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OTTAWA – Canadian police said Wednesday they had banned Prime Minister Justin Trudeau from raising funds for security concerns after protesters with several cars and trucks began gathering outside the site.
Trudeau was due to speak at a Liberal Party in the British Columbia province on Tuesday. Last year he was shot during an election campaign stop.
“Due to the size and composition of the protest group and the safety of all attendees, it was decided that it was not safe for the Prime Minister to attend,” the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said in a statement.
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One of the protesters wore a gallows model and a bow adorned with a slogan accusing Trudeau of treason.
Asked about the incident, Trudeau told reporters Wednesday that attendees had faced harassment, racist insults and threats of violence.
“The safety of Canadians who choose to make their voices heard and politics should never be questioned as it was last night and as we see it more and more across the country,” he said.
Earlier this year, hundreds of truckers occupied downtown Ottawa in what began as a protest against COVID-19 vaccine warrants, but quickly turned into an anti-government and anti-Trudeau demonstration.
Jagmeet Singh, leader of the new smaller left-wing Democrats, was pushed and sworn in by protesters in the Ontario city of Peterborough on May 10th. His party keeps Trudeau’s liberal minority government in power. (Report by Ismail Shakil, edited by David Ljunggren and Lincoln Feast.)