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The Canadian PressPrime Minister Justin Trudeau called for political leaders to take a united stance against threats of violence and intimidation on Sunday, days after his deputy was confronted in Alberta by a man who repeatedly yelled profanity at her and called her a traitor.
"Threats, violence, intimidation of any kind, are always unacceptable and this kind of cowardly behavior threatens and undermines our democracy and our values and openness and respect upon which Canada was built," Trudeau said. Trudeau characterized the confrontation as a"backlash" of a type that has been growing on social media for many years, where any time a woman speaks up on social media, she becomes subject to harassment and toxicity that reaches a point where her voice and her right to free expression are diminished.
In one incident during a campaign in 2017, she said she got a phone call from a man who said he knew where she lived and she should"watch out.""In an open area packed with people, he loomed over me to hiss that he had made that call & he would make sure I lost the election. He then sat in the front row leering at me for the whole event."