Growing MP harassment a difficult problem to fix

Committee exploring whether guidelines are needed to cover MP-to-MP incidents

- TONDA MACCHARLES

Liberal MP Pam Damoff said last month that she will not run in the next federal election, adding that disrespectful dialogue in politics, misogyny and threats to her life contributed to her decision.

OTTAWA Harassment of MPs has skyrocketed over the past five years, according to Parliament’s tracking which found a steep rise in online threats and in-person “threat behaviour,” from eight cases in 2019 to 530 in 2023.

The numbers  and warnings the problem is getting worse — were revealed as a parliamentary committee began looking at what gaps exist in the workplace harassment and violence policies covering MPs, and whether lawmakers should draft a code of conduct or any new guidelines to cover MP-to-MP harassment.

Sergeant-at-Arms Pat McDonell said there is a “significant” rise in harassment of elected officials, including online threats and indirect “threat behaviour” that is intimidating but may not cross a criminal threshold because it is not a direct threat to someone’s personal safety.

He described it as a problem that is increasingly harder to track, although Commons security officials work with the RCMP and have agreements with 61 police forces to respond where needed.

It’s up to social media platforms to decide if comments violate the companies’ own guidelines for malicious or harassing threats, McDonell said. And parliamentary security officials used to have better success getting threatening remarks or harassing comments taken down.