Political violence and the world around us.

by Maj (ret'd) CORNELIU. CHISU, CD, PMSC, FEC, CET, P. Eng. Former Member of Parliament Pickering-Scarborough East We are living in an increasingly dangerous world. With wars ignited in Europe, the Middle East and Africa and others in the making, I wonder what the future holds for the next generation. Earlier this year we have witnessed the assassination attempt on the life of the Prime Minister of Slovakia, Robert Fico, as well as increased violence against elected politicians all over Europe. The recent attempt to assassinate former U.S. president Donald Trump as he campaigns for re-election, fuels anxiety and a surge of varied opinions about the climate of political violence being on a dramatic increase in the U.S., with Canadian politicians also coping with an elevated risk level. I remember vividly the attack on Parliament Hill on Thursday, Oct. 22, 2014, because I was there. On the morning of that fatidic day, I was participating in a conservative caucus meeting, and I have seen with my own eyes, the fear and desperation of my parliamentary colleagues. Having this kind on environment in our society is very sad, indeed, but Canada is still better at avoiding political violence that our neighbours to the south. Four serving American presidents have been assassinated: Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, William McKinley and John F. Kennedy. Theodore Roosevelt was shot during a speech in 1912 but survived; at the time, he was a former president campaigning to regain the job. No Canadian prime minister has ever been assassinated and episodes of political violence have been relatively rare in Canada. However, the climate of security for politicians in this country has deteriorated markedly over the past few years. The RCMP has discussed what it calls a rising number of threats directed at elected officials. Some parliamentarians were given panic buttons in 2022 in response to threats. Several female politicians have resigned in recent months, citing an extreme level of harassment and intimidation. However, Canada has not escaped political violence entirely. Here are some of the most significant acts of violence directed against politicians in Canada’s history: Thomas D'Arcy McGee, a father of Canadian Confederation, was killed in Ottawa in 1868. Police arrested Patrick James Whelan, a tailor who was sympathetic to the Fenians, a group of Irish radicals who hoped to weaken the United Kingdom through attacks on its North American colonies. Whelan insisted he was innocent but after a complicated and controversial trial, he was found guilty and sentenced to death. George Brown, a journalist and politician, is considered a father of Confederation for his instrumental role in pushing for national unity in the 1850s and 1860s. He founded The Globe, an influential Toronto newspaper that later merged with The Mail and Empire to form The Globe and Mail. Brown was in his office at the newspaper on March 25, 1880, when a disgruntled former employee accosted him and shot him in the leg during a struggle. The wound became infected and lead to Brown's death on May 9. Brown was a sitting senator at the time of his death. In May 1966, Paul Joseph Chartier entered the House of Commons carrying a bomb made of 10 sticks of dynamite. He went to a bathroom to light the fuse and then exited, presumably to carry the bomb back to the gallery of the House. But the bomb exploded too early, killing the man himself. The kidnapping and killing of Pierre Laporte, which precipitated what became known as the October Crisis in 1970, eventually led to the first peacetime use of the War Measures Act, implemented by then Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. Laporte, who was deputy premier of Quebec at the time, was kidnapped by the Quebec separatist group Front de libération du Québec. Laporte was eventually killed by his captors. British diplomat James Cross, also kidnapped a few days before Laporte, was released safely after negotiations. An army corporal entered the Quebec National Assembly on May 8, 1984 and opened fire, killing three people and wounding many more. Despite his claim that he wanted the Parti Quebecois government "destroyed," the gunman, Denis Lortie, was convinced over the course of five hours by the assembly's sergeant-at-arms, René Jalbert, to give himself up to police. On the night of the election win in September 2012 that made her premier of Quebec, Pauline Marois was targeted by Richard Henry Bain. He was looking to attack her and other supporters of the separatist Parti Québécois. Bain ended up killing one person and injuring another, though Marois herself was unharmed. The 2014 attack on Parliament Hill began steps from the legislature at the National War Memorial, when Michael Zehaf-Bibeau shot and killed Cpl. Nathan Cirillo, who was serving as a ceremonial guard at the monument. The attacker then ran to Parliament Hill, entered Centre Block and wounded one police officer before engaging in a gunfight with others. Both the governing Conservatives and the Opposition NDP were holding caucus meetings at the time. The man was eventually shot and killed by RCMP officers and House of Commons Sergeant-at-Arms Kevin Vickers. On July 2, 2020, a Manitoba man stormed the gates of Rideau Hall and sought an armed confrontation with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Corey Hurren crashed his pickup truck through the gates of the Rideau Hall grounds, where both the Governor General and prime minister live, and set out on foot with three loaded firearms and a knife before getting into a 90- minute standoff with RCMP officers. Hurren told the officers he was there to arrest Trudeau. He was angry about COVID-19 restrictions and recent amendments to gun laws. He pleaded guilty to eight charges and in March 2021, was handed a sixyear sentence, and recently liberated from prison. We should consider that the increase of information available on social media, and the vitriolic rhetoric in the House of Commons, might contribute significantly to further the temptation for violence against politicians. Let us hope that the responsible agencies in Canada will be able to protect Canadian politicians from such violence. It will be up to them to continue to develop their skills in order to be better prepared than their colleagues south of the border. What do you think?