A 44-year-old Woolwich, Ont., man has been arrested for allegedly making death threats against a member of parliament.
On Monday, Kitchener-Conestoga Liberal MP Tim Louis confirmed an arrest was made after threats were made against him.
In a statement, Louis said on Thursday his office contacted the Waterloo Regional Police Service (WRPS) about threats he allegedly received.
According to police, the suspect was arrested Friday and charged with uttering threats to cause death.
“I would like to thank WRPS for their swift action and diligence in handling this matter,” Louis said in the emailed statement.
“My office staff and I remain committed to serving constituents in Kitchener-Conestoga.”
Louis said he would not comment further because the matter is before the courts.
WRPS say the threats were made online. The accused will appear in court on March 20.
Former OPP Commissioner and CTV public safety analyst Chris Lewis says threats targeting politicians are on the rise.
"It's always been an issue, it's just until the last several years [there’s been] a lot of it because of some of the right wing and left wing extremists out there on the other side of border, a lot of that has bled into Canada and in fact, it has increased."
A local political scientist calls the situation alarming.
“If our members of parliament feel they are under threat and need to take a number security measures in order to engage with their own constituents, it’s really marking a new era in terms of our democracy,” said Julie Simmons, associate professor of political science at the University of Guelph.
Simmons said threats against politicians are happening more frequently following the Freedom Convoy in 2022.
“The whole mantra of that entire event, and we still see it, expletives about the prime minister, and we have it printed on bumper stickers and the back of cars, and it’s just brought the civility of the conversation to a new low,” Simmons said.
This comes four months after a Kitchener man was sentenced for threatening Prime Minister Justin Trudeau while he was making a stop in Cambridge in 2021.
In his sentencing, the judge in that case noted he had to take into consideration the potential the threats could have had in the democratic election process.
Simmons said threats against politicians could stop some people from running and ultimately harm democracy.
“There’s always that worry that if people feel their lives are threatened or their lives of their family members are threatened, that they may certainly may not want to be part of that political process. That’s definitely a concern,” Simmons said.
In the 2023 federal budget, the government is unveiling continued deficit spending targeted at Canadians' pocketbooks, public health care and the clean economy.
The federal budget proposes an across-the-board three per cent spending cut for all departments and agencies, a belt-tightening move after years of massive growth in the federal public service.
The increase in excise duties on all alcoholic products is being temporarily capped at two per cent starting next month instead of a planned six per cent increase.
The federal budget shows the government's proposed dental-care insurance program will cost more than double what the Liberals originally thought, driving it up by another $7.3 billion over five years.
Tucked into the 2023 federal budget unveiled on Tuesday in Ottawa, the Liberals have announced plans to explore implementing a standard charging port across Canada, in an effort to save Canadians some money and reduce waste.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberal government plans to launch a National Counter-Foreign Interference Office, amid ongoing scrutiny of allegations that Beijing interfered in recent federal elections.
In the wake of another deadly mass shooting in America, that saw children as young as nine years old shot and killed, the gun control debate is going nowhere, writes CTV News political analyst Eric Ham.
Another American community is reeling after a shooter killed three 9-year-olds and three adults at a private Christian elementary school in Nashville. These are the three children and three adults whose lives were taken by the shooter.
Nashville police have released security camera footage of a suspected shooter entering the private Christian elementary school. The shooting claimed the lives of three children, all aged nine, and three adults.
A London toddler is fortunate to have avoided serious injury after a giant cinderblock came through her bedroom window in the middle of the night. Around 4 a.m. on March 26, Riiver was sleeping with her head right under the front window of her home on Emerson Avenue.
London fire crews are currently tackling a ‘large grass fire and working barn fire’ in the southeast section of the city Tuesday afternoon and are asking the public to avoid the area.
OPP are investigating after discovering a child who was vital signs absent in West Elgin on Monday. According to police, no foul play is suspected in the child’s death.
In the wake of school shootings in the United States, students and staff at St. Clair College in Windsor say “active attacker” drills are a good idea.
Windsor police are asking the public for help identifying a robbery suspect who allegedly threatened a store clerk with a knife.
In the 2023 federal budget, the government is unveiling continued deficit spending targeted at Canadians' pocketbooks, public health care and the clean economy.
Police are hoping to locate a 12-year-old Barrie girl who went missing on Tuesday.
Police say a driver found with an open bottle of liquor in the vehicle crashed into a wooded area on Highway 11 in Oro-Medonte on Tuesday evening.
Provincial police say a group of teenagers caused a train to make an emergency stop because they were lying on the tracks as the train approached in New Tecumseth.
The driver of a pickup truck, a 47-year-old woman, has died after a crash with a tanker on MR55 in the Greater Sudbury community of Lively on Tuesday morning, police say.
After five weeks of testimony, a Sudbury jury of 13 is expected to begin deliberations Tuesday in the Robert Steven Wright murder trial.
The mother of a five-year-old girl said her daughter was allegedly bullied so badly she was left with a partially amputated finger from an incident in the washroom.
The federal budget proposes an across-the-board three per cent spending cut for all departments and agencies, a belt-tightening move after years of massive growth in the federal public service.
One person is dead after an early morning fire in Kanata, while another person is being treated for smoke inhalation after being rescued from the burning home by a bystander who spotted the fire while driving to the gym.
In the 2023 federal budget, the government is unveiling continued deficit spending targeted at Canadians' pocketbooks, public health care and the clean economy.
The man who killed a 16-year-old boy remembered as an avid adventurer has been wanted on an arrest warrant issued in a Newfoundland courtroom for nearly two years.
The mother of a five-year-old girl said her daughter was allegedly bullied so badly she was left with a partially amputated finger from an incident in the washroom.
A Toronto man is wanted for a February incident in which he allegedly sexually assaulted a woman he followed off public transit before taking her phone and sexually assaulted her again, police say.
A Quebec provincial police officer was fatally stabbed Monday night while performing an arrest in Louiseville, west of Trois-Rivieres, Que. The Surete du Quebec (SQ) has confirmed the identity of the officer, Sgt. Maureen Breau, who had been on the force for over 20 years. She was assigned to the post of the MRC de Maskinonge. Another officer was injured during the incident, but their life is not in danger.
Montreal police say they have identified two more victims found in the rubble of a fire in Old Montreal 12 days ago. Charlie Lacroix and Walid Belkahla, both 18, are the sixth and seventh victims of the fire.
A 22-year-old McGill student who suffers from a terminal disease could soon lose access to the medication she needs because she's graduating from university.
Almost three years after a man disguised as a Mountie started murdering people in Portapique, N.S., on the night of April 18, 2020, the senior RCMP officers and staff involved in the tragic case have all either retired or moved into new jobs.
In the 2023 federal budget, the government is unveiling continued deficit spending targeted at Canadians' pocketbooks, public health care and the clean economy.
New Brunswickers suffering from a mystery neurological disorder are calling for an investigation into potential environmental causes of the health problems they've been living with for more than two years.
Manitobans waiting for the temperature to warm up this spring will have to wait a little longer.
In the 2023 federal budget, the government is unveiling continued deficit spending targeted at Canadians' pocketbooks, public health care and the clean economy.
A 12-year-old Manitoba girl is being hailed a hero after saving her two younger brothers from a house fire.
Police are investigating the circumstances of the death of a woman in a residential tower in downtown Calgary.
A 15-year-old girl was shot and killed in the northeast Calgary community of Martindale on Tuesday.
In the 2023 federal budget, the government is unveiling continued deficit spending targeted at Canadians' pocketbooks, public health care and the clean economy.
The Pizza Hut employee who was shot at his workplace earlier this month is on the long road to recovery, his sister has confirmed Tuesday to CTV News Edmonton.
In the 2023 federal budget, the government is unveiling continued deficit spending targeted at Canadians' pocketbooks, public health care and the clean economy.
The Alberta Energy Regulator says it will launch an independent investigation into the tailings leak at Imperial Oil's Kearl oilsands mine.
A pair of sprawling resort properties in B.C. – complete with a hotel, ski runs and lifts, lakefront cabins, a campground, and a pub – are on sale for less than the price of some Vancouver tear-downs.
A busy bridge over the Fraser River will be closed through Easter weekend to accommodate ongoing construction work, TransLink announced Tuesday.
Authorities are asking witnesses to come forward after security at Simon Fraser University discovered the head of the school's Mahatma Gandhi bust had been removed.
![Guelph police say Gabriella [Gabby] Gervais is missing. (Guelph Police)](https://www.ctvnews.ca/polopoly_fs/1.6332866.1680039855!/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_135/image.jpg)
