Reporters were told not to ask questions of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau when he visited sa国际传媒 earlier this week but they didn鈥檛 face eviction from the events if they did so, officials from the Prime Minister's Office say.
Press conferences were not scheduled when Trudeau visited a child care centre, the BC Tree Fruits plant, and locations in Summerland. However, photographers and videographers were allowed to film Trudeausa国际传媒 interaction with various people.
Requests that reporters not ask questions of Trudeau at some appearances are not that unusual, said Cameron Ahmad, the prime ministersa国际传媒 director of communications.
鈥淥f course there are events that we do like the one that day where we don鈥檛 plan media availabilities,鈥 Ahmad said Wednesday. 鈥淭here are some events where itsa国际传媒 just meeting with people, or a tour of a location, and conversations with people, and no questions from the media are planned.鈥
Reporters sometimes abide by the directive not to ask questions, and sometimes they don鈥檛, Ahmad said.
鈥淭hatsa国际传媒 absolutely normal and we are used to that,鈥 he said. 鈥淪ometimes, (Trudeau) answers and sometimes he doesn鈥檛 have time, but no one is ever told the police are going to kick you out if you ask a question and we told you there are no questions here.鈥
鈥淭hatsa国际传媒 not how we operate and not something that we ever direct our team to say,鈥 he said. 鈥淭hat is not how we conduct our events.鈥
In an emailed statement, the Prime Ministersa国际传媒 Office added: 鈥淛ournalists must always be treated with the utmost respect and be able to do their jobs. Under no circumstances should journalists ever be threatened when covering a government or political event. Our office never instructed anyone to do this, and this is not how we operate.鈥
