RCMP has ‘strong tools’ to address threats against politicians: minister

Federal Justice Minister Arif Virani says he isn’t going anywhere without a mobile duress alarm in his pocket.

He doesn’t move around without first informing someone, including when he attends public events.

And he doesn’t just work with a security team at the Department of Justice, but a separate one in the House of Commons, too.

“That’s just unfortunately where we’re at in Canadian society right now,” Virani said in an interview Wednesday, as members of Parliament got ready for a summer break.

“What’s even more shocking is that it’s not just cabinet ministers that have to do that. I’ve got a lot of female colleagues that have been doing that for well over a year.”

While Virani said he wishes things were different, he’s not keen to endorse the RCMP boss’s recent suggestion that Ottawa make it easier for police to pursue charges against people who threaten elected officials.

“I believe that there are strong tools that are in place, for example, in the Criminal Code,” Virani said, adding the federal government provides police with resources to do their jobs.

“I think a combination of those two are … enough to address what’s going on.”

RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme raised concerns in an interview with The Canadian Press last month about the increase in threats the Mounties are seeing made against elected officials.

He said that an individual’s behaviour often doesn’t meet the threshold to lay a charge under Canadian law.

Duheme expressed hope that Public Safety Canada and the Department of Justice would work with RCMP on the possibility of creating a new provision to address the growing problem.

An intelligence report from last June outlined how extremist narratives tied to personal grievances — and fuelled by outright lies and