Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was forced to cancel plans to attend a fundraising dinner on Tuesday evening after two speakers at the event said protesters had thrown racial insults at mostly South Asian attendees. entering a convention center in Surrey, BC.
Trudeau did not enter the building and spoke to a crowd for about three minutes by Zoom instead of making a speech in person.
He said no one should be intimidated or prevented from exercising their democratic freedoms “because that is what this country is all about.”
Trudeau said he would see his fans in Surrey again in the future, and an organizer of the event told attendees that they should feel free to stay and enjoy dinner.
Defense Minister Anita Anand addressed the crowd, but a member of the Liberal Party called on a journalist to leave the room.
The party said in a statement to The Canadian Press that all participants “in our democracy must feel safe and respected.”
Protesters insulted the prime minister
Some four dozen protesters used insults as they sang against Trudeau and sounded horns outside the convention center.
“We don’t like the way Canada is run,” one man said as another spoke into a megaphone.
About half a dozen RCMP officers stared at the crowd.
Earlier this month, police began investigating after a video circulating on social media showed people insulting NPD leader Jagmeet Singh during a protest in Peterborough, Ontario.
The NDP federal leader had passed through the campaign office of an Ontario NDP candidate running in the provincial elections.
A video shows Singh meeting protesters as he leaves the field office, and they can be heard shouting insults at him and calling him a “traitor” when he enters a vehicle.
Singh later told reporters that he found the experience “intense, threatening [and] insulting “‘but who is more concerned about what it means for politics in general.