PMO slams Fox News for tweet about Quebec City shooting suspect
Posted January 31, 2017 3:04 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
OTTAWA – One of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s senior officials is taking Fox News to task for describing the alleged gunman in the Quebec City shooting as Moroccan.
Kate Purchase, director of communications in the Prime Minister’s Office, says Fox tweeted the inaccurate description on yesterday but has yet to remove it from its Twitter feed.
Purchase’s complaint is contained in a letter to Bill Shine, co-president of Fox News Channel, and released late today.
She says the tweet “dishonours the memories” of the six victims of the Sunday night shooting at a Quebec mosque and also perpetuates fear and division.
The letter also describes closing borders “a thinly veiled reference to US President Donald Trump’s controversial travel ban” as a distraction from the real issues that affect ordinary people.
Police have arrested Alexandre Bissonnette, a 27-year-old of French-Canadian origin, in connection with Sunday’s deadly shooting, which Trudeau and the police have characterized as an act of terror.
