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Canada elections: Oppn charges Justin Trudeau with violating Covid-19 norms
Opposition leaders slammed Justin Trudeau for holding a large, indoor campaign event in a suburb of Toronto, which, they alleged, violated health and safety norms.
Liberal Party leader and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who has made management of the Covid-19 pandemic a major plank for the 2021 federal elections, was slammed by opposition leaders for holding a large, indoor campaign event in a suburb of Toronto, which, they alleged, violated health and safety norms.
That event was organised in the town of Brampton on Tuesday in support of a clutch of MPs from the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) including Indo-Canadian Ruby Sahota and Kamal Khera.
The opposition latched on to photographs and videos from rally which appeared to show a large crowd not maintaining social distancing norms.
“Justin Trudeau held an event in a packed room in contempt of common sense and social distancing guidelines. That’s Justin Trudeau - the man who lectures you about the rules he isn’t willing to follow himself,” Conservative Party leader Erin O’Toole said while campaigning in Saguenay in the province of Quebec.
The outlet CBC News reported, “Photos of Liberal supporters packed closely together at venue in a city that was once Canada’s Covid-19 hotspot raised some alarm on social media.”
It added, “Attendees were crammed at the front of the room with little space separating them, while the back of the vast banquet hall sat largely empty.”
Canada is in the midst of a fourth wave of the pandemic and Justin Trudeau has made issues like mandatory vaccinations and his government’s record in countering the health crisis central to his pitch to voters.
The Liberal Party, however, countered the criticism, stating that the capacity of the venue was 1,000 and the number of persons there was 400 thereby well within the norms set by the province of Ontario. At an event in Halifax, Trudeau also defended the rally, saying all public health guidelines were “followed”.
While Trudeau has accused Erin O’Toole of being in the thrall of anti-vaccination groups, he faced renewed criticism over calling the election, scheduled for September 20, in the first place. Erin O’Toole said, “This pattern of behaviour on Covid will only get worse if Trudeau is rewarded for plunging the country into a $600 million election in the middle of a pandemic.”
Those views were echoed by New Democratic Party leader Jagmeet Singh, as he told reporters, while at a stop in Windsor, Ontario, that the election call was a “selfish decision by Mr Trudeau”.
