[SCS0003]
Written evidence submitted by Dr Barbara Perry
Threats, Harassment and Violence Directed Toward Female Politicians
From Dr. Barbara Perry
Faculty of Social Science and Humanities
Ontario Tech University
Oshawa, Ontario, Canada
1 I am a Full Professor in the Faculty of Social Science and Humanities at Ontario Tech University. I am also the Director of the Centre on Hate, Bias and Extremism, and hold a UNESCO Chair in Hate Studies. I was named to the Order of Canada in 2024 on the strength of my academic and community work in the space of hate studies. I have worked in this area since 1995, writing extensively on social justice generally, and hate crime specifically. I have made strong contributions to the limited scholarship on hate crime in Canada, including work on anti-Muslim violence, hate crime against 2SLGBTQI+ communities, the community impacts of hate crime, and right-wing extremism in Canada. I am generally regarded as Canada’s foremost scholar in hate studies, and am regularly called upon by policy makers, practitioners, and local, national and international media as an expert on hate crime and right-wing extremism. I would suggest that gendered violence against female politicians can be seen as a form of hate crime, motivated as it often is by misogyny rather than simply the politics of the targets.
Introduction
2 In an era where democratic institutions are under attack globally, it is crucial that we recognize that one aspect of this trend is manifest in violence directed toward political actors. Those with social, economic and cultural grievances are emboldened to express themselves in increasingly violent ways, threatening and attacking the politicians they hold accountable for their distress. The risks cross political parties, identities and levels of politics (i.e., municipal, regional, federal). That said, people of colour, women, 2SLGBTQ individuals, and religious minorities are disproportionately impacted. Women engaging in the public sphere are confronted with specifically gendered threats that are intended to put them “back in their place.” I consider here the ways in which this is manifest in Canada, providing contemporary examples to illustrate the trends we are observing here.
Contextualizing violence against female politicians
3 Much of the impetus, if not all of the action, for gendered targeting of Canadian politicians derives from the recent surge in right-wing extremist activism here. In part, it reflects a broader anti-authority movement that saw a resurgence during the COVID related imposition of public health restrictions. In recent years, the movement in Canada has taken a decidedly anti-statist and anti-democratic turn.
4 This is coupled with the fact that gender is also an organizing principle for the extreme right. Many far-right extremist narratives embrace overtly toxic masculine and misogynistic worldviews. Broadly, the core argument of this “gendered” arm of the movement is that progressive movements and ideologies such as feminism, “woke culture”, queer culture, and so on, have eroded traditional gender roles contributing to a “feminization” of modern men. Adherents harken to an idealized (and fictional) past, in which concepts of masculinity are based upon dominance and control, and where women are relegated to the role of submissive caretakers, child-rearers, and domestic servants. Women are thought to have constructed a gender identity which does not conform to that with which white supremacists are comfortable. And that includes leaving their ‘natural’ place in the private sphere to engage more visibly in the private sphere.
5 In Canada, political participation among women varies by level. They are significantly under-represented in Federal Parliament, at just 30.6% of MPs (Statistics Canada, 2024); at the municipal level 22% of mayors and 33% of councilors are women (Federation of Canadian Municipalities, 2024). Among the provinces, there are wide discrepancies on women’s representation. Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland/Labrador are least gender diverse (25.9% and 22.5% respectively). Ontario, British Columbia, Quebec and the Northwest Territories each have more than 40% representation by women. Only two provinces (Alberta and New Brunswick) currently have female Premiers. These figures leave Canada ranking only 65th among 190 nations with respect to women’s political representation (IPU Parline, 2025).
6 Yet even these low numbers are deemed problematic, perhaps threatening, by some, so that women’s participation puts them at risk of gendered threats and violence, collectively intended to make the world of politics an unwelcome if not unsafe space for them. Such violence is in fact “part of the spectrum of gender-based violence that includes physical, psychological, economic and symbolic actions or threats against women” (Raney et al., 2018). In the political sphere, this is perhaps not surprising as political offices are “gendered institutions in which power, process and behavior operate to favour the men who created them and were their sole occupants for so long. When women enter legislatures they enter masculine territory” (Lovenduski, 2012). Violent and threatening efforts to curtail their participation take an array of forms, as evident below.
Measuring threats, harassment and violence
7 Much of the data that informs our conversations around gendered political violence aimed is anecdotal rather than systematic. In Canada, there is no regular means of monitoring or reporting incidents. Even if there were a standard reporting mechanism, it is unlikely that women would take advantage of it. Already feeling like outsiders in the political “manosphere”, women may well be hesitant to make an issue of their experiences. Former federal MP Celina Caesar-Chavannes captures this sentiment: “Do people think that she can’t hack it? Do people think that it’s her mental health? Do they think she isn’t strong enough? She doesn’t have thick-enough skin?” Consequently, we often rely on media/social media reporting on victimization.
8 We have some empirical evidence of the incidence of threats, harassment and violence directed at female politicians. A 2016 global study found that 80% of MPs faced psychological violence, 30% experienced economic violence, and 25% were subject to sexual violence (Interparliamentary Union, 2016). Specific to Canada, in one of the only available studies (Canadian Press, 2018 ), 58% of female MPs reported sexual misconduct; 3 reported sexual assaults; 4 experienced ongoing sexual harassment; and 47% reported online exposure to gendered/racist/homophobic comments. The perpetrators included other politicians, lobbyists, and members of the public. The examples that follow are illustrative of the range of incidents:
2015 – Michelle Rempel Garner was target of Twitter stalker who made credible threats of violence and sexual assault. The male stalker was convicted of criminal harassment and uttering threats. More recently – Rempel Garner has been the target of harassment and intimidation by her own party in response to her criticism of the internal workings of the party.
2016 – Alberta MLA Sandra Jansen crossed the floor to join the governing NDP. She was subsequently met with abusive comments including being labelled "dead meat," a "useless tit," a "dumb broad" and told that she should stay in the kitchen.
2016 – then Premier Rachel Notley was greeted with taunts of “lock her up” outside the Alberta Legislature. The harassment began as protest of environmental taxes, but morphed into personal attacks. Notley was exposed to threats and harassment throughout her time in office, including at least a dozen credible death threats.
2017-2018 - Mayor Nicole Read of Maple Ridge BC was subject to misogynistic and highly sexualized threats, to the extent that she curtailed public appearances. She did not run for re-election in 2018.
2017 - After introducing Motion M-103 (Systemic racism and religious discrimination, in response to the mosque murders in Quebec City), federal MP Iqra Khalid received nearly 100,000 hateful and threatening emails. At one point, a member of the Three Percenters—a designated right-wing terrorist entity – intimidated her at her home.
2019 – shortly after her re-election, MP Catherine McKenna had the “C” word spray painted across her face on the window of her campaign office. This was on the heels of a history of online and offline threats and harassment dating from the time of her first electoral win in 2015.
2019 - Former Toronto city councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam wrote publicly about being ambushed by a male political opponent in Toronto, which was followed by a flood of offensive memes and racist, sexist and homophobic attacks online. She says she also received death threats from anonymous accounts and was stalked at community events.
2021 – During the 2021 Federal election, Conservative MP Michelle Rempel-Garner spoke of being accosted on the street and in a restaurant by people yelling threats and conspiracy theories. She felt fear when out in the public and had to have enhanced security measures.
2022 - Chrystia Freeland was subjected to an intense in-person verbal attack in Grand Prairie AB.
2023 - Then Conservative party leader Andrew Scheer doxed two female senators, urging followers to contact the senators to explain their failure to support a farm carbon tax exemption. Both were subsequently subject to online and offline harassment, to the extent that one of them was forced to relocate when an online troll threatened to go to her home.
9 These examples provide a snapshot of the types of exposure women in politics endure from colleagues as well as members of the public. There are some consistent trends that emerge from these incidences of targeted violence. First, they are perpetrated in both online and offline spaces. Women are often directly confronted by individuals threatening them in public spaces, but also physically and sexually assaulted, typically but not always in more private or secluded spaces, including the halls of parliament. In addition, online threats and harassment are also standard fare for women in politics.
10 Whether online or offline, women are also often subject to sustained campaigns of threats or intimidation. Former Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne was subject to ongoing misogynistic and homophobic online attacks throughout her tenure from 2013-2018. As her experience also indicates, both online and offline attacks make use of highly gendered and highly sexualized, language, often focusing on presumed sexuality/sensuality, appearance, body-shaming, etc. Thus we see explicit reference to women as sexual objects, alongside similarly explicit threats to perpetrate sexual assaults against them, and sometimes even against family members. The latter is part of a broader trend to intensify the intimidation of female politicians by directing threats against loved ones as well. In 2017, a number of trans candidates running in BC elections faced threats of violence to themselves and their families, and in 2020, Ottawa city councilor Laura Dudas had a rock thrown through her window while her family slept.
11 Many women also experience intersectional threats, as is evident in some of the examples listed above, where women were targeted not just on grounds of their gender, but also their race, sexuality, even body type. Perhaps most stunning are the experiences of Canada’s Governor General Mary Simon, the first ever Indigenous holder of that office. So intense and commonplace was the online vitriol directed at her that she took the unusual steps of first closing her social media accounts, and then speaking publicly about those experiences and their impacts.
12 A final trend of note is the tendency for issue-based critiques to devolve into personal and gendered attacks against female politicians, as in the case of Iqra Khalid noted above. Similarly, Catherine McKenna was referred to by right-wing media outlets as “Climate Barbie” capturing both her policy initiatives, and her gender in a derogatory and sexist manner.
Impacts
13 The consequences of intimidation and violence directed toward women are predictable. If the intent of such actions is to police a specific gendered order, then they are all too often successful. They are clearly deterrent, warning women off from running for office in the first place or forcing them out of office. Where they remain in the political sphere, an alternative coping/safety measure may well be to self-censor, whereby they moderate their commentary so as to not draw attention to themselves, or, as with Governor General Simon, withdraw from online platforms.
14 The deterrent effect of gendered violence, then, also represents a serious threat to democratic processes. Maintaining the underrepresentation of women in politics results in unrepresentative legislative bodies that fail to reflect one half of the population. It further marginalizes those who are already at the fringes of public policy debates. Consequently, political discourse and action is grounded in “malestream” perspectives that result in “malestream” policies.
Ways forward
15 Women who have experienced threats and violence from within the halls of power have found existing Parliamentary codes of conduct to be insufficient to protect them or provide justice. Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner asserts that “It is a privileged system that does nothing to protect victims, nothing to empower them to come forward to report abuse, nothing to prevent violence, and nothing to prevent vexatious complaints from being made” (Canadian Press, 2018). The process is currently overseen by whips and a Parliamentary Human Resources officer behind closed doors. There is no public reporting requirement and thus no transparency. Moreover, if complaints are deemed “false” the accuser risks sanctions.
16 A broader approach intended to curtail harassment and violence targeting women in federal workplaces including Parliament was the impetus behind Bill C65 (2021), meant to strengthen existing provisions on VAW in federal workplaces; however, there has been little by way of assessment of the impact since then. A bill currently under consideration – Bill C63 – targets online hate speech, inter alia, and could go some way toward providing for redress for women targeted by online attacks. However, there is considerable resistance to that particular component of the Bill, which will likely die on the table anyway when an election is called later this year.
17 Neither codes of conduct nor federal regulations mandate monitoring of direct intimidation, threats or violence experienced by political figures. Consequently, in the absence of systematic data, it is easy for “non-believers” to dismiss the validity of women’s claims of impropriety regardless of whether the perpetrator is a colleague or member of the public. It can also have the effect of continuing to isolate women and make them hesitant to report to authorities. Without the evidence that they are surely not alone in their experiences, too many female politicians will continue to suffer in silence.
18 We must, therefore, find ways to amplify the voices of those who have been impacted by political violence. They can take inspiration from those who have willingly and publicly condemned the level of abuse that they experience inside and outside of the halls of power, as did the Governor General. Such openness can be empowering for others who have been targeted, encouraging them to speak out, and at the very least, helping them to recognize that they are not being singled out, but are part of an unfortunately large cadre of women. It is also important, however, that violence against women is not seen as just a “woman’s problem.” To enact change, men must acknowledge their privilege and act as allies who stand beside their female colleagues, demanding strategies directed at stemming the threats and violence.
19 Recent years have seen non-regulatory initiatives aimed at confronting violence against women in politics. A 2019 Report of the Standing Committee on the Status of Women had at its core consideration of the systemic barriers – including harassment and violence – that constrain women’s political engagement. It also provides an array of recommendations intended to weaken those barriers, including data collection, and funding initiatives that provide supports for female politicians. Whether underwritten by the federal government or other sources of support, a number of such grass-roots efforts have emerged, including Alberta’s Lift Her Up, and “campaign schools” across the country. The former was created in advance of the 2017 municipal election by the Alberta Council of Women’s Shelters. The campaign asked candidates to pledge their commitment to run a violence free campaign. In that election, 324 candidates across 26 communities signed. Disappointingly, in the next election in 2021, only 195 candidates subscribed. Nonetheless, the pledge makes public the issue of violence against women and the role that political figures must play in countering it in their communities and in their offices.
20 Equal Voice – a civil society organization committed to enhancing women’s representation in Canadian politics – has spearheaded the development of campaign schools for women and gender diverse people across the country. Featuring women who have themselves been engaged in political life, the programs provide women seeking office – or considering seeking office – with practical skills and resources that will help them to mount a successful political campaign. One thread in particular is salient here, and that is a segment focusing on facing the “barriers” to participation which includes consideration of “systemic and overt barriers, ways to cope, and why we must continue to persist” (Equal Voice, nd), including overt threats and harassment. The Canadian Federation of Municipalities has in the past offered similar local workshops for women entering local politics, as do some local municipalities and coalitions of civil society organizations. The value of these programs is that they provide both a reality check so women are not caught unawares should they experience violence, and a guide on how to negotiate their way through these challenges individually and collectively.
28 January 2025
References
Canadian Press (2018). Canadian politics confronted by the #MeToo movement. CBC News. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/canada-politics-sexual-assualt-1.4516126.
Equal Voice (nd). Campaign School. https://www.equalvoice.ca/campaign_school.
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IPU Parline (2025). Monthly ranking of women in national parliaments. https://data.ipu.org/women-ranking/?date_month=12&date_year=2020.
Inter-Parliamentary Union. (2016, October). Sexism, Harassment and Violence Against Women Parliamentarians. Retrieved from Inter- Parliamentary Union website: https://www.ipu.org/resources/publications/issue-briefs/2016-10/sexism-harassment-and-violence-against-women-parliamentarians
Lovenduski, J. (2012). Feminising British Politics. The Political Quarterly, 83 (4): 697–702.
Raney, T., Collier, C., Lore, G., Spender, A. (2019). Democracy During #MeToo: Taking Stock of Violence Against Women in Canadian Politics: A Comprehensive Scope Report. Prepared for Equal Voice. chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://assets.nationbuilder.com/equalvoice/pages/2858/attachments/original/1716391504/VAW-P_Scope_report_-_FINAL.pdf?1716391504
Standing Committee on the Status of Women (2019). Elect Her: A Roadmap for Improving the Representation of Women in Canadian Politics. chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.ourcommons.ca/Content/Committee/421/FEWO/Reports/RP10366034/feworp14/feworp14-e.pdf.
Statistics Canada (2024). Federal members of Parliament and federal members of Cabinet across Canada. https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/240308/dq240308c-eng.htm
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