Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Feb. 17 that he regretted calling Freedom Convoy protesters a “small fringe minority.” His comments came as part of his response to the newly released Public Order Emergency Commission’s report.
While Commissioner Paul Rouleau said in his Feb. 17 report that the government was justified in invoking the Emergency’s Act last year to clear convoy protests against COVID-19 mandates, he said the government could have handled some things better. Trudeau’s way of talking about the protesters was one of them.
Rouleau wrote that calling them “a small fringe minority” and making other disparaging comments “served to energize the protesters, hardening their resolve and further embittering them toward government authorities.”…