Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been forced to cancel plans to attend a fundraising dinner Tuesday night after two speakers said protesters were racistly insulting mostly South Asian visitors entering a Surrey convention center. British Columbia.
Trudeau did not enter the building and spoke to the crowd for about three minutes through Zoom instead of giving a personal speech.
He said no one should be intimidated or stopped from exercising their democratic freedoms, “because that is the goal of this country”.
Trudeau said he would return to see his supporters in Surrey in the future, and an event organizer told attendees that they should feel free to stay and enjoy dinner.
Defense Minister Anita Anand addressed the crowd, but a Liberal Party official asked a reporter to leave the room.
The party said in a statement to The Canadian Press that anyone who participates in “our democracy must feel safe and respected.”
Protesters cursed the prime minister
About four dozen protesters used swear words as they chanted against Trudeau and roared in front of the convention center.
“We don’t like the way he runs Canada,” said one man as another spoke into a megaphone.
About half a dozen RCMP officers stood and watched the crowd.
Earlier this month, police launched an investigation after a video shared on social media showed people verbally insulting NDP leader Jagmit Singh during a protest in Peterborough, Ont.
The federal leader of the NDP had dropped out of the pre-election office of a NDP candidate from Ontario running in the provincial elections.
Video shows Singh encountering protesters as he leaves the campaign office, and they can be heard shouting curses at him and calling him a “traitor” as he enters a vehicle.
Singh later told reporters that he found the experience “intense, threatening.” [and] offensive “, but that he is more concerned about what this means for politics in general.
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