A recent CBC News article highlighted the fact that the cost of keeping Canada’s Prime Minister (PM), Cabinet, and members of Parliament (MPs) safe has hit a record high. This isn’t really all that surprising given the politicization of such highly contentious issues as past COVID-related government measures and the current Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Fortunately, unlike the U.S., Canada has to date never seen a PM or Cabinet member assassinated. History however has some examples of recent incidents involving lone wolves who attempted to harm a federal politician. For example, a series of shootings occurred on October 22, 2014 at the National War Memorial and on Parliament Hill involving a lone gunman. The gunman managed to enter Parliament, but in a shootout with Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officers he was shot and died at the scene. In 2020, police arrested an armed man, without incident, who had gained access to the grounds at Rideau Hall, the Governor General’s official residence. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his family also live on the property at Rideau Cottage, not far from where the gunman was intercepted by the officers. In both cases, after further investigation, it became clear that the assaults involved persons with mental health issues exhibiting previously known erratic behavior. Terrorism was ruled out as a primary motive.
More recently on January 24th at a local level, a heavily armed man fired shots and apparently threw a Molotov cocktail in Edmonton’s city hall. At the time, Mayor Amarjeet Sohi and several councillors were among the people present for an in-person meeting. Fortunately, no one was hurt and upon receiving reports of shots fired at city hall, Edmonton Police Service officers arrived within minutes and took one adult male into custody. The motive of the man isn’t yet known, and officials could not confirm whether or not he was previously known to police.
Since the 2014 incident on Parliament Hill, security has been greatly increased in order to provide better protection for Canada’s 338 members of Parliament (MPs). Security on the hill involves the RCMP, local police services in Ottawa, the Parliamentary Protective Service and the House of Commons. As reported by CBC News, during the first nine months of this fiscal year (2023-24), the RCMP spent $2.5 million (Canadian) on security for MPs. If spending continues at the same pace, it is estimated that the cost of MPs’ security for this fiscal year could hit $3.4 million — almost double what it cost a year earlier. Reportedly, former federal public safety minister Marco Mendicino said the rising price tag reflects a change in the “threat environment”, especially since the pandemic and the 2022 Ottawa truck convoy protest. He further noted that there’s no doubt in his mind that the threat environment has escalated over the last couple of years, especially as result of the divisive Middle East crisis in Canada between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli supporters.
Greater harassment of the PM and members of Cabinet has certainly surfaced in recent post-COVID years, especially when they are on speaking tours. On one occasion for example in August 2022, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland was verbally harassed outside an event in Grande Prairie, Alberta. There was also a very recent incident during which protesters, upset with Canada’s position on the Israel-Hamas war, gathered outside Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly’s home in Montreal. In addition, there has been an alarming increase in threatening or abusive emails sent to individual MPs.
In general, the PM cannot go anywhere without the potential threat of harassment by anti-Trudeau factions. As a result, RCMP security details for the PM have been greatly increased, along with the associated mounting costs. Given the current highly volatile political environment, costlier security for politicians — federal, provincial and local — is likely to remain the new normal. Canada has always prided itself in terms of being a country where civility and respect predominated the political scene. All that appears to have changed as evidenced by the mounting verbal and physical harassment associated with recent events surrounding the pandemic and the weeks long truck convoy protest in Ottawa during the winter of 2022.
FROLITICKS 
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