Juno News - September 26, 2019The Liberals apologize to Andrew Lawton
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Summary
A Liberal Party official apologizes to me for the way that police removed me from a public event in Thunder Bay, Ontario, for attending one of Justin Trudeau's public events. But the problem is, I'm still not being recognized by the Liberals as accredited media, and I'm not even allowed to ask Justin Trudeau a question.
Transcript
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Andrew Lawton here with True North coming to you from the campaign trail
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with some good news vindication not just for True North but vindication for me
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personally yes I have been vindicated I got a phone call earlier from a
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representative of the Liberal Party of Canada she was apologizing to me
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directly and unequivocally for the way that the Liberals had ordered police to
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remove me from the premises of Justin Trudeau's Town Hall in Thunder Bay at
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Lakehead University I talked about this earlier here's a clip from the
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periscope stream I did right outside now right behind me here is an event that
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Justin Trudeau is doing tonight this is a rally that he's doing in Thunder Bay
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Ontario on the campus of Lakehead University a public campus and this is a
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public rally there was a public guest list invite I RSVP'd my name was on the
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printed list I was given a wristband I've been denied access to all of the
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immediate events the Liberals have been doing for the duration of the campaign
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but this is a public rally a public event and about 15 minutes ago or so I was
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right somewhere over there and two police officers came up to me from Thunder Bay
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police and said are you Andrew and I said yes I'm an honest person they said you
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know can you come with us please and I said absolutely they took me over to the
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door and said we have been told by the organizers that you are not welcome here
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I asked why they say we weren't given a reason but you know when the
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organizers say someone's not welcome we have an obligation to remove yeah it was
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quite shocking because what I had been told days ago when the Liberals didn't
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want me covering their press conferences and were banning me from those that well
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like anyone else I could get in line and go to a public event which is exactly
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what I did at Lakehead but almost in the room after waiting in line for an hour
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two Thunder Bay police officers tell me that according to the Liberals I'm not
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welcome now well the Liberals have apologized and I want to make it clear I
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accepted that apology because I think that it is important that anyone who
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realizes they've done something wrong takes accountability for it quickly I
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accepted it on the condition that was met by the Liberal representative I
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spoke to that it will not happen again that if I show up at a public rally I
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will not be risking arrest but the challenge here is that the fight is not
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yet over well this apology deals with one injustice that took place in Thunder Bay
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it doesn't deal with what's been the prevailing sentiment since I started
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covering the Liberal campaign less than a week ago which is that I am not at this
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point still being recognized by the Liberals as accredited media meaning I'm not
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able to ask Justin Trudeau a question I'm not even able to be in the room when
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he's making a policy announcement or taking questions from the reporters the
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Liberals have decided are approved so this is an important apology and you know what
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I have a lot of you to thank for this the social media outrage against the
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Liberals was tremendous it was very quick and more importantly it spanned party
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lines I had people on the left that were saying you know what I don't agree with
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the things you say I don't agree with the perspectives you have all the time but
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this is not how a political party should treat journalists and it's not how
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political parties should treat Canadians so I'm very grateful to those who did
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speak up and yes I am grateful to the Liberal Party for its apology but my
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message back is that you are not out of the woods just yet you still have to
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deal with the bigger problem which is why am I being denied the right to do my job
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why am I being denied the right to cover this campaign to cover Justin Trudeau
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and to hold him to account the way every member of the Canadian media is
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supposed to for True North I'm Andrew Lawton I'm still out here doing the work
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that needs to be done I'm still out here asking the questions I'm out here
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bringing attention to the stories the way the mainstream media isn't and from a
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perspective the mainstream media isn't but this is expensive you know I'm not
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on the Liberal bus I'm not getting ferried around from place to place I'm
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making my own way there sometimes that means hopping on a last-minute flight
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renting a car but this is the only way we're going to get this done if you can
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support our efforts it would go a long way in making sure we can keep up this
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momentum and keep up this level of coverage right through to election day
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there's a link in the description box you can head on over to tnc.news and click