Addressing Violence and Harassment in Canada’s Senate: Critical Actors and Institutional Responses

The global movements of #MeToo, #TimesUp, and #BlackLivesMatter have brought the issues of gender and race-based violence into the public domain. The realm of politics is no exception. Over the last several years (and predating #MeToo), Canadian politicians and staffers at all levels of government and from all political stripes have faced sexism, racism, homophobia, harassment, and threats of violence from members of the public and from their colleagues. Since the 2019 federal election, this has included an armed trespasser apprehended on the grounds of Rideau Hall who made threats against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the vandalism of Minister Catherine McKenna’s constituency office window which was spray-painted with a vile, misogynistic word, and the street harassment of NDP leader Jagmeet Singh that was widely shared on social media. Although white, heterosexual, cisgender male politicians and staffers also experience violence, women, Black, Indigenous and persons of colour (BIPOC) and members of the LGBTQ+ community are disproportionately more likely to be on the receiving end of such acts and threats both on social media and in real life.