The protests that have dogged Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau’s election campaign for weeks shouldn’t come as a surprise after months of demonstrations against COVID-19 restrictions, says one extremism researcher.
“These people have been protesting against COVID for a long time. People were kind of shocked at the vitriol and the violent rhetoric — and the violence itself — that these people are bringing to the campaign trail,” said Evan Balgord, executive director of the Canadian Anti-Hate Network.
“We’re not surprised by it because these people, these COVID conspiracy types, have been very violent for months.”
