Protesters force Trudeau to cancel rally

Dozens met campaign in with middle fingers, Nazi references and profanity

Growing anti-vaccine and anti-lockdown protests dogged Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau on the campaign trail Friday, forcing campaign officials to cancel a Friday evening rally in Bolton, Ont., over safety concerns.

It was the latest in a series of tense interactions between Trudeau and protesters, including some who appear to have followed the Liberal leader to campaign events across provinces.

“The anger, the frustration, the fear. I hear that. And I know we have to work even harder to be there for each other,” Trudeau said at a hastily-scheduled news conference after the Bolton rally was cancelled.

“But we need to meet that anger with compassion, because that’s who we are as Canadians.”

Dozens of protesters met the Liberal campaign in Bolton, a village in Caledon, with middle fingers, Nazi references and profanity. It was the third incident on Friday alone at which Trudeau was met by angry demonstrators, upset about government policies around mandatory vaccinations and vaccine passports.

Trudeau, who attended a rally during the 2019 campaign wearing a Kevlar vest due to a credible security concern, said the campaign made the decision to pull the event, because, even with a heavy police presence, they could not “guarantee the safety of the people in attendance.”

“The situation was such that we would have been putting volunteers … at risk, and that was not something I was willing to do. No way,” Trudeau said.

“We’ve never seen anything like this,” one Liberal volunteer told the Star late Friday.

“We’re being followed around, and they’re really well-prepared … We’ve been seeing protesters from Markham to B.C. that are the same people.”

The Liberal campaign has made the question of COVID-19 vaccinations a central part of the early messaging in their bid for re-election — and a potential political wedge with the Conservative party.

Trudeau is calling for mandatory vaccinations for Canadian air and rail travellers, as well as federal public servants. He announced, earlier Friday, that a re-elected Liberal government would commit $1 billion to assist provinces in developing vaccination passport programs, and challenged notably Conservative provincial premiers to step up.

Asked Friday night if he believed he had any role in politicizing the issue of vaccinations, Trudeau said “we have to stand strong for what we know to be true: that science is going to help us, that it’s going to be the path forward out of this.

“We’ve seen over the past year, with this pandemic, an increase of anxiety, an increase in anger and frustration,” Trudeau said.

“But I’ve never seen this intensity of anger on the campaign trail, or in Canada … when I was a kid, even with my dad visiting out West where we did see anger, certainly not in my past 12 years as a politician, where I regularly see protesters.

“And I think this is something that Canadians, all of us, need to reflect on. Because this is not who we are, it’s not who we want to be as a country.”

In a statement Friday evening, the Conservative campaign said they condemn “the use of obscene and extreme language by some protesting Mr. Trudeau’s appearances.