Prime Minister Justin Trudeau cancelled his appearance at a fundraiser in Surrey, British Columbia, on Tuesday night due to “safety concerns,” presumably because of protesters gathered outside the venue.
The event was being held at Aria Banquet & Convention Centre in Surrey, B.C. for a Liberal Party fund raiser which cost $1,000 per-person. Justin Trudeau was scheduled to do a speech but instead opted to do a virtual speech via Zoom because a crowd of protesters showed up.
“Join us for a unique in-person event with the Rt. Hon. Justin Trudeau as we look at the next steps in our Liberal government’s work to build a better, stronger and more resilient Canada,” read the event’s invite.
CBC and Global News made these claims in their article while providing no evidence of the “racial slur” being used.
CBC was criticized for the article by independent journalists pointing out concerns and fallacies in the reporting. At a glance it appears Global News did not post their article on their social media feeds.
A close look and read from the CBC there is no evidence to back up the claim any racial slurs were hurled at anyone, no videos have surfaced to support the claim.
According to CBC Local MP said “protesters were hurling racial slurs at attendees, volunteers”
After criticism flooded the comments CBC updated the article with quotes of unconfirmed reports of racial slurs. CBC also made more heavy edits to the article removing the statement of a reporter being booted out of the event when it began.
We were unable to grab the screen shot of the original article before the edits went live. Johnathan Kay however was able to grab screen shots of somce edits.
Independent media was on scene and video was posted on social media of the protesters.
“Trudeau must go! Trudeau must go,” demonstrators are heard chanting while waving Canada flags.
Another video shows demonstrators singing Oh! Canada. After the sing along they are heard chanting “We are the patriots. You are the terrorist” to Justin Trudeau.
Despite the lack of evidence that the crowd was violent, the Liberal Party later issued a statement citing safety concerns.
“Everyone participating in our democracy should feel safe and respected, and the safety of our supporters and guests will always be the Liberal Party of Canada’s top priority. Justin Trudeau and the Liberal Party will continue to engage with Canadians and share our positive plan to build a better country for everyone,” reads a statement from the Liberal Party sent to Daily Hive.
According to reports, the prime minister told attendees inside the building that no one should be intimidated from exercising their democratic rights “because that’s what this country is all about.”
This is the second protest in two days directed at the Prime Minister who visited Kamloops to attend a residential school memorial ceremony where he was heckled by indigenous protesters. Some of the protesters shouted “You’re a criminal” and “You’re not welcome here” while one song “get your disrespect out of our tribe” and playing a traditional drum.
“I hear your anger towards me and that’s fine, but I’d ask you to respect your elders, please,” Trudeau told hecklers.
Another video shows Trudeau giving a speech in which we can hear Indigenous protestors heckling Trudeau shouting You’re not welcome here. Instead of addressing the discontent for him he told the protestors to respect their elders. A protestor shouts back “You’re a criminal!” Trudeau says “Thank you”.
Justin Trudeau and other politicians were quick to call a previous incident in March 2022 at a Surrey mosque as hate and racial motivated. The incident was confirmed to not be hate motivated.
Commissioner Brian Edwards said in the statement “The RCMP recognizes that any incidents such as this one that are initially believed to be a hate crime are traumatizing to our community. However, once it was discovered that the nature of the incident was not hate motivated, it was important for us to update the public.”.
John Horgan silently deleted his tweet that linked “hate and racism” to the Surrey mosque incident.
