Political panel talks week 1 of P.E.I. Legislature's spring sitting
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Global News
4 days ago
- Global News
Decades after a PM got pied, the threat landscape in Canadian politics has changed
When Prime Minister Jean Chrétien got hit in the face with a pie 25 years ago, the only thing hurt was his pride. A quarter-century later, Canada's security landscape has changed radically. Threats of violence against politicians have become far more common. What seemed like a harmless prank then looks more like a warning now. 'There is this view that you're a politician, it's all fair game,' said Catherine McKenna — who was herself the target of multiple threats of violence while she served as a federal minister. 'We need people to go into politics and not feel threatened. It's literally about the health of our democracy because if you want people to go into politics, you can't expect that they're going to put up with this and their families are going to put up with it.' Documents released by the Privy Council Office show that the volume of threats made against the prime minister and cabinet ministers has exploded in recent years. Story continues below advertisement A chart shows that there 40 threats against the prime minister and his cabinet were recorded in 2021. That number rose to 91 in 2022, 236 in 2023 and 311 in 2024. The PCO document reports that 11 threats specifically targeting then-prime minister Justin Trudeau were recorded in 2021. The following year saw 25 threats against the PM reported. In 2024, Trudeau was the target of 212 threats, the document shows. Between 2021 and 2024, the Privy Council document shows that Trudeau was the subject of 90 threats of death. The document says the 2024 statistics cover the period between January 1 and July 17. While McKenna said most of the threats against her emerged online, she was famously singled out for very public abuse during her 2015 to 2021 cabinet career — once while walking with her children outside a movie theatre. 'It's just happening all the time and at all levels,' she said. 'I can't talk to a politician without them giving me a story about what has happened, and often women, especially racialized, Indigenous members of the LGBTQ2+ community. 'You just don't know … probably 99 per cent of (threats) are nothing. It just only takes one person … I don't think you can fool around with this.' The P.E.I. pie incident happened on Aug. 16, 2000, while Chrétien was visiting an agricultural exhibition in Charlottetown. Story continues below advertisement As the prime minister entered the building and began shaking hands with people, a man in the crowd went up to him and pushed what appeared to be a cream-topped pie into his face. Get daily National news Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day. Sign up for daily National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy As a shocked-looking Chrétien peeled off the pie plate and wiped his face, the man — who had attempted to flee — was stopped by police. While the RCMP acknowledged that the incident shouldn't have happened, it wasn't the first such security breach during Chrétien's time as prime minister. In 1996, Chrétien grabbed a protester by the chin and neck and pushed him aside during a National Flag of Canada Day event — the incident that later became known as the 'Shawinigan Handshake.' A year before, Chrétien's wife Aline came face-to-face with an intruder who had managed to break into the prime minister's official residence in Ottawa armed with a knife. Michele Paradis, the RCMP assistant commissioner in charge of protective policing, said police have to strike a 'difficult balance' between keeping officials safe and allowing them access to the public. 'Because, really, if MPs, ministers of the Crown are not going out to meet with their constituents, that has an impact on our very democracy,' she said. 'My role is to make sure that our members and our principals are equipped with not only the physical tools to stop that, but also the mental acuity to be able to say something is not right,' Paradis said, adding that Mounties were quick to bring down someone who got too close to Trudeau at a parade in Montreal in 2019. Story continues below advertisement Paradis said the threat landscape has calmed down somewhat since the recent change of government. If an official is threatened online, she said, Mounties will pay the person levying the threat a visit to determine whether they have the capacity to act on it, or if there is a mental health issue at play. Paradis said the RCMP works with government officials, the House of Commons, constituency offices and security officers for various ministers to complete risk assessments. 'I think we've got a better sense of the picture of what's going on,' Paradis said. There have been several recent efforts to boost security measures for elected officials. In 2024, RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme asked the government to consider drafting a new law that would make it easier for police to pursue charges against people who threaten elected officials. Around the same time, former public safety minister Marco Mendicino called for the creation of 'protective zones' around political constituency offices to shield members of Parliament and their staff. McKenna said she'd like to see an independent protective service created specifically to protect the prime minister and other federal officials. She said she'd like to see the government pass online harms legislation and hold social media companies accountable for the threats posted on their platforms. Story continues below advertisement McKenna said politicians also need to stop launching personal attacks on each other in order to generate social media clips. 'The problem is when they get personal, then it's easy for people to basically dehumanize people,' she said. 'It means that it's OK to say terrible things about people and … it's OK to go up to them and shout at them in the street and threaten them.' When asked if more security measures are needed, Paradis said she and most police officers 'work within what we have now' and adapt when things change. Rob Huebert, a professor in the department of political science at the University of Calgary and director of the Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies, said the 'near assassination' of U.S. President Donald Trump last year demonstrates that, even today, a determined assassin can still get close to a politician. 'On so many of these events, you can try to have metal detectors, you can try to have pre-screening, but it's impossible to ever try to achieve 100 per cent security … the threat of an assault on a political leader is one of those constants,' he said. 'The threat is always there.' Huebert cited the example of the so-called 'Toronto 18' terrorism plot, exposed in 2006, which was to involve a series of public attacks to convince the federal government to withdraw troops from Afghanistan. Story continues below advertisement He said the fact that there have been no successful attacks on Canadian government officials could be the result of improved security — or it could be because no one else has tried. Chris Mathers, a retired RCMP officer and president of a consulting and investigative firm, said the 2000 pie incident shows how Chrétien 'didn't stay in the box' — meaning he often strayed from the protective perimeter provided by his security detail. Trudeau, he said, 'always stayed in the box,' perhaps because, as the son of a prime minister, he grew up aware of threats against politicians. 'If you stay in the box, there's a lot less chance that you're going to be confronted by somebody with a pie or a knife or a gun or a bomb,' Mathers said. Mathers said 'the world is changing' and that people are now 'a lot more aggressive and will do and say things that they wouldn't in the past.' 'The problem is that we've started to degrade into a very permissive society and inappropriate behaviours are almost considered to be courageous in some areas,' he said. 'So yes, security around public figures has increased, just as a result of the changing social environment.' — With files from Jim Bronskill
Winnipeg Free Press
4 days ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Decades after a PM got pied, the threat landscape in Canadian politics has changed
OTTAWA – When Prime Minister Jean Chrétien got hit in the face with a pie 25 years ago, the only thing hurt was his pride. A quarter-century later, Canada's security landscape has changed radically. Threats of violence against politicians have become far more common. What seemed like a harmless prank then looks more like a warning now. 'There is this view that you're a politician, it's all fair game,' said Catherine McKenna — who was herself the target of multiple threats of violence while she served as a federal minister. 'We need people to go into politics and not feel threatened. It's literally about the health of our democracy because if you want people to go into politics, you can't expect that they're going to put up with this and their families are going to put up with it.' Documents released by the Privy Council Office show that the volume of threats made against the prime minister and cabinet ministers has exploded in recent years. A chart shows that there 40 threats against the prime minister and his cabinet were recorded in 2021. That number rose to 91 in 2022, 236 in 2023 and 311 in 2024. The PCO document reports that 11 threats specifically targeting then-prime minister Justin Trudeau were recorded in 2021. The following year saw 25 threats against the PM reported. In 2024, Trudeau was the target of 212 threats, the document shows. Between 2021 and 2024, the Privy Council document shows that Trudeau was the subject of 90 threats of death. The document says the 2024 statistics cover the period between January 1 and July 17. While McKenna said most of the threats against her emerged online, she was famously singled out for very public abuse during her 2015 to 2021 cabinet career — once while walking with her children outside a movie theatre. 'It's just happening all the time and at all levels,' she said. 'I can't talk to a politician without them giving me a story about what has happened, and often women, especially racialized, Indigenous members of the LGBTQ2+ community. 'You just don't know … probably 99 per cent of (threats) are nothing. It just only takes one person … I don't think you can fool around with this.' The P.E.I. pie incident happened on Aug. 16, 2000, while Chrétien was visiting an agricultural exhibition in Charlottetown. As the prime minister entered the building and began shaking hands with people, a man in the crowd went up to him and pushed what appeared to be a cream-topped pie into his face. As a shocked-looking Chrétien peeled off the pie plate and wiped his face, the man — who had attempted to flee — was stopped by police. While the RCMP acknowledged that the incident shouldn't have happened, it wasn't the first such security breach during Chrétien's time as prime minister. In 1996, Chrétien grabbed a protester by the chin and neck and pushed him aside during a National Flag of Canada Day event — the incident that later became known as the 'Shawinigan Handshake.' A year before, Chrétien's wife Aline came face-to-face with an intruder who had managed to break into the prime minister's official residence in Ottawa armed with a knife. Michele Paradis, the RCMP assistant commissioner in charge of protective policing, said police have to strike a 'difficult balance' between keeping officials safe and allowing them access to the public. 'Because, really, if MPs, ministers of the Crown are not going out to meet with their constituents, that has an impact on our very democracy,' she said. 'My role is to make sure that our members and our principals are equipped with not only the physical tools to stop that, but also the mental acuity to be able to say something is not right,' Paradis said, adding that Mounties were quick to bring down someone who got too close to Trudeau at a parade in Montreal in 2019. Paradis said the threat landscape has calmed down somewhat since the recent change of government. If an official is threatened online, she said, Mounties will pay the person levying the threat a visit to determine whether they have the capacity to act on it, or if there is a mental health issue at play. Paradis said the RCMP works with government officials, the House of Commons, constituency offices and security officers for various ministers to complete risk assessments. 'I think we've got a better sense of the picture of what's going on,' Paradis said. There have been several recent efforts to boost security measures for elected officials. In 2024, RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme asked the government to consider drafting a new law that would make it easier for police to pursue charges against people who threaten elected officials. Around the same time, former public safety minister Marco Mendicino called for the creation of 'protective zones' around political constituency offices to shield members of Parliament and their staff. McKenna said she'd like to see an independent protective service created specifically to protect the prime minister and other federal officials. She said she'd like to see the government pass online harms legislation and hold social media companies accountable for the threats posted on their platforms. McKenna said politicians also need to stop launching personal attacks on each other in order to generate social media clips. 'The problem is when they get personal, then it's easy for people to basically dehumanize people,' she said. 'It means that it's OK to say terrible things about people and … it's OK to go up to them and shout at them in the street and threaten them.' When asked if more security measures are needed, Paradis said she and most police officers 'work within what we have now' and adapt when things change. Rob Huebert, a professor in the department of political science at the University of Calgary and director of the Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies, said the 'near assassination' of U.S. President Donald Trump last year demonstrates that, even today, a determined assassin can still get close to a politician. 'On so many of these events, you can try to have metal detectors, you can try to have pre-screening, but it's impossible to ever try to achieve 100 per cent security … the threat of an assault on a political leader is one of those constants,' he said. 'The threat is always there.' Huebert cited the example of the so-called 'Toronto 18' terrorism plot, exposed in 2006, which was to involve a series of public attacks to convince the federal government to withdraw troops from Afghanistan. He said the fact that there have been no successful attacks on Canadian government officials could be the result of improved security — or it could be because no one else has tried. Chris Mathers, a retired RCMP officer and president of a consulting and investigative firm, said the 2000 pie incident shows how Chrétien 'didn't stay in the box' — meaning he often strayed from the protective perimeter provided by his security detail. Trudeau, he said, 'always stayed in the box,' perhaps because, as the son of a prime minister, he grew up aware of threats against politicians. 'If you stay in the box, there's a lot less chance that you're going to be confronted by somebody with a pie or a knife or a gun or a bomb,' Mathers said. Mathers said 'the world is changing' and that people are now 'a lot more aggressive and will do and say things that they wouldn't in the past.' 'The problem is that we've started to degrade into a very permissive society and inappropriate behaviours are almost considered to be courageous in some areas,' he said. 'So yes, security around public figures has increased, just as a result of the changing social environment.' — With files from Jim Bronskill This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 15, 2025.
4 days ago
Sanctioned but standing: Russians see their prices rise as Trump and Putin head to Alaska
Despite three and half years of grinding international sanctions due to the Ukraine war, Russian grocery store shelves remain full, and there's little evidence people are going without their creature comforts. However, as Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin prepare for their summit in Alaska on Friday, a tipping point may have finally arrived for the Russian people, left physically and economically separated from the West. Moscow's heavy war-related spending has led to higher salaries and increased consumer spending. But it's also caused higher inflation, which is now cutting deeply into economic growth, says Alexander Kolyandr, a senior researcher for the Center for European Policy Analysis in London. The situation is reflected in the attitudes of many people with whom CBC News spoke. Russian authorities have prohibited CBC from directly reporting in the country. Instead, a freelance journalist in Moscow sounded people out about their feelings on the war, its impact on their daily lives and the potential of the Trump-Putin summit in Alaska. Prices are constantly going up, especially food and utilities, said Anton, 40, who lives with his wife and young daughter in Korolyov, a Moscow commuter town. Kids' clothes like T-shirts that were super cheap are now sold at crazy prices in stores, with the same [bad] quality. Speaking publicly about Ukraine can trigger visits from Russian police, so CBC News is withholding the surnames of the people interviewed. Enlarge image (new window) A view of cooked food on a counter in a supermarket in Moscow in June 2024. Photo: Reuters / Maxim Shemetov 'You can't do it forever' Year over year, inflation now stands at almost nine per cent. Food inflation is even higher. We see the slowing of the economy everywhere, said Kolyandr, who until Russia's invasion was an analyst with Credite Swisse in Moscow. Russian statistics (new window) show that consumer spending steadily increased throughout 2024 but has fallen back sharply in 2025, a potential indicator of a stagnating economy, he said. Friday's meeting between the two leaders marks a critical point in diplomacy to end the combat on the battlefield, just as Russia's economy appears to be starting to sputter. Food costs more; manufactured goods, too, said Alexey, a 66-year-old pensioner who works part time as a security guard at a grocery store in Russia's capital. However, many people told CBC News that their lifestyles have remained generally the same — for now. We still buy what we need, but when something gets really expensive we make choices, like skipping buying a coat or a jacket, Alexey said. You feel it [the price increases], said Irina, a 31-year-old Moscow TV producer. But not to the point where I completely stopped buying things for myself. Military spending, signing bonuses Ever since Russian tanks crossed into Ukraine in 2022, there have been predictions that Putin's invasion would inordinately strain Russian consumers and businesses, potentially leading to the economic collapse of the country of 146 million people. But as time went on, those projections took on a boy who cried wolf feeling to them. Instead, government spending on Russia's military has until now fuelled an economic boom that's actually made many Russians far richer than they were pre-war. In the latest Russian budget (new window) , expenditures on the military and security accounted for 19 per cent of all government spending. Alexander Kolyandr is a senior researcher for the Center for European Policy Analysis in London. He is a former analyst with Credit Swisse in Moscow who left the country following Putin's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Photo: CBC / Lyzaville Sale The Russian government was very good at boosting economic growth for two years while sweeping all the problems under the carpet or leaving them for the future, said Kolyandr. However, he adds, "it's like running on amphetamines — you can't do it forever." Enlarge image (new window) Putin chairs a meeting on economic issues in Moscow on Aug. 12. Photo: Reuters / Vyacheslav Prokofyev/Sputnik Still, even as prices rise — and war casualties mount — the Kremlin has put in place highly effective measures to insulate itself against any kind of popular backlash. Among them are lucrative signing and death bonuses to Russian soldiers and their families. Novaya Gazeta reports (new window) that if soldiers manage to survive their first year, they could earn up to seven million rubles, or about over $100,000 Cdn, including signing bonuses and salaries. It's a life-changing amount of money for soldiers' families, says Kolyandr, in a country where typical earnings are $18,000 Cdn a year (new window) . Enlarge image (new window) A car burns following what local authorities called a Ukrainian drone attack in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict in Belgorod, Russia, on Aug. 14, in this still image taken from video. Photo: Reuters / Vyacheslav Gladkov/Telegram The lucrative payouts — along with persecuting dissenters — help explain the muted public opposition to the war, in spite of immense battlefield losses. Britain's Ministry of Defence estimates (new window) more than a million Russians have been killed or wounded since February 2022, while Ukraine's total casualties may be in excess of 400,000. Kremlin narratives Among the Muscovites who spoke about the war to our CBC freelance producer, several deferred to Kremlin narratives, which cast Western countries as the aggressor and Russia as fighting a defensive war of survival. I don't think freezing the conflict is actually good, because if they freeze it, [Ukrainian] missiles will still be hitting our territory, said Alexey, the 66-year-old pensioner. Others expressed low expectations that Putin and Trump would agree on a ceasefire anytime soon. If they stop shooting and agree on a freeze, that's already good — people will stop dying, said Anton, from Korolyov. But the economy probably won't get better. Even if they stop the troops, sanctions will likely stay. Enlarge image (new window) A poster in Yaroslavl's main train stations warns travellers about helping Ukrainians. One caption says, 'ATTENTION! DON'T LET THEM FOOL YOURSELF. DON'T BE A TRAITOR.' Another warns people they could get 20 years in jail if they help anyone sabotage national infrastructure, such as Russian railways. Photo: CBC Russia has passed laws imposing jail terms for spreading what it considers fake news about the Ukraine war on social media platforms. Nonetheless, on VK, one of Russia's largest social media platforms, some comments were notable for their negativity toward the war. Putin doesn't need peace. He's obsessed with control, and the war in Ukraine is one of his levers. And he's absolutely indifferent to the casualties, said one user named Dmitry, (new window) who was scolded by other user for his apparent criticism of Russia's leader. In another exchange, a user named Masha said, If Putin agrees to NATO conditions that's a loss, to which another user suggested that the special military operation — as the Kremlin calls its Ukraine invasion — has been a loss since the very beginning. Enlarge image (new window) A priest conducts a service during the funeral for Alexander Martemyanov, the Russian media outlet Izvestia's freelance correspondent killed in a drone strike on a highway while travelling by car from Horlivka to Donetsk, in January 2025. Photo: Reuters / Alexander Ermochenko Trump's tactics Kolyandr, the CEPA economist, says he believes it's unlikely there is any economic lever that Trump could pull to ultimately force Russia to alter its battlefield strategy or pull back against Ukraine. Russian forces currently control roughly 20 per cent of the country, including the Crimean peninsula, which Russia has officially annexed. Earlier in August, Trump imposed a 25 per cent penalty on India, in addition to a 25 per cent tariff for buying oil and weapons from Russia. Notably however, Trump has not targeted Russia's biggest energy customer, China. If he did, Kolyandr says he believes it would be very difficult for Russia's economy to survive the shock. "Trump said that if he imposes [secondary] sanctions, the price of Russian oil will drop by $10 [US]. And that would, in his view, derail the Russian economy. If my calculation is correct, that would deprive Russia of something like three-quarters of its GDP per year, which is a lot." Of late, Russians far from Ukraine's borders have been increasingly feeling the impact of the war in other ways. Ukrainian drones now fly over major Russian airports in cities such as Moscow almost daily, causing flight cancellations and delays. Others have been hitting Russian energy infrastructure, especially oil refineries. Ukraine has also been attacking Russia's mobile phone and internet infrastructure, often leading to widespread disruptions. All that trickles down and annoys people, says Kolyandr. But not to the point that they are ready to swap what they see as a victorious and existential war with the West for some creature comforts at home — at least not yet. Chris Brown (new window) · CBC News · Foreign correspondent Chris Brown is a foreign correspondent based in the CBC's London bureau. Previously in Moscow, Chris has a passion for great stories and has travelled all over Canada and the world to find them.
