Decades after a PM got pied, the threat landscape in Canadian politics has changed
Global News
Threats against Canadian politicians have surged, with 311 cases in 2024 alone, prompting urgent calls for stronger security amid rising political hostility and online abuse.
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.
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