With toxic, partisan mudslinging on both sides of the House, MPs are ‘unleashing a force’ they ‘may not be able to control,’ politicos warn

With the unprecedented rising threat of violence against politicians, MPs on both sides of the aisle need to be mindful in their use of negative tactics against each other on social media and in this artificial intelligence era as things could very quickly get out of control and cause irreparable harm, say some politicos. “You could win power and destroy your profession. You need to be very careful,” said professor Donald Savoie, the Canada Research Chair in public administration and governance at the Université de Moncton and one of the country's leading experts on the machinery of government, in an interview with The Hill Times. “Be careful with that because you're unleashing a force you may not be able to control ... and put it back in the bottle.” Recent media reports have indicated that the RCMP will now provide close protection services to senior cabinet ministers and top government officials. This decision was made in response to in-person and online threats. Last August, a man in Alberta accosted Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland (University-Rosedale, Ont.) and called her “a traitor” and a "fucking bitch," while asking her to leave the province. A video of the incident went viral and caught national attention. During the 2021 federal election campaign, a man threw some gravel at Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (Papineau, Que.) at a campaign event in London, Ont. The man, who is from St. Thomas, Ont., was recently sentenced to 90 days of house arrest. At the Hamilton, Ont., cabinet retreat last year, Trudeau and his cabinet were met with a small but loud and aggressive group of protesters who followed the prime minister and his ministers wherever they went. They shouted insults at Trudeau, such as “tyrant,” “traitor” and “fuck Trudeau.” Even while going to and returning from a restaurant, cabinet ministers and Trudeau needed police protection. In 2022, thousands of protesters from across the country converged on downtown Ottawa, jamming the streets in front of Parliament Hill for close to a month. These protesters were upset with the government over a number of issues, most importantly the COVID-19 vaccine mandates. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre (Carleton, Ont.) openly supported these demonstrators. Last September, Poilievre’s wife received a threat of sexual violence from the leader of a far-right group. A number of backbench MPs have also experienced in-person or online interactions with aggressive people upset with their party’s positions on different policy issues. These people have not been shy about making racist, homophobic, or misogynistic comments or death threats. Liberal MP George Chahal's constituency office has received a number of racist and homophobic comments last month and posted the audio on Twitter. One person left numerous and disgusting messages: 'Hey, I just wanted to say you’re a stupid, ugly faggot that deserves to be exterminated. The Liberal Party a bunch of traitor deserves to be exterminated. The Liberal Party a bunch of traitor faggots just like you and I hope your entire family dies, you ugly faggot.' The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade “Hey, I just wanted to say you’re a stupid, ugly faggot that deserves to be exterminated. The Liberal Party a bunch of traitor deserves to be exterminated. The Liberal Party a bunch of traitor faggots just like you and I hope your entire family dies, you ugly faggot,” an unknown individual said in a voicemail on Liberal MP George Chahal’s (Calgary Skyview, Alta.) constituency office phone last month. “Hi, I just want to say all the Liberals deserve their families to be exterminated. You’re all a bunch of rat-ugly traitors that sold us out to China, so kindly hang yourself. Thank you,” the same person said in a second voicemail to Chahal’s office. On top of those two messages, this person left a number of voicemails with a variation of the same wording, and Chahal posted an audio recording of these messages on his Twitter account on May 12. “Threats like these are a regular occurrence. It’s almost starting to feel normal,” tweeted Chahal. “But politicians, their teams, and their loved ones should never have to experience this. Homegrown hatred is growing and we need to fight back.” In this politically hostile atmosphere, the House of Commons has also undertaken measures to provide security to MPs when they are attending events in their constituencies. Michael Wernick, former clerk of the Privy Council, warned MPs when he appeared before the House Justice Committee in 2019 that, based on the intelligence reports he had seen and the divisive tenor of the political discourse, it was quite possible that a politician could be assassinated. "I worry about the rising tide of incitements to violence when people use terms like 'treason' and 'traitor' in open discourse. Those are the words that lead to assassination," Wernick said. "I'm worried that somebody's going to be shot in this country this year during the political campaign." With the parliamentary summer recess fast approaching, the intensity of the cut-and-thrust of the House of Commons is getting more and more intense. In one heated exchange between Trudeau and Poilievre two weeks ago, the Conservative leader took a shot at the prime minister using a well known fake news story, a move that was condemned by pundits. “It's a new low in setting the political discourse and those two things, I believe, it enables extremist, and you can't walk away and say, 'I didn't do that, I never told them to do anything violent,' after having whipped up that kind of hatred on such a personal basis,” said Toronto Star columnist Chantal Hébert on The Bridge with Peter Mansbridge podcast two weeks ago. "But I also suspect that it will backfire on leaders who go down that road." Threats of political violence are not new in politics, but social media and artificial intelligence have played a key role in amplifying hostility towards politicians. Before social media became commonplace, individuals upset over something would show up in front of an MP’s office, or they would make angry phone calls, but there was no synergy. Now, it’s easier for people to organize protests. Many people get their information only from social media, where there’s no filter and conspiracy theories get a lot of traction. “There's bozo eruptions every day on social media, there is no editorial control,” said Savoie, who is also the author of a number of books including his new book, Canada: Beyond Grudges, Grievances, and Disunity. “ you’d know that. You have to play by certain established rules. On social media, there's no rule, it's a free for all. It’s Wild West, and it's creating some very serious problems in our society.” Using different social media platforms, it’s easier for people to organize protests because it’s easier to find like-minded people on a given issue. Prior to social media, a lot of people wouldn’t even know if a prime minister or a cabinet minister was coming to town. Now, that information is readily available online about who is coming to town, where they’re staying or what events they’re going to attend. Savoie said that politicians are best placed to address the issue of toxicity in politics. He said politicians need to respect their profession like the medical or legal community, that they need to come to terms with the flaws of their approach as they use misinformation or aggressive rhetoric in a way that a doctor would never do against their own colleagues. The process of governing the country and holding the government to account could be done with civility, he said. “It just reflects on the profession of politicians. It debases politicians, it makes life harder for politicians, and certainly raises fundamental questions for people who would want to go in and serve,” said Savoie. “They would say, 'Why would I get into that nasty game?' And so we're hurting our public institutions by those ." A Calgary man accosted Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland last August, calling her names and asking her to leave the province. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade Darrell Bricker, CEO of Ipsos Public Affairs, said that a certain level of toxicity on both the right and left has always been present in Canadian politics, but it has become more visible because of social media and the 24-hour news cycle. Over the years, he said, the right has become more right-wing and the left has become more left-wing. He said this is the new normal in politics and, considering how tight recent elections have been, politicians tend to say things that improve their chances of winning. The last seven federal elections have yielded five minority governments, and the Trudeau Liberals won the last two elections with the lowest popular vote share in Canadian history. The Liberals won the 2021 and 2019 elections with 32.6 per cent and 33.1 per cent of the popular vote nationally, respectively. In both elections, the Liberals lost the popular vote, but won more seats than the Conservatives. If the Conservatives had won 16,928 more votes in 24 ridings across the country in the 2021 election, they would have won more seats than the Liberals. In that case, they could have formed government. Similarly, the Liberals could have won a majority government in the last election if they had won 16,870 more votes across 11 ridings. In order to win power, there’s always someone who is going to “press that button,” Bricker said. Frank Graves, president of Ekos Research, agreed, adding that political parties sometimes used misinformation to motivate their base to show up to vote. He cited an example of a press release issued by Poilievre on June 7, headlined “Trudeau’s latest rate hike will be disaster for struggling Canadians.” Poilievre and other Conservative MPs repeated the same point later in the day, accusing Trudeau of raising interest rates. Graves pointed out that the rate hike was by the Bank of Canada, an arm's-length organization, not Trudeau. “It's hard to imagine they will , particularly when the path to power is paved by exactly the kind of disinformation we’re talking about, which makes your constituency angrier and more likely to vote for you,” Graves said. Bricker said that Trudeau promised civility before becoming prime minister in 2015 but, like most previous prime ministers, he did not keep this promise. “It's not just a political tactic, it's his impulse,” said Bricker. “He sees his enemies as not just being wrong, he sees his enemies as being bad, like, 'You're a racist,' 'You're a misogynist.' You're anti-this, anti-that,” he said. “I mean, he's quick to label, and Poilievre is the same.” Bricker said that more toxicity in politics is a global trend and appears in countries like the United States, the United Kingdom, and Italy. However, he said the technology is more developed in the U.S. than other countries, chiefly because there’s more money involved in political campaigns, and there are full-time political strategists that work on developing new means of communication. Alex Marland, head of the political science department at Memorial University in Newfoundland and Labrador, said that in a minority government an election could happen at any time, and the rhetoric heats up the longer a government stays in power. He said that after an election, the negativity amongst political parties settles down, but as the time for an election approaches, it ramps up. “Negativity is prone to increase the closer there is to the government potentially reaching the end of its life in a minority government,” said Marland. The Hill Times

With toxic, partisan mudslinging on both sides of the House, MPs are ‘unleashing a force’ they ‘may not be able to control,’ politicos warn

Politicians need to respect their profession the way medical and legal community does, or it will debase the entire system, says Donald Savoie. 'You could win power and destroy your profession. You need to be very careful.'

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