Threats against Justin Trudeau spiked in 2021 amid COVID-19 and lead-up to election, RCMP says
OTTAWA-Threats against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his cabinet spiked significantly in the first months of 2021, fuelled by COVID-19 restrictions and the prospect of a federal election, the RCMP says.
Data obtained by the Star that shows the RCMP have logged 215 threats made against the Liberal cabinet over the first six months of 2021 - almost as many as the number of threats registered by the national police force in 2020.
While politicians of all stripes are targets of harassment and intimidation, the newly-released data comes amid a vitriolic election campaign that has seen Trudeau's public events disrupted by protests.
(The spike) would seem, at least on the surface, to be consistent with the general anti-establishment, far-right, lack of trust in institutions, and online anger that's taking place more broadly in society," said Michael Nesbitt, a national security law professor at the University of Calgary.
For the first six months of 2021, a total of 215 incidents were reported to the RCMP. Of those, 158 related directly to Trudeau with the rest targeted at cabinet ministers.
In 2020, there were 273 incidents - with 197 directed at Trudeau - logged by the RCMP's Protective Services branch, which is responsible for protecting the prime minister and his family, the governor general, and other senior officials in Ottawa.
Typically, there is an uptick in threats due to government announcements, COVID restrictions and leading up to and during an election," said RCMP spokesperson Cpl. Kim Chamberland. Trudeau called the election on Aug. 15, following weeks of speculation.
Angry and at-times aggressive protesters have become a regular feature of Trudeau's public events on the campaign trail, as the Liberals seek a third consecutive mandate. Many appear to be motivated by opposition to COVID-19 public health measures and mandated vaccinations for Canadians hoping to travel by air or rail - something the Liberals have promised to bring in if re-elected.
Federal politicians are not the only ones dealing with angry demonstrators. The Star reported Monday that Ontario Education Minister Stephen Lecce's house has been staked out by a co-ordinated protest movement apparently angered by the Ford government's vaccine passport plans and back-to-school rules.
And the climate of increasing hostility isn't just directed at senior politicians. Federal party candidates - who don't have the benefit of RCMP protection - are facing aggression on the campaign trail.
Elizabeth Quinto, a first-time Liberal candidate in Oxford, ON told the Star this week she has experienced a surge of opposition from a pocket of residents in the riding. Sometimes I do feel I have a target on my back," she said.
And Michelle Rempel Garner, a longtime Conservative MP and former cabinet minister, spoke publicly about multiple incidents of harassment in recent weeks.
In the last two weeks alone, I have had two men spot me on the street, jump out of a car with cameras, and chase after me down the street demanding I respond to conspiracy theories," Rempel said. While having dinner with my husband, I was accosted by a large man who aggressively approached us and cornered us at our table to do the same thing."
Peter Graefe, a political science professor at McMaster University, said he believes the type of protests that have appeared on the campaign trail are different than the political dissent usually seen in Canadian politics.
The extent to which direct threats to individuals are being made is something that is relatively new, that the idea is ultimately to harm individuals, to make individuals pay with their lives or with physical harm," Graefe said.
The idea even of protesting outside a politician's house for a long time was seen as taboo ... The language to which there's a kind of surveillance, and the implied threat, that they're tracking."
It's not that they're just protesting outside the house to say we hate what you did and we're showing how angry we are.' The language is really about surveillance ... and ultimately an implied threat."
Alex Boutilier is an Ottawa-based reporter covering federal politics for the Star. Follow him on Twitter: @alexboutilier