The House of Commons sergeant says he was “surprised” by how Ottawa police allowed parliamentarians and staff to continue harassing anti-COVID-19 restrictions in the capital earlier this year. Patrick McDonnell, who works closely with the head of the Parliamentary Protection Service, told a parliamentary committee on Tuesday that lawmakers and their staff had been harassed almost daily on Wellington Street in central Ottawa, which is under local jurisdiction. police. McDonell’s remarks come as lawmakers receive panic buttons to increase their personal safety in response to threats and growing concerns about policy harassment. The House Procedures and Affairs Committee is considering whether to extend federal jurisdiction to the security around Parliament Hill Hill to include sections of Wellington Street, where vehicles parked for three weeks during Freedom Convoy and Street. Sparks, which includes a lower lane. McDonnell said there was a police car “very close in sight” to the events he described and that incidents were reported to Ottawa police “every day”. A person would block the cars of some workers as they arrived at a nearby car park and if the employee was a woman, the person would “hit his car” before leaving, he said. A female employee was arrested by a man who tried to throw a bag of human feces at her before another employee arrived and pushed the man to the ground, McDonell added. When Ottawa Interim Police Chief Steve Bell appeared before the committee in May, he was asked how many incidents of harassment of MPs and staff he knew during the blockades. Bell said he did not have this information immediately available and suggested the question might be best suited to RCMP Deputy Commissioner Michael Duheme, “who would be responsible for the initial response to these incidents.” Prime Minister Justin Trinto said on Tuesday that there was a “significant amount of anger and frustration” directed at the government and officials. “We need to make sure that anyone who works to serve their community at any level of policy is safe, and that is what we take very seriously,” Trindo said. Public Security Secretary Marco Mendicino said after a cabinet meeting on Tuesday that he believed many factors were at play that had made the panic button beneficial to lawmakers, such as the growing online extremist expression that “clearly crosses the Rubicon into a criminal receive death threats “. In an earlier interview, Mendicino revealed that he has received death threats on social media in recent weeks after presenting a bill restricting gun ownership. Carolyn Bennett, the minister for mental health and addiction, said after the cabinet meeting that since last summer there have been growing security concerns in MPs ‘homes and more protests in MPs’ offices. Bennett also referred to last year ‘s federal election, where at a rally, a handful of pebbles were thrown at Trinto outside a political rally. “People carry out their anger in ways I do not think we have ever seen before,” he said. This Canadian Press report was first published on June 21, 2022. — This story was created with the financial support of Meta and the Canadian Press News Fellowship.
