Criminal record, six months in prison, probation: these are the very real consequences of criminal harassment and online threats against elected officials, warns the Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions (DPCP), who has launched an awareness campaign on social networks .
Since the start of the Quebec election campaign, several candidates have reported being targeted, including Liberal Marwah Rizqy, who has received death threats.
Outgoing Liberal MP Enrico Ciccone was also targeted, as well as Caquist candidate Sylvain Lévesque, who saw an image of his election sign dripping with blood circulating on social media.
Thursday, the DPCP began to broadcast messages to remind that the offenses of threat, harassment or intimidation are punishable by up to 10 years in prison – and a criminal record.
Violent, threatening or harassing remarks, even if they are supposedly made “in the name of freedom of expression during an election period” — and even those made on social networks and not in the presence of the targeted persons — can constitute criminal offenses . This is also the case for violent images and messages left in voicemail, post office or emails, specifies the DPCP, which is responsible for bringing criminal proceedings in Quebec.
He used, he says, real cases to illustrate his remarks.
The DPCP reports in particular the charges filed against a man who wrote on Facebook to a senior official: “It’s over for you. You are dead my [censuré]. They discovered the pot of roses”. This writing earned him six months in prison and a criminal record, indicates the DPCP.
We can also see on Twitter the case of this young woman with no criminal record who wrote to an elected official (unidentified) that she “would break his legs”. Results ? 18 months probation.
as this analysis of the To have to earlier this summer. to have reported deplorable events since the start of the election campaign, they are unfortunately not the only ones: their colleagues at the federal level are not spared, there are several If the provincial candidates