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“If you’re going to drag people out of places, you should at least explain why,” Redekop said.

The Conservative Party and Saskatoon Police did not respond to a Saturday request for comment.

Redekop said she’s an engaged citizen who often has email exchanges with her local Conservative MP, particularly about a growing toxic-drug problem in her city and concerns about homelessness.

She said she signed up for Poilievre’s Thursday evening rally in the city to learn more about the leader’s approach to those issues, and perhaps have a chance to discuss them with Poilievre or the local candidate, incumbent Brad Redekopp.

Teri Redekop, who is not related to the candidate, said she went through security with a friend and stood at the back of the room, trying to avoid the noise of the crowd, as she is autistic and loud sounds give her headaches.

She said a man with an earpiece asked whether she and her friend were excited to see Poilievre, and she recalls responding that she’s an engaged citizen who wants to ask questions and hear about the party’s policies.

She said the man asked if the pair were “looking to cause trouble” and she said they replied they definitely weren’t. When she asked his name, she said the man replied that he was “nobody.”

A few moments later, after a few candidates spoke, and while Poilievre’s wife Anaida was hyping up the crowd, a different man asked the pair to step back so they weren’t blocking a pathway in the crowd.

A few moments later, the man returned and told the pair “you guys aren’t welcome, you need to leave,” she recalled. She asked why, and he replied they were now trespassing, and grabbed her arm, which she pulled away.

The man said the pair were not welcome in the venue, at which point the police arrived and took both of her wrists and walked the pair outside.

The police told her to leave, and she said she would do so if they let go of her arms, at which point she says they accused her of resisting.

A video shows Redekop in handcuffs surrounded by five police officers, one of whom says “for whatever reason, they told us they don’t want you here.”

They remove her handcuffs after asking her address and telling Redekop she will be arrested if she breaches the property line again.

“If I had yelled something, or tried to be threatening in any capacity, I would have understood why they asked us to leave. But we were literally there to hear him speak,” she said in an interview.

“That doesn’t seem very democratic.”

Redekop says she’s not sure why she was forced out of the venue, but wondered if her T-shirt with a transgender-rights flag and the phrase “You Will have To Go Through Me” might have drawn suspicion, despite not being an issue at the security check.

Redekop is not transgender but says it’s important to stand up against rising hate toward that community. 

Her only other suspicion is that asking why she was being removed and asking to have her hands freed might have been seen as an escalation. She says it’s normal for autistic people to ask for the reasons for people’s actions, and shouldn’t be seen as confrontational.

“How is that an inappropriate escalation of force,” she said. “I shouldn’t have to be like, ‘well I’m autistic, so you have to explain things.’”

Political parties have wide latitude over who and what they allow into rallies, many of which have been disrupted over the course of the campaign, particularly from protesters raising concerns over the Israel-Hamas war.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 26, 2025.