist or not

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau addressed media on Thursday, providing updates on the federal response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and yesterday's failure to obtain 128 votes for the United Nations Security Council.

Trudeau also provided an update on the progress being made on a contact tracing app to help clamp down on novel coronavirus outbreaks, with Trudeau announcing that the app would be entirely voluntary.

Similar apps are used around the globe, including countries such as South Korea, and Israel.

Trudeau said the app would not have any location services or geo tagging "of any sort," to ensure that Canadians' privacy is respected.

"It will be one app... It will work everywhere across the country," said the prime minister. "There are over 30 million smartphones that can take this app in Canada, so we can talk about a significant proportion of the Canadian population that can be protected by this app that you can download, and forget about," he continued.

Trudeau said there will be a national database of "randomized codes associated with each smartphone that has this app," saying that data will be split between those who have tested positive, and those who have not. Those whose phones are in proximity to a phone whose user tested positive, it will register that it made contact with someone who potentially tested positive.

Trudeau said that the Privacy Commissioner was consulted on the contact tracing app, though according to Calgary-Nose Hill MP Michelle Rempel Garner, the Privacy Commissioner "testified in front of the Industry Committee that he hadn't been."

Regarding why Canada was unable to obtain a UN Security Council seat, Trudeau said: "We knew when we jumped into this race, that our two competitors, Norway and Ireland, whom I called to congratulate on their success last evening, have four or five years of pre-entry into the race. And we did make a lot of progress, but the fact is that we were too far behind to win this," said Trudeau.

Bloc Quebecois MP called racist by NDP leader

Regarding comments made by New Democrat leader Jagmeet Singh in Parliament yesterday, wherein he called Bloc Quebecois MP Alain Therrien "racist," after not receiving unanimous support on his motion on RCMP discrimination, Trudeau said that it was "disappointing" that the Bloc still had not acknowledged that systemic racism exists in Canada.

"Recognizing systemic discrimination is the important first step towards being able to address it and ensure better opportunities," said Trudeau.

"In regards to what Mr. Singh said, it is not for me to criticize any Canadian, particularly not the only racialized leader in the House of Commons for making other people uncomfortable by calling them out for not recognizing systemic discrimination," said Trudeau.

Regarding Quebec Premier Francois Legault, Trudeau said that there were "different individuals who are at different stages in terms of recognizing that racism exists, but I think the conversations we're having now, and the strong voices that are being heard talking about the problems that are here and the need to find solutions will reassure us that we are moving in the right direction," said Trudeau.

Trudeau would not say if Therrien's action of voting against Singh's motion was racist or not.

"That's something for the Bloc to explain, why they continue to resist recognizing the lived reality of far too many people that systemic discrimination exists in Canada," said Trudeau.