MacLeod Speaks Out Against Threats of Violence Toward Politicians

Nepean MPP Lisa MacLeod has spoken out again about the threats of violence toward politicians.

After the assassination attempt on Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at a political rally, MacLeod penned an essay for the National Post on the subject.

The six-time local MPP has been active on the X platform throughout the year posting about the topic. MacLeod, who takes more than her share of criticism from detractors on the platform, was the victim of death threats which led to legal action against the detractor and protection for MacLeod.

“Death threats, harassment, violence and vandalism directed at Canadian politicians have been present for some time” wrote MacLeod in the National Post article. “As Canadians, however, we have convinced ourselves that it doesn’t happen here. That the politician who does make the news for a safety incident somehow deserved it. Still others prefer to contextualize and make excuses for why the incident occurred in the first place. Like in the U.S., the toxicity that exists in extremities of party politics can be found right here. It has to stop. Your political opponent is not the threat to democracy. Our collective ambivalence in stopping undemocratic incitements, however, is.”

When MacLeod was the Minister of Children, Community and Social Servies, a 41-year-old mother of a five-year-old autistic boy was charged with Criminal harassment, alleged to have occurred between Feb. 8 and March 1, 2019, that caused MacLeod “to reasonably fear for her safety,” according to court documents. The woman was also charged with uttering a threat to cause bodily harm, allegedly by email, on Feb. 26, 2019; uttering a threat to cause bodily harm, allegedly by email, on March 1, 2019; and uttering a threat to cause death, allegedly via a telephone message between Feb. 8 and March 4, 2019.

“In the tragic comedy that was my life for three years, a woman was arrested not once, but three times, for describing in explicit detail how she was going to kill me,” MacLeod wrote in her National Post column. “I was hurt, not angry or disappointed, when academics, fellow politicians and a coalition she belonged to all justified the harm that she caused me. I once locked myself in my Toronto apartment for three days, and by the time the past Ontario election rolled around, I couldn’t take anyone else’s desired harm toward me for a second more, so I harmed myself. Don’t underestimate the psychological impact that physical threats and acts can have.”

Earlier this year, MacLeod pointed out that the youngest person ever elected to Ontario’s Legislature, Sam Oosterhoff, was protested at his home for his Christian beliefs. Kathleen Wynne, who was Ontario’s first female and LGBTQ+ Premier, was the subject of a demonstration by Black Lives Matter, again at her home. MacLeod wrote that it also happened to Christine Elliott, Stephen Lecce and Premier Doug Ford whose family, and neighbours, feared for their safety. Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles had her constituency office vandalized, as did Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes-Brock Conservative MPP Laurie Scott.

Melissa Lantsman, the deputy Leader of the federal Conservative Party and Jagmeet Singh, leader of the federal New Democrats, were both under police protection for threats which were deemed dangerous enough to warrant it.

In November, Hamas supporter Firas Al Najim, known to police in Toronto and Ottawa travelled to MPP Goldie Ghamari’s office in the neighbouring riding of Carleton, which includes Riverside South, Manotick and South Gloucester. He went into the office asking for her, but she was not there at the time. He waited until the office closed and then made a hateful video.

In his post, Al Najim calls Ghamari a “racist”, “a crook”, and “a prostitute”, as well as accusing her of having “mental health issues.” He also criticizes the head of the Ottawa Police Service Hate Crimes Unit, Sgt. Ali Thogrol, who like Ghamari, is an Iranian-Canadian. Sgt. Toghrol arrested Mohammed Assadi in Toronto in November after he was allegedly caught on video inciting hatred and expressing antisemitic views.

Al Najim is the head of the not-for-profit organization, Canadian Defenders for Human Rights, which is a pro-Iranian regime and anti-Israeli organization. In September 2022, the Toronto Star reported that Al Najim dressed as an orthodox Jew to get into an event held by the United Jewish Appeal Federation of Greater Toronto, where he harassed an elderly woman who was a Holocaust survivor.

A month later, Al Najim was charged for dangerous driving after driving at a high rate of speed toward a crowd that was protesting the IRGC regime. “The accused stopped the vehicle abruptly, squealing the tires while yelling at the protestors,” police alleged in a news release. Al Najim was released after a night in jail.

Firas Al Najim is known in Canada for supporting the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the terrorist organization that controls Iran and is the main financial supporter of Hamas.

Nepean Liberal MP Chandra Arya, who has represented Nepean on Parliament Hill since 2015, is also in the middle of an angry dispute between Indian Canadians. Arya, a Hindu, stated that the country “was being polluted by anti-Khalistani extremists” on X. The statement came after a Hindu temple in Edmonton was vandalized.

“In response to my condemnation of the vandalism of the Hindu temple BAPS Swaminarayan Mandir in Edmonton and other acts of hate and violence by Khalistan supporters in Canada, Gurpatwant Singh Pannun of Sikhs for Justice has released a video demanding me and my Hindu-Canadian friends to go back to India,” Arya wrote. “We Hindus have come to our wonderful country Canada from all parts of the world. From every country in South Asia, many countries in Africa and Caribbean, and many other parts of the world, we have come here and Canada is our land.

“We have made and continue to make immense positive and productive contribution to the socio-economic development of Canada. With our long history of Hindu culture and heritage, we have enriched the multicultural fabric of Canada.”

In her National Post column, MacLeod said that people often don’t see that a threat to a politician is a threat to democracy.

“We like to think we are nice and polite and, for the most part, as Canadians we are” she wrote. “Sure we can get passionate with our politics — I’ve been known to show my Celtic flair on occasion — but my fear is we have collectively remained complicit in not taking threats against politicians more seriously and in a timely manner.

“Often we hear about threats to our democracy, whether it’s foreign influence, terrorism or war. Tellingly we don’t equate a threat to democracy as an assault on a politician who was elected in a free and fair vote. It’s at that moment, however, that our democracy is weakened and its resulting fragility made increasingly more difficult to reverse.”