OTTAWA — Federal Justice Minister Arif Virani says he isn’t going anywhere without a mobile duress alarm in his pocket.And he doesn’t just work with a security team at the Department of Justice, but a separate one in the House of Commons, too.
While Virani said he wishes things were different, he’s not keen to endorse the RCMP boss’s recent suggestion that Ottawa make it easier for police to pursue charges against people who threaten elected officials. Duheme expressed hope that Public Safety Canada and the Department of Justice would work with RCMP on the possibility of creating a new provision to address the growing problem.
Protests about the same issue had also sprouted in front of Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly’s home in Montreal, drawing criticism from MPs across the spectrum who said such behaviour crossed a line. It also proposes stiffer punishments for hate-related crimes — measures that civil society advocates and other legal experts have warned could risk chilling free speech, but that Virani defended as necessary to prevent online hate from turning into real-life violence.