Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stepped away from a year-end media interview in Toronto to speak with a man who had been standing across the street, filming with his phone.
“Why don’t you come over here?”
said Trudeau to the observer during his year-end interview with CTV News senior editor Omar Sachedina at Kensington Market in December.
The man, who later told Trudeau that he had attended last winter’s Freedom Convoy protest in Ottawa, asked the prime minister if the requirement to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination to cross the border, which the federal government
lifted in September along with the mandatory use of the ArriveCan app, would ever be reinstated.
“Well, that depends on COVID, doesn’t it?” Trudeau replied. “If the situation comes back, we’re going to have to be responding.”
He added that the federal government has listened to doctors public health experts “to do what we can to keep Canadians safe.”
The man then asked why the federal government has not consulted other doctors about COVID issues, naming as examples Canadian doctor Stephen Malthouse and American physician and biochemist Robert Malone.
Malone, one of the original inventors of the messenger RNA vaccine technology platform, has
spoken out against COVID-19 vaccine mandates in both Canada and the United States. Malthouse is a B.C.-based a family physician who has warned about risks associated with vaccinating children. His medical licence was suspended in March 2022 by B.C.’s College of Physicians and Surgeons for allegedly signing “vaccine and mask exemption forms that he knew included false statements,” among other allegations.
“Why are they being so restricted and shunned?” he asked.
“I don’t know those doctors,” Trudeau said. “What we’ve focused on is public health experts, pandemic researchers, the kinds of people who actually gave us the recommendations that led Canada to having a far less damaging and deadly pandemic than many places around the world.”
Freedom Convoy Protest
The observer told Trudeau that he had attended the Freedom Convoy protest, saying “it was one of the most peaceful places I’ve ever been.”He asked Trudeau if he thought the protest was “a good thing.”
“No, it wasn’t. It was a very difficult time for citizens of Ottawa because it was also a difficult time for a lot of people who were worried about their futures across the country,” Trudeau answered.
Trudeau drew criticism from the Conservatives for disparaging Freedom Convoy protesters during their time in Ottawa instead of opening up direct dialogue with the organizers.
“
This protest has been peaceful. ... It’s time for the Prime Minister to stop being dismissive and address the concerns of Canadians,” said Conservative MP Dane Lloyd in a
Twitter post on Jan. 31, 2022.
Trudeau
had said earlier that day during a press conference that he was “shocked and frankly disgusted by the behaviour displayed by some people protesting in our nation’s capital.”
Handwritten notes from Trudeau’s deputy chief of staff, written during the convoy and entered into evidence at the Emergencies Act inquiry on Nov. 10, quote the prime minister saying that the Convoy couldn’t be resolved through dialogue with the demonstrators.
“No to changing government policy. Their goal is to disrupt and undermine govt institutions,” said Trudeau as quoted by the notes, which appear to be from a Feb. 3 meeting he attended.
Following a CTV news clip of the exchange between Trudeau and the observer posted on social media, several users expressed doubts about the authenticity of the impromptu conversation.
“This is totally staged,” one commented.
“Suspicious,” wrote another.
Andrew Chen and Noé Chartier contributed to this report.
