RCMP Commissioner concerned about increasing threats to elected officials
Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Commissioner Mike Duheme is advising the federal government to strengthen the law to make it easier for police to lay charges against people who threaten elected officials.
The RCMP is seeing an increase in invective directed at politicians, often made repeatedly by the same people," Duheme said in an interview.
These behaviours often do not result in a charge of uttering threats under the Criminal Code.
So that's sometimes a problem," said the RCMP.
But are there other tools we could use? Is there anything else we could add to the Criminal Code to deal with this issue? Mike Duheme openly asks.He hopes that the RCMP work with the federal departments of Public Safety and Justice on new legislation to address this phenomenon.
"It would be nice to see if we could look at that," he said.
People feel freer to express what they really think, which is a good thing, but it must be done in a civil way. Every elected official has the right to feel safe in his or her work.
A quote fromMike Duheme, Commissioner of the RCMPThe commissioner's comments come on the heels of growing concerns about the safety of politicians.
ADVERTISINGMPs were followed into the streets and threatened with death, prompting increased protection and security measures.
For example, Pam Damoff, the Liberal MP for the federal riding of Oakville North–Burlington, Ontario, recently announced that she would not run in the next election, saying that the threats and misogyny she experienced made her afraid to go out in public.
Mr. Duheme maintains that the RCMP communicates regularly with other police forces about threats to politicians. The RCMP has a liaison team that communicates with federal ministers' offices about day-to-day security needs. She also works closely with the House of Commons Sergeant-at-Arms on the protection of Members of Parliament.
Federal police behavioral science experts also look at cases that occur. The RCMP noted that disturbing comments sometimes come from people known to police as a result of previous incidents," said Commissioner Duheme.
An intelligence report released last March found that threats against politicians had become "increasingly normalized" due to extremist narratives motivated by personal grievances and fueled by misinformation or deliberate lies.
The June 2023 report, prepared by a federal task force that aims to protect electoral processes, highlighted that baseless theories and misinformation have spread to a wider audience, exposing online users to a vast web of narratives that undermine science, systems of government, and traditional authority figures.
Women particularly targetedViolent rhetoric is systematically directed at elected officials, with particular hostility towards women in positions of authority, the report says.
In recent years, countries such as Bolivia, Brazil and Tunisia have passed laws to address violence against women in politics.
It's important to ensure that social media platforms have terms of service that minimize feelings of violence, says Chris Tenove, associate director of the Centre for the Study of Democratic Institutions at the University of British Columbia.
The recently introduced federal online harms bill is one way to help set standards for the expectations of these platforms to combat harassment, threats and hate speech, he adds.
While much of the abuse occurs in cyberspace, it can also manifest itself in everyday life.
So you receive threats online [...] and you are insulted at a city council meeting," Tenove said by way of example.
It is important, he said, for leaders and political staff to make it clear to their activists that it is inappropriate and undemocratic to threaten or harass members of opposing political parties online.
The RCMP is seeing an increase in invective directed at politicians, often made repeatedly by the same people," Duheme said in an interview.
These behaviours often do not result in a charge of uttering threats under the Criminal Code.
So that's sometimes a problem," said the RCMP.
But are there other tools we could use? Is there anything else we could add to the Criminal Code to deal with this issue? Mike Duheme openly asks.He hopes that the RCMP work with the federal departments of Public Safety and Justice on new legislation to address this phenomenon.
"It would be nice to see if we could look at that," he said.
People feel freer to express what they really think, which is a good thing, but it must be done in a civil way. Every elected official has the right to feel safe in his or her work.
A quote fromMike Duheme, Commissioner of the RCMPThe commissioner's comments come on the heels of growing concerns about the safety of politicians.
ADVERTISINGMPs were followed into the streets and threatened with death, prompting increased protection and security measures.
For example, Pam Damoff, the Liberal MP for the federal riding of Oakville North–Burlington, Ontario, recently announced that she would not run in the next election, saying that the threats and misogyny she experienced made her afraid to go out in public.
Mr. Duheme maintains that the RCMP communicates regularly with other police forces about threats to politicians. The RCMP has a liaison team that communicates with federal ministers' offices about day-to-day security needs. She also works closely with the House of Commons Sergeant-at-Arms on the protection of Members of Parliament.
Federal police behavioral science experts also look at cases that occur. The RCMP noted that disturbing comments sometimes come from people known to police as a result of previous incidents," said Commissioner Duheme.
An intelligence report released last March found that threats against politicians had become "increasingly normalized" due to extremist narratives motivated by personal grievances and fueled by misinformation or deliberate lies.
The June 2023 report, prepared by a federal task force that aims to protect electoral processes, highlighted that baseless theories and misinformation have spread to a wider audience, exposing online users to a vast web of narratives that undermine science, systems of government, and traditional authority figures.
Women particularly targetedViolent rhetoric is systematically directed at elected officials, with particular hostility towards women in positions of authority, the report says.
In recent years, countries such as Bolivia, Brazil and Tunisia have passed laws to address violence against women in politics.
It's important to ensure that social media platforms have terms of service that minimize feelings of violence, says Chris Tenove, associate director of the Centre for the Study of Democratic Institutions at the University of British Columbia.
The recently introduced federal online harms bill is one way to help set standards for the expectations of these platforms to combat harassment, threats and hate speech, he adds.
While much of the abuse occurs in cyberspace, it can also manifest itself in everyday life.
So you receive threats online [...] and you are insulted at a city council meeting," Tenove said by way of example.
It is important, he said, for leaders and political staff to make it clear to their activists that it is inappropriate and undemocratic to threaten or harass members of opposing political parties online.
