Images of St. Albert-Edmonton MP Michael Cooper interviewed by national media against a backdrop of protesters sporting Canadian flags covered in swastikas at Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Saturday circulated over social media over the weekend, raising the ire of local residents, and two area mayors.
Many people were outraged, including St. Albert Mayor Cathy Heron and Edmonton Mayor Amarjeet Sohi, who released joint statements on Saturday evening stating they were troubled by the image and called on Cooper for an apology.
The protest was attended by thousands of truckers from across the country who opposed cross-border vaccine mandates and other public-health restrictions. Cooper was handing out coffee at the protest.
In an interview with The Gazette on Tuesday, Heron said she released the initial statement because people were so upset he was there, and she felt the need to say that is not who St. Albertans are.
“When our member of Parliament, whether it's his own fault or not, is being associated with that, we need to be able to publicly say that’s not who we are,” she said.
She said it’s fine to support peaceful protests, but Cooper should not have associated himself with “some of those far-right things that that rally very quickly became.”
St. Albert resident Amanda Macleod said she was "utterly" embarrassed after seeing the images.
Macleod’s brother is in the military and her father is a cross-border trucker. Seeing the symbols of hate stirred up a lot of angry emotion for her.
She has one question for Cooper: “He's supporting the protests and supporting them protesting the mandate, ‘Well, do you support the other 90 per cent of drivers, like my father, who has followed all the mandates, followed all the regulations, who made the choice to be vaccinated? Do you support him?’”
Heron said whether or not Cooper should have been at the protest is a big question.
“It started off as a protest against truckers’ vaccinations-at-the-border process. But I think it very quickly became a lightning rod for a lot of very negative groups,” Heron said.
Cooper released a statement on Saturday saying he attended a peaceful protest in support of truckers and other Canadians defending their freedoms and jobs.
He said he did an impromptu interview with CBC, and moments later learned from social media that someone unknown to him was standing behind him with the symbol.
“Had I seen the symbol, I would have condemned it, as I do now,” Cooper's statement read.
Cooper then condemned Naziism and said the person who flew the flag should be ashamed.
“He or she does not represent the thousands of peaceful protesters who waved Canadian flags and acted responsibly. I stand with them and will continue to fight for them.”
Heron later released a statement on social media thanking Cooper for clarifying events surrounding the photograph of him standing beside a swastika at an Ottawa protest and publicly condemning symbols of hate.
When asked if she thought the apology was enough, Heron said that is debatable.
“I think his message was good — that he was not associated with the swastika. Some people question why he was even there, and he has to answer to that,” she said.
Cooper did not return calls made or emails sent to his office by The Gazette over several days. He did not return any of the requests for comment by press time on Tuesday.
