Trudeau’s office, RCMP mum on report man under investigation got a selfie with PM

[Prime Minister Justin Trudeau leaves following a news conference in Ottawa, on Sept. 21, 2016. REUTERS/Chris Wattie]

Questions were raised Thursday about the extent of Justin Trudeau’s personal security, following a news report that a man under police investigation was able to get close enough to the prime minister to take a selfie with him.

The La Presse report said the man took a photograph with Trudeau on Dec. 18, 2015, when the prime minister was in Montreal.

Six months earlier, the report states, the RCMP “executed a search warrant at his parents’ home while investigating the 2013 kidnapping of two Americans in Syria.”

The report notes that the man has not been charged with a crime, and quotes anonymous sources claiming he “no longer follows radical Islamist ideology.” La Presse did not name the person and blurred the individual’s face in the photo.

The Prime Minister’s Office declined to comment on the report, directing questions to the RCMP.

RCMP media relations officer Sgt. Harold Pfleiderer said in an emailed response “to ensure the safety of the prime minister and his family, the RCMP does not comment on security measures.”

A government official speaking on background noted that Trudeau meets thousands of people at many public events.

But the incident prompted an expert in the La Presse story to criticize the prime minister’s security detail for not conducting proper surveillance.

Physical security paramount: expert

For a prime minister known for jumping confidently into crowds, it’s likely that the RCMP has anticipated the threat posed by people with anti-Western ideologies, and has mobilized to meet that threat with surveillance and physical security, one expert says.

Even so, it’s impossible to determine exactly what everyone who approaches Trudeau is thinking, said Michael Kempa, an associate professor of criminology at the University of Ottawa who focuses on human security and the role of policing agencies.

“Ideology is invisible,” he told Yahoo Canada News. “When the prime minister wades out in the public, he will come shoulder to shoulder with people who hold all kinds of either criminal views, or different kinds of strange views, and there’s no way for the prime minister to know that.”

Instead, security details are trained to watch for suspicious behaviour that displays signs of physical aggression, weapons and other warning signs, he said.

“There’s no way that a security detail could possibly be constantly armed with a database of images [of people] who are suspected of being linked to terror groups and be scanning the crowds for these people,” Kempa said.

“The physical security details have their eyes open for any signs of physical danger.”