Sask. premier under fire from Opposition for supporting protest convoy

Saskatchewan NDP leader Ryan Meili says Premier Scott Moe needs to apologize for supporting convoy protests where extreme views were on display.

Over the weekend, Moe issued a statement in support of the convoy protest that had travelled to Ottawa. People waving Confederate flags and flags with swastikas on them were seen at the protest. There was also a group who gathered on the Tomb of the Unknown Solider.

On Monday, Moe said that some actions of some protestors deserve to be condemned. He said those actions take away from the message the protestors were trying to convey.

"Most certainly they should be held accountable. The acts that we're seeing are nothing short of, as I said, deplorable," Moe told reporters Monday. "But ... there are many many individuals, and we saw many of them here in Regina, that want their voice heard."

He said if the acts that certain people are doing are illegal, he hopes they would be held accountable by police. 

"I would go a step further to say that what these individuals are doing, they owe Canadians an apology."

Several incidents of disruption have been reported in Ottawa over the last three days.

The Shepherds of Good Hope homeless shelter, located just a few blocks from Parliament Hill, reported that a service user and a security guard were assaulted and its staff were harassed by protesters pressuring them to provide meals over the last 24 hours.

Ottawa police said in a statement Sunday night that they have avoided ticketing and towing vehicles so as not to "instigate confrontations with demonstrators."

Meili said Moe didn't denounce the actions of those protestors until "someone stuck a microphone in his face."

"To pretend now that somehow he's offended by their actions when he enabled them and he encouraged them ... there's simply no credibility there whatsoever. And he owes the people of Saskatchewan an apology," Meili said in an interview Monday. 

Moe failed to take any proactive measures by not warning people to stay away from radical, extreme messaging, Meili said.

Meili said an upside-down Canadian flag bearing a swastika was not something he ever thought he would see. 

"It's not who I think we are, but we have to be honest that it's happening, that we have seen this here, and it is horrible," he said. 

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau echoed those thoughts Monday. Trudeau said he watched in horror this weekend as some of the protesters carried flags with Nazi insignia and climbed the National War Memorial.

He condemned the anti-vaccine-mandate protests that have gripped the nation's capital for the last four days, and said he won't meet with people who promote hate and espouse anti-science views.