Poilievre set to meet supporters at Montreal-area restaurant at centre of anti-vax controversy

Pierre Poilievre speaks at a press conference at Brandt Tractor Ltd. in Regina on Friday, March 4, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Michael Bell

The front-runner in the Conservative Party leadership race is set to make a series of campaign stops in Quebec over the next few days, including one at a Montreal-area restaurant that was known to be a hotbed for a local anti-vaccine movement that deeply divided a community after some members died of COVID-19.

Pierre Poilievre, the Conservative MP for the Ottawa-area riding of Carleton, is scheduled to visit the Casa Grecque restaurant on Daniel-Johnson Boulevard in Laval. A website advertised on Poilievre's Facebook page states that he will be there on Monday and includes a banner that invites people to "meet Pierre Poilievre, candidate for prime minister."

The eatery was a regular meeting place for members of a tight-knit Greek community who would plan ways to oppose Quebec's vaccine mandate during the summer of 2021.

But as CTV News reported last November, the group caused a deep rift in the community that led to physical threats, an online boycott of the restaurant, and an atmosphere so tense that even local priests were reluctant to touch the subject of vaccines at the time.

Poilievre's campaign team did not respond to multiple requests from CTV this week about the upcoming visit.

The franchise owner of the Laval restaurant, Peter Chiotis, also could not be reached for comment about his special guest on Monday, though he did promote the event on his Facebook page. Chiotis regularly posts anti-vaccine material on his social media platforms and supported — as did Poilievre — the anti-vaccine mandate "Freedom Convoy" that occupied Ottawa's downtown core for three weeks.

Poilievre's supporters online who said they would attend Monday's event appear to be excited about his visit, with some writing on Facebook they'll bring their own chairs to the event due to limited space. One person wrote on Facebook "I have a man crush on that man. Love how he dismantles Trudeau all the time," while another wrote Poilievre "is the only one he can reunite the west and the east and bring the whole country together!!"

Franchises are owned and run independently of Casa Grecque’s parent company, MTY group.

POILIEVRE SEEKS TO UNIFY CANADIANS DIVIDED OVER VACCINES

Poilievre has said he wants to bring divided Canadians together in light of the vaccine mandate debate.

According to a recent interview with True North, an online news outlet describing itself as having a "conservative editorial position," the Conservative leadership contender is attempting to court some supporters his party lost to the far-right People's Party of Canada in the last federal election and has pledged to "build a coalition around freedom," including "the freedom to make your own bodily and health decisions."

Freedom appears to be the central theme of his call for unity in the party, telling the publication he wants to stand up to the Liberal government's "pandemic power trip" and "vaccine vendetta."

He also said in a recent YouTube interview with The Post Millennial, another conservative outlet, that he wants to build the coalition to "unite people for freedom and restore respect and kindness to all of our citizens regardless of their vaccine status," because "that should not divide us."

Poilievre is vaccinated and encourages Canadians to get their shots, but said he doesn't believe "we should punish them or exclude them from society if, for their own reasons, they make a different choice."

ANTI-MANDATE RESTAURANT MEETINGS

A woman named Helen told CTV News in the fall about three men, including her husband and her daughter’s boyfriend, who died from COVID-19 and were part of a tight-knit social circle in Laval's Greek community.

Her husband regularly attended anti-vaccine movement meetings at that Casa Grecque last summer.

"They would meet at a restaurant and talk… with lawyers [about] how they're going to sue the government for forcing people to get vaccinated," said Helen, who didn't want her family name published to avoid unnecessary media exposure.

One of her husband's friends, Gus Vazelas, urged people to boycott the restaurant last fall.

"Just today my best friend got buried," he wrote after seeing a promotion for the restaurant on Facebook at the time.

Poilievre is scheduled to make at least four other stops in Quebec over the coming days, according to his Facebook page.