Federal elected officials will be entitled to enhanced security

(Ottawa) Some 18 months before the scheduled date of the next federal election, all political parties in Ottawa have made the same observation: stronger measures are necessary to ensure the security of elected representatives of the House of Commons.

Thus, the Board of Internal Economy – the governing body which is made up of representatives of all parties recognized in the House of Commons – intends to announce shortly a series of new measures aimed at ensuring current elected officials and those who are thinking of running for office the votes in the next election that they will be able to do their work in complete safety.

Among other things, MPs who wish to do so will be able to request police protection during events in which they participate if they deem it necessary or during their travels in their constituency, we learned. The Press. This protection may be provided by agents of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), provincial police forces such as the Sûreté du Québec or the Ontario Provincial Police or even local police forces.

The House of Commons intends to pay the costs related to this police protection. This measure is being introduced permanently after a pilot project launched last year aimed at covering security costs at events organized by MPs outside the federal capital proved successful.

Another measure, the alarm systems that have been installed in recent years in MPs’ constituency offices will be standardized in order to be able to report threats more quickly.

We also plan to increase the staff assigned to the web monitoring service for deputies in order to detect threats on social networks like Facebook and dark web, confirmed sources familiar with this matter.

“The measures that will be proposed will greatly improve security for all parliamentarians and ministers. Security budgets will also be increased,” said a source who requested anonymity because she was not authorized to speak publicly about this issue.

Over the past few months, MPs from all political parties have reported incidents they consider threatening to the relevant authorities. The number of cases is also increasing sharply, going from around 300 cases in 2022 to more than 1,500 cases last year, according to the same source.

These new measures will be added to others which have already been in force for four years, in particular the installation of surveillance cameras in the homes of elected officials and the provision of an individual mobile alarm which, once activated, makes it possible to alert a third-party monitoring center.

The polarization of opinions

The COVID-19 pandemic, the “freedom convoy” that paralyzed downtown Ottawa for three weeks in the winter of 2022, the rising cost of living, the conflict between Israel and Hamas and a more polarized political context are all elements which explain the multiplication of threats against federal, provincial and municipal elected officials.

This week, a Liberal MP from the Toronto region, Pam Damoff, cited the increase in threats against elected officials to announce that she would not be a candidate in the next federal election in an emotional letter addressed to her principals.

“Quite simply, politics is no longer for me and the time has therefore come for me to turn the page on this chapter,” M wrote in his letter^me Damoff, who was first elected to the riding of Oakville North–Burlington in 2015.

Last month, Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly was attacked by a man furious about the humanitarian situation in Gaza while she was walking on a sidewalk in Montreal. The minister tried to grab the phone of the individual who was filming her and who had told her in particular that “his job” was to “harass” her.

The case of M^me Joly is the last in line for Trudeau cabinet ministers.

Unlike ministers in Quebec, who are accompanied by an armed driver acting as a bodyguard at all times, federal ministers have a driver who is not armed with a weapon. They generally travel alone, both on Parliament Hill and in their daily lives. But in recent months, certain more prominent ministers in the Liberal government have been granted protection by RCMP agents.

The Trudeau government is toying with the idea of ​​imitating the protection regime for ministers in force in Quebec for several years.