The Liberal campaign cancelled an early evening rally Friday after an unruly group of demonstrators denouncing Justin Trudeau and pandemic policies set off security concerns, with Trudeau himself saying that going ahead with the event would have put people at risk.
Dozens of local Liberal supporters, some with young children and dogs, gathered in a hotel parking lot in Bolton, Ont., northwest of Toronto, to hear Trudeau speak.
Dozens of protesters followed the Liberal campaign to the rally. They used expletives in chants, waved their middle fingers, and made references to the Nazis over megaphones as a line of police stood in front of them.
Speaking in neighbouring Brampton on Friday night, Trudeau said the campaign couldn’t guarantee the safety of the people in attendance, and would have put at risk volunteers and others.
“That was not something I was willing to do,” he said.
It was the third such incident Friday where Trudeau was confronted by angry demonstrators upset with his government’s push on vaccine passports and vaccine mandates for travellers.
Protesters who oppose masks, vaccines and lockdown measures to fight COVID-19 have dogged the Liberal leader on the campaign trail, but he has usually politely waved back and often yelled through his mask, “get vaccinated.”
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