Roy even called for Trudeau, who was not in the US, to be
deported.
Trudeau’s office was vague about his weekend whereabouts, changing the location on his public schedule from
the usual “Ottawa, Ontario” to “National Capital Region, Canada” — a descriptor that would cover the Harrington Lake residence. And Trudeau
did say last week that he was concerned about the potential for violence in connection to the protest. (Ottawa police
tweeted Sunday that “several criminal investigations” were underway, including into “threatening/illegal/intimidating behavior to police/city workers and other individuals and damage to a city vehicle.”)
But there was never any good reason to believe that Trudeau, who earned another minority government in Canada’s September federal election, had fled his country as if he were a toppled dictator. A source in the Trudeau government and a source in the Biden administration told CNN that the claim is entirely false. Ottawa-based
Canadian journalists who cover Trudeau also scoffed at Roy’s baseless words.
Roy’s office did not immediately respond to a CNN request for comment on Tuesday.
Amplifying an anonymous account
Roy’s tweets appeared to have been prompted by a tweet from an anonymous Twitter account that calls itself “Terror Alarm.” On Saturday afternoon, that account
tweeted, “#Urgent: Justin #Trudeau moved to A safe place in the US according to Israeli sources, as Canada protests spark security fears.”
But the photo the account used in the tweet — showing Trudeau and his family in the foreground and an American flag in the background —
actually had been taken in 2016, upon the Prime Minister’s arrival in the US for an official visit to Washington. And early Sunday morning, the “Terror Alarm” account
tweeted a “#FactCheck” that said Trudeau “is NOT in hiding” but rather “is in Covid-related self-isolation.”
Roy either didn’t see this correction or didn’t care. More than eight hours after it had been posted, Roy amplified the original “Terror Alarm” tweet about Trudeau supposedly being moved to a safe place in the US. Roy
added, “Is there a more gutless and cowardly display than a tyrant on the run? #DeportTrudeau.”
In
another tweet on Monday, Roy hedged his language with an “if,” saying, “If Justin Trudeau is hiding in the United States, we should return him to Canada and make him face his own people immediately.” But Roy added, “No safe haven for fleeing COVID tyrants. #LiveFree #DeportTrudeau.” And he included a graphic that featured a promotional logo for his congressional campaign, a photo of Trudeau and the words “DEPORT TRUDEAU.”
Again, Trudeau had held a news conference in Canada earlier in the afternoon.
The person behind the “Terror Alarm” account told CNN that their name is Libi Cohen and that they had gotten their initial information about Trudeau having fled to the US “from local Israeli media.”
But when asked for more specifics about the source, they pointed only to an obscure Twitter account with fewer than 4,000 followers, “Masonic Mission,” whose tweets are currently “protected” and unavailable to the general public.
The person behind “Terror Alarm” said they had genuinely believed the information about Trudeau was true at the time they had tweeted it and that they had posted the “clarification” when they learned it wasn’t.
Source : CNN
