Infrastructure Minister Catherine McKenna is calling for an end to online and offline abuse against politicians after her office was seemingly targeted in an incident now under investigation by the Ottawa Police Service (OPS).
An OPS spokesperson told Global News on Monday that police are investigating an incident that occurred in the 100 block of Catherine Street, the site of McKenna’s community office, at 10:30 a.m. on Aug. 6.
The incident seems to be linked to a video that surfaced on Twitter over the past weekend that appears to show a man approaching McKenna’s office and asking to speak with the minister, only to be told by a staffer that her office is closed due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.
The video appears to show him berating the woman at the door with foul language and derogatory comments directed at McKenna, her staffers and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Speaking to reporters in front of her Catherine Street office Monday afternoon, McKenna derided the behaviour shown in the video.
“It’s unacceptable. I don’t know what more to say,” she said.
McKenna said she has been in conversation with the OPS and the RCMP about the incident and would be conducting a security review of the office to ensure her staff are kept safe.
This isn’t the first time McKenna has been the target of hateful rhetoric.
Her constituency office was spray-painted with a vulgar slur just days after she was re-elected in last year’s federal election.
She has also routinely been the target of sexist language in her role as an MP and her previous portfolio as minister of environment and climate change, requiring a heightened security detail during her 2019 campaign.
On Monday, McKenna said that she’s not the only woman in politics who has to deal with abuse, but also noted that incidents like these are on the rise.
She pointed to social media and made allusion to United States politics as contributors to hateful incidents.
“It is accelerating. We’ve seen a lot of what’s happened south of the border come up here and it is exacerbated by social media,” she said.
“What happens online jumps offline.”
Politicians from all levels of government and across party lines spoke out online against the incident on Monday.
Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson called the person behind the video a “complete coward.”
Nepean MPP Lisa MacLeod said on Twitter she has experienced the “terror and fright” of incidents like this, and called for an end to the behaviour.
McKenna said Monday that while most of her interactions with Canadians are positive, she said that if she knew then the level of hate she would face as a politician, she might not have pursued a career in politics in the first place.
“I got into politics to make a difference. I don’t know if I knew what I know now about the abuses you have to take… I would certainly have a second thought,” McKenna said.
“That’s what I don’t want. I want women and others to not step up into politics because they’re worried about their safety.”
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