Liberal MPs tell committee some Conservatives are driving the harassment they face

Two Liberal MPs provided a parliamentary committee with multiple examples Thursday of threatening abuse they say they have received from members of the public — some of which they claim was in reaction to public messaging by Conservative MPs.

Pam Damoff and Iqra Khalid were testifying before the House of Commons procedures and House affairs committee as part of its review of the House of Commons workplace harassment and violence prevention policy.

The policy holds members of Parliament accountable for how they treat their employees. It does not govern conduct between MPs.

Damoff and Khalid said that while some of the abuse they get is not driven by MPs' messaging, they want the House harassment policy expanded to crack down on MPs whose messages outside of Parliament drive some of that abuse.

The multiple examples of harassing messages they read out to the committee contained insulting and vulgar language referring to them and their family members, some of it sexually explicit. Other messages were violent and threatened the MPs' lives.

Earlier in the week, the committee heard from Patrick McDonell, sergeant-at-arms and corporate security officer for the House of Commons.

He said that in the last five years, the harassment MPs face from the public has spiked by 700 to 800 per cent, driven by incidents that are "mostly online but also in person and at events."

On Thursday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the abuse elected officials at all levels of government face is "unacceptable."

"The current atmosphere of polarization, of toxicity, of misinformation, of disinformation, of anger directed at individuals and institutions is not a healthy trend line for democracy in Canada," he said in Toronto.

Damoff told MPs Thursday that she has been the target of "the gun lobby" for years and has received many harassing messages. She blames a 2023 tweet by Conservative MP Blaine Calkins for "directly causing an influx of hate through social media, emails and phone calls."

In that May 11, 2023 tweet on X (formerly Twitter), Calkins posted a video of an exchange between himself and Damoff during a committee debate about banning certain ammunition magazines.

"Pam Damoff just compared every #hunter in Canada to the Danforth shooter," the tweet said, adding that hunters should "take note of exactly what she really thinks of you."

Damoff told the committee Thursday that the post resulted in her being exposed to a torrent of abuse. 

She offered one example of the sort of message she received: "I hope and pray to God that you will die a horrible painful death and your family too because you and your genes are a piece of shit and need to be removed from the planet."