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Trudeau continues campaign after threats to his safety
MONTREAL, Oct 14, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
said Sunday he plans to continue campaigning as normal after wearing body
armor the night before, a move the CBC reported was due to threats to his
security.
“This will not change at all how I campaign,” Trudeau said, on the
sidelines of a campaign event in York, a week ahead of Canadian legislative
elections.
Trudeau was in his shirtsleeves, as he normally is when campaigning, after
wearing body armor under a shirt and jacket on Saturday.
When asked to answer journalists’ questions about the threats against him,
Trudeau explained, “My first concern was for my family and for all the
Canadians in the room,” but refused to comment further.
Trudeau’s main rival, Conservative Andrew Scheer, took to Twitter Saturday
evening to stress that “threats against political leaders have absolutely no
place in our democracy.”
Jagmeet Singh, the leader of the New Democratic Party (NPD), called the
threats against Trudeau “troubling” in a Saturday night tweet.
The liberal leader was more than an hour and a half late to an event
Saturday in Mississauga, a city in the suburbs of Toronto, where about 2,000
supporters were waiting for him. There was also a higher security presence
than normal following a security threat, the CBC reported.
His campaign team declined to give reason for Trudeau’s increased security
detail.
The prime minister gave his speech without incident, surrounded by
multiple police officers, and then mingled with the crowd before leaving the
room.
His wife, Sophie Gregoire-Trudeau, was expected on stage to introduce him
but did not appear, local media said.
During the election campaign, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police is keeping
a daily record of online hate messages aimed at political leaders, fearing
possible violent acts, the CBC said.
BSS/AFP/MSY/0939 hrs