"Your Racism Has No Place Here": Justin Trudeau Rebukes Heckler

Justin Trudeau told the woman that her "intolerance" was unwelcome (File)

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is no stranger to hecklers. At a stop on a cross-country town hall tour earlier this year, he was even heckled while answering a young boy's question about how he responds to "haters."

Now, the prime minister's replies are under the microscope as critics accuse him of going too far in accusing a woman of racism at a corn roast in the town of Sabrevois, Quebec, last week.

In the incident, which was captured on video, a woman in the crowd repeatedly shouts at him in French, asking whether the federal government would be repaying the province of Quebec "the $146 million that we paid for your illegal immigrants." A man standing beside her appears to join in the heckling, yelling, "We are not in Mohawk territory."

Trudeau, standing before the crowd on a small stage, tells the woman that her "intolerance" is unwelcome and admonishes the man for his "not very polite" comments about indigenous people.

But his reprimands, which were largely greeted with rapturous applause from the crowd, were not enough to shut down the woman's attacks.

As he leaves the stage, the video shows the woman head directly toward him, demanding to know if he is "intolerant toward the 'Quebecois de souche,'" a racially loaded term about the purity of bloodlines that refers to Quebecers who can trace their ancestry back to the earliest French settlers.

"Madame, your racism has no place here," Trudeau snaps back.

According to the Canadian Press, the woman, who has identified herself on social media as a member of a right-wing, anti-immigrant group called Storm Alliance, said she was "pretty happy" that she played a role in his "blowing a gasket."

Nevertheless, critics pounced on Trudeau's riposte, accusing him of ducking a legitimate question about the Liberal government's handling of immigration and condemning him for calling the woman racist.

Andrew Scheer, the leader of the federal Conservatives, said in a statement that Trudeau was "once again using name-calling and personal attacks to shut down legitimate criticism of his government," adding, "Nobody has done more to divide Canadians than he has."

Conservative immigration critic Michelle Rempel, who has frequently described the influx of migrants entering Canada from the United States as a "crisis," said Trudeau's response was "irresponsible" and that by calling the woman racist, he was "cheapening use of the word."

Trudeau defended himself Monday at a groundbreaking ceremony for a new Amazon warehouse facility near Ottawa.

"Hiding behind half-truths and torquing up fears is something that I and our government will always call out," he said, "not just because it's a problem for us, but because it's a dangerous path for any democracy to be on."

The altercation with the heckler comes on the heels of a flurry of tweets from Conservative lawmaker Maxime Bernier in which he said that "more diversity" and "radical multiculturalism" would destroy Canada. Scheer insisted Bernier "does not speak for the Conservative Party of Canada on any issue."

The issue of migrants arriving in Canada on foot from the United States has proved an ongoing headache for the Trudeau government, with provincial governments in Ontario and Quebec complaining about rising costs of housing the migrants. After two consecutive months of decline, the number of border-crossing asylum seekers arriving in Canada jumped nearly 30 percent to 1,634 in July - far lower than the more than 5,700 that arrived when numbers peaked last August.

In response to escalating criticism, Trudeau revamped his cabinet in July and created a new cabinet position for border security and "irregular migration."

Darrell Bricker, chief executive of the polling firm Ipsos Public Affairs, said while the federal election in 2019 is more likely to be about issues such as health care and taxes than it is about immigration, "Canadians are not Teletubbies. They're not soft and cuddly over these issues."

In Quebec, where some people feel their culture is under threat, messages like Bernier's are likely to resonate, he added.