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Fact check: No evidence Canadian prime minister fled country amid trucker protests

Ella Lee   | Paste BN

The claim: Canadian PM Justin Trudeau is hiding in the US from protesters

As protesters from across Canada swarmed to the nation's capital to protest a new vaccine mandate for truckers, some on social media claimed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau fled the country.

"Apparently having his country's citizens peacefully protest his mandates makes Trudeau a widdle scwared (sic): it is being reported that he has gone into hiding at a safe place in the US," reads a Jan. 30 Facebook post. 

Numerous iterations of the claim are circulating on Facebook, many of which are screenshots from the Twitter page Terror Alarm, which tweeted Jan. 29 that Trudeau was "moved to a safe place in the US" due to security fears stemming from the protests. Terror Alarm told Paste BN in a Twitter direct message that it received the information from a now-deleted tweet.

Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, further amplified the claim, sharing two tweets decrying Trudeau. The first quote-tweeted the Terror Alarm post, asking whether there is "a more gutless and cowardly display than a tyrant on the run?" The second shared an image of the Canadian prime minister that read "Deport Trudeau." 

But the claim is false. Public records show Trudeau hasn't left Canada since the protests began; he was isolating with COVID-19. Terror Alarm fact-checked its tweet the next day, saying Trudeau was isolating from COVID-19.

In response to Paste BN's request for comment, Roy doubled-down on his support for the protesting truckers. 

"I stand with freedom-loving Canadian truckers and against Trudeau's authoritarian 'leadership,'" Roy said. "That's the bottom line. Fact check whatever you want out of that."

Paste BN reached out to the Facebook users who shared the post for comment.

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Trudeau in isolation after COVID-19 test

A day after posting the false claim, the Twitter account Terror Alarm fact-checked itself, writing that the Canadian prime minister is "NOT in hiding. #Trudeau is in Covid-related self-isolation."

Trudeau tweeted Jan. 27 that he had been exposed to COVID-19 and would isolate for five days. On Jan. 31, he shared on Twitter that he tested positive for the virus and would continue to work from home.

The same day he tested positive, Trudeau gave a televised press conference from the Harrington Lake official residence, which is located in Quebec just outside Ottawa, the nation's capital.

More: Organizers: More Ottawa protests planned Monday

All of the Canadian prime minister's public itineraries since Jan. 29, the day on which the claim appears to have originated, fall in line with that, suggesting he has remained in the "National Capital Region" during his isolation.

Canadian journalists and both the Associated Press and CNN also debunked the claim as false.

Our rating: False

Based on our research, we rate FALSE the claim that Trudeau is hiding in the U.S. from protesters. Public records and media reports indicate Trudeau hasn't left Canada since the protests began. The tweets where this claim originated have been deleted or retracted.

Our fact-check sources:

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