Global News reporter David Akin apologized Tuesday after heckling Pierre Poilievre at his first press conference as Conservative leader.
“Lots of viewers called me about today’s Parliament Hill presser,” Akin wrote in a Tweet. “Many said I was rude and disrespectful to Pierre Poilievre. I agree. I’m sorry for that.”
“We all want politicians to answer questions — but there are better ways of making that point,” wrote Akin.
Poilievre was interrupted several times during a press conference where he was criticizing Trudeau for mismanaging the inflation crisis.
As Poilievre began his presser, Akin can be heard yelling at the Conservative leader and demanding to ask questions.
“We have a Liberal heckler who snuck in here today.” said Poilievre. “Are you going to let me make my statement? I’ve actually never seen you heckling the Prime Minister.”
Poilievre eventually told Akin that he’ll answer two questions at the end of the press conference. “Hopefully this time without interruption from the Liberal heckling gathering here.”
In a fundraising email later that day, Poilievre went after Akin writing, “Today, I was delivering a statement about how Trudeau’s inflation is hurting everyday Canadians when someone started shouting.”
“That’s right. David Akin from Global News was swearing, shouting and heckling,” he wrote. “He wasn’t interested in hearing what I had to say, and he certainly wasn’t interested in reporting it in an unbiased way.”
Poilievre used the opportunity to call out the legacy media and repeat his plan to defund the CBC.
“We can’t count on the media to communicate our messages to Canadians,” he wrote. “We have to go around them and their biased coverage.”
