Conservative Interim Leader Rona Ambrose defended a controversial tweet made by one member of her caucus yesterday that attacked Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his promise to pull Canadian fighter jets out of the bombing mission in Iraq and Syria, saying such things are “bound to happen” in light of the attacks in Paris.

“We all have to recognize that after what happened last week, there’s going to be some emotion and passion,” she said. “I do think these kind of things will happen. They happen in the House of Commons, they happen in the media, they happen on Twitter when we’re discussing very tough, emotional, passionate issues. They’re bound to happen and they’ve happened before from Liberals, New Democrats and Conservatives.”

Ambrose took questions from reporters after announcing the appointment of Andrew Scheer as House Leader for the Conservatives and Denis Lebel as deputy leader of the party.

Despite promising a change in tone after being elected interim leader, Ambrose said tweets like Candice Bergen’s — in which she described herself as “sickened” by the prime minister’s policy — are bound to happen when people are discussing challenging subjects, but urged her caucus to focus on viewing ISIS rather than Trudeau as their enemy.

“These are very serious issues and my message to my caucus is Justin Trudeau is not our enemy. ISIS is,” she said. “We have to stand shoulder to shoulder in the House of Commons on this issue, encourage the prime minister to stand shoulder to shoulder with our allies in a military capacity.”

I am so embarrassed and sickened by PMJT. I am. At the same time, I want to support him to changed his mind. On fighting and on refugees. — Candice Bergen (@CandiceBergenMP) November 17, 2015

Trudeau’s promise to pull Canadian fighter jets from the anti-ISIS mission has sparked fierce criticism from Conservatives, which has heated up over the past five days following the deadly attacks in Paris by ISIS-affiliated killers.

More than 120 people died and more than 300 were injured after extremists opened fire at multiple cafes and restaurants throughout the 10th and 11th districts, blew themselves up in suicide attacks outside the Stade de Nord soccer stadium and rampaged through a packed concert hall.

The attacks prompted French President François Hollande to declare that France is at war with ISIS and will seek greater cooperation between the U.S. and Russia to build a “grand coalition” against the militants.

Russia, which launched intense airstrikes around the de facto ISIS capital of Raqqa alongside France on Monday, also lost more than 200 of its citizens in an aircraft bombing for which ISIS has also claimed responsibility.

The United States also used its aircraft to attack some of the militants’ oil infrastructure in Iraq on Monday, and Canadian jets conducted bombing runs, also in Iraq, on Sunday and Tuesday.

Trudeau has not given a date for ending Canada’s airstrikes and has yet to order the military to wrap them up, despite announcing on Monday that he will put more Canadian trainers on the ground to work with Kurdish fighters and the Iraqi security forces.

Ambrose said Trudeau needs to be clear with Canadians on the details of what he is proposing.

“He is the PM now and it is up to him to give those details. We know from military experts that trainers on the ground is also a risky operation but it’s worth it and it matters,” she said. “I support him on enhancing our training operation but I also encourage him to keep our CF-18s in flight to make sure we stand shoulder to shoulder with our allies, resolutely, and especially at this time, post-Beirut and Paris attacks.”

Reporters also pressed Ambrose for her reaction to the burning of a mosque in Peterborough on Nov. 14. A fire marshall reported that the fire was set on purpose and the president of the local Muslim association said it was “clearly a hate crime.”

“It’s abhorrent. It’s terrible. The concern I have is when people have … there’s unrest and concern about certain issues, it’s most important for the government to be completely transparent because any sort of reassurance they could offer on military mission, on refugee plan, provides the reassurance and lessens the rhetoric and hopefully then cooler heads will prevail and things like that won’t happen,” Ambrose said.

“We need to be constantly reaching out not only to Muslim communities but to all Canadians to talk about these issues. As I said, this is a challenging time and I think the more information government can provide Canadians, the less heated the rhetoric, the better.”

In contrast, Trudeau’s statement on the fire focused less on dispelling unrest over ISIS and Syrian refugees and more on stressing Canada’s diversity and inclusion.

“The values that make our country great are values that celebrate our diversity and our religious tolerance,” he said. “Canada is a country that is strong, not in spite of our differences, but because of them. Muslim-Canadians contribute enormously to the social and economic fabric of our nation, and Canadian authorities will not abide innocent and peaceful citizens being targeted by acts of vandalism and intolerance.”

The Conservative party was widely accused of stoking anti-Muslim sentiment during the recent election campaign with its vow to appeal a Supreme Court ruling that allowed women to wear the niqab while taking the citizenship oath, and its promise to launch a “barbaric cultural practices” tip line.

Ambrose insisted she was not involved in the tip line idea and does not support the idea, but pointed again to the “passion” such issues invoke in voters when asked whether she believes the Conservatives bear any responsibility for anti-Muslim violence because of their rhetoric during the campaign.

“A lot of these issues elicit a great deal of passion and debate, whether it’s between politicians or regular Canadians, and some of that was reflected during the campaign,” she said. “The campaign is behind us. We are here as a strong Official Opposition and we’re focused on moving forward, we’re focused on working with the PM to encourage him to stand shoulder to shoulder with our allies, resolutely against ISIS, and not just talking about degrading ISIS but defeating ISIS.”

Despite repeated phrasings of the question, she offered little more.

“I appreciate your question but the campaign’s behind us,” she said.