Sept 8, 2021: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was pelted with stones at an election campaign stop this week after protesters were denounced as “anti-vaxer mobs” by him.
Journalists traveling with the Liberal Party leader posted videos of the incident in London, Ontario, as Trudeau boarded his campaign bus after the ceremony. Numerous videos show Trudeau surrounded by campaign supporters and security as protesters make noise. The video shows Trudeau later calling him and others “small pieces of gravel” as he boarded the bus.
The incident marks a fast-growing national election campaign. Last month, Trudeau’s campaign canceled a public event for security reasons.
Many protesters behind Trudeau say they are angry with public health measures such as the vaccine mandate. Earlier on Monday, Trudeau said he would “not back down” from the campaign, following dozens of loud and increasingly aggressive protests.
“Yes, there is a small fringe element in this country that is angry, that doesn’t believe in science, that is lashing out with racist, misogynistic attacks,” said Trudeau while campaigning in Ontario hours before the gravel-throwing incident.
Canada’s Conservative Party leader, Erin O’Toole, has denounced aggressive protesters saying last week that his party does not condone such behavior.
After the incident, Canada’s ambassador to the United Nations, Bob Rae, tweeted that, “Our learned experience should teach us two things: political violence is contagious unless stopped in its tracks with both denunciation and enforcement, and it is wrong to think “this isn’t Canada”. Unfortunately it is and it will have terrible consequences unless we face up to it”.
Most Canadians have embraced public health measures and Canada now has one of the highest vaccination rates in the world with 3 out of every 4 eligible Canadians fully vaccinated.
Despite that, the simmering pandemic is plaguing Canada with case counts and hospitalizations rising according to the Public Health Agency of Canada, especially among younger, unvaccinated Canadians.
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