Glimpse into the future
Heckle heard around the country offers sneak peek at 2019 campaign narrative
The Prime Minister’s Office is refusing to say precisely when — or even if — Justin Trudeau knew he was dealing with an alt-right activist when he denounced her questions about the cost of “illegal immigrants” in Quebec as intolerant and racist.
Nor were members of Conservative rival Andrew Scheer’s staff willing to discuss Tuesday whether their leader was aware of the woman’s background when he issued a statement late Monday deriding Trudeau’s response as dodging a legitimate policy question.
But with such details as close as the nearest iphone, suggesting otherwise stretches credulity, said Chris Mathers, a former RCMP officer and security consultant who was once part of the detail that protected the prime minister’s official residence.
“There’s no doubt that lady
was a plant in there ... to try and embarrass the prime minister, because she’s one of these fringy types,” said Mathers, noting that PMO security officials routinely monitor intelligence for any potential
threats or disturbances at public events.
Given that she belonged to a social media group that openly discussed plans to attend last week’s event, it is unlikely the prime minister’s security detail
or PMO officials were taken by surprise, he added. If alerted to an organized effort to potentially cause a disruption, security officials “would have informed (the PMO), anyway,” Mathers said.