In Short : Some senators have spoken out about receiving threatening messages and actions related to their support of the bill. This has raised concerns about the level of discourse and potential intimidation tactics surrounding the issue.
In Detail : Two members of the Independent Senators Group say police and parliamentary security are investigating a threat that forced one of them to leave her home last weekend after a social media post blasted members of the upper chamber for their position on a carbon-pricing bill for farmers.
Quebec Sen. Raymonde Saint-Germain and Ontario Sen. Bernadette Clement also accused members of the Conservative Senate caucus of “physical and verbal intimidation” on the Senate floor on Nov. 9, and then later sharing a social media post they say prompted online harassment.
“I believe it’s a wake-up call for our democracy,” Saint-Germain, leader of the Independent Senators Group, said in an interview with The Canadian Press on Wednesday.
Clement said she fled her home in Cornwall, Ont., about 100 kilometres southeast of Ottawa, last weekend after her office received a phone call from “a very angry man (who) said that he would come to my house.”
Clement said she called the Parliamentary Protective Service first, who told her she needed to call the Cornwall police.
“Both bodies said to me, ‘No, we’re going to follow protocol. This is what you do,”’ she said.
They asked her to locate her Parliament-issued panic button, which she said she had left at her Ottawa apartment because she always feels safe in Cornwall. When she hesitated about being worried about the threat, they urged her to take it seriously, she said.
“I just feel generally like I’m home and I’m safe, but then they said, ‘Listen, you’re not,”’ Clement said.
She said she went to her downtown Ottawa apartment, which she uses during Senate sittings. She said it has its own security system.
Chad Maxwell, inspector of field operations at the Cornwall Police Service, confirmed on Wednesday that they are investigating.
“The Cornwall Police Service is aware of the ongoing situation with Sen. Bernadette Clement and has been in communication with the Parliamentary Protective Service,” Maxwell said.
“These online threats and harassment are unacceptable and are being taken very seriously by police.”
Clement and Saint-Germain, who were both appointed to the Senate on the advice of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, said it all began after Clement proposed adjourning debate on Bill C-234. The private member’s bill seeks a carbon-price exemption for propane and natural gas used by farmers to heat farm buildings and dry grain.