Trudeau pelted with small rocks on campaign trail
Prime Minister Trudeau says he “might have” been hit by gravel thrown by protesters at an election campaign stop in London on Monday.
As Trudeau was leaving the event, he was surrounded by angry protesters who began throwing handfuls of gravel and debris at the party leader. RCMP officers held up their hands to protect Trudeau from getting hit as he got on his campaign bus. Some members of the media following the Liberal campaign were hit by the small projectiles.
On the Liberal campaign plane later Monday evening, Trudeau told reporters that some of the gravel “might have hit my shoulder.” When asked if he was certain he was hit by the rocks, Trudeau responded, “Does that matter?”
“There were little bits of gravel and I may have been hit,” he said, shrugging it off. “I had someone throw pumpkin seeds at me a few years ago.”
This is not the first occurrence of this sort. Trudeau has been dogged by angry crowds throughout the campaign, forcing the Liberals to cancel at least one event in Bolton, Ontario. Earlier today, the PM said he wouldn’t let “anti-vaxxer mobs” shape his policies, which include mandatory vaccinations for some workers and most domestic travelers.
“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,” Trudeau said. “But Canadians, the vast majority of Canadians, are not represented by them, and I know will not allow those voices, those special interest groups, those protesters — I don’t even want to call them protesters, those anti-vaxxer mobs — to dictate how this country gets through this pandemic. They don’t get to dictate policy of this government, so it is puzzling to people to see that on vaccines and on so many other things, Erin O’Toole is at least taking some of his cues from them,” Trudeau said.
Conservative leader O'Toole defended Trudeau after the incident “in the strongest terms possible.”
“Political violence is never justified and our media must be free from intimidation, harassment, and violence,” O’Toole tweeted.
