Burlington, Ont., federal candidates meeting cancelled after excluded PPC candidate planned protest [Video]

• Read all of CBC Hamilton’s coverage of the federal election here. 

A Burlington, Ont., community group cancelled a federal election candidates meeting Monday, citing safety concerns over a protest planned outside the church where the meeting was set to occur that evening.

The Burlington candidate with the People’s Party of Canada (PPC), Michael Bator, organized a rally and promoted it on social media site X, inviting supporters to protest after organizers excluded him from fully participating in the meeting. In some posts, Bator called for a convoy from Hamilton’s Eastgate Square mall to the Port Nelson United Church in Burlington’s Roseland neighbourhood, where the event was to occur. 

“Our concern was we didn’t know how big it would be. We didn’t know how disruptive it would be,” William Love, president of the Roseland Community Organization (RCO), told CBC Hamilton, referring to the protest.

He added the meeting organizers were concerned the protest would be disruptive to theirs and other events at …