Canada reflects on its history of political violence in wake of attack on Trump
As an apparent attempt to assassinate former U.S. president Donald Trump drives another anxious debate about the climate of political violence in the United States, Canadian politicians are also coping with an elevated risk level.
Four serving American presidents have been assassinated: Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, William McKinley and John F. Kennedy. Theodore Roosevelt was shot during a speech in 1912 but survived; at the time, he was a former president campaigning to regain the job.
No Canadian prime minister has ever been assassinated and episodes of political violence are relatively rare in Canada.
But the security climate for politicians in this country has deteriorated markedly over the past few years. The RCMP has discussed what it calls a rising number of threats directed at elected officials.
Some parliamentarians were given panic buttons in 2022 in response to threats. Several female politicians have resigned in recent months, citing an extreme level of harassment and intimidation.
Canada hasn’t escaped political violence entirely. Here are some of the most significant acts of violence directed against politicians in this country’s history:
1868: The assassination of Thomas D’Arcy McGee
McGee, a father of Canadian Confederation, was killed in Ottawa in 1868. Police arrested Patrick James Whelan, a tailor who was sympathetic to the Fenians, a group of Irish radicals who hoped to weaken the United Kingdom through attacks on its North American colonies. Whelan insisted he was innocent but after a complicated and controversial trial, he was found guilty and sentenced to death.
1880: George Brown shot
George Brown, a journalist and politician, is considered a father of Confederation for his instrumental role in pushing for national unity in the 1850s and 1860s. He founded The Globe, an influential Toronto newspaper that later merged with The Mail and Empire to form The Globe and Mail.
Brown was in his office at the newspaper on March 25, 1880, when a disgruntled former employee accosted him and shot him in the leg during a struggle. The wound became infected and led to Brown’s death on May 9. Brown was a sitting senator at the time of his death.
1966: Failed bombing of the House of Commons
In a disturbing close call, a suspected attempt to kill some members of Parliament was foiled only because the bomb exploded too early. In May 1966, Paul Joseph Chartier entered the House of Commons carrying a bomb made of 10 sticks of dynamite. He went to a bathroom to light the fuse and then exited, presumably to carry the bomb back to the gallery of the House. But the bomb exploded too early, killing the man himself.
After would-be bomber Paul Chartier succeeds only in killing himself, should Parliament boost security measures?
1970: The killing of Pierre Laporte
The kidnapping and killing of Pierre Laporte — which precipitated what became known as the October Crisis in 1970 — eventually led to the first peacetime use of the War Measures Act, implemented by then prime minister Pierre Trudeau. Laporte, who was deputy premier of Quebec at the time, was kidnapped by the Quebec separatist group Front de libération du Québec. Laporte eventually was killed by his captors. British diplomat James Cross, also kidnapped a few days before Laporte, was released safely after negotiations.
In an exclusive interview with Rosemary Barton, Jean Laporte, son of former Quebec labour minister Pierre Laporte, whose murder 50 years ago by the Front de Libération du Québec sparked the October Crisis, looks back on the events that changed his life and had a profound impact on Canada.
1984: Attack on the Quebec National Assembly
An army corporal entered the Quebec National Assembly on May 8, 1984 and opened fire, killing three people and wounding many more. Despite his claim that he wanted the Parti Quebecois government “destroyed,” the gunman, Denis Lortie, was convinced over the course of five hours by the assembly’s sergeant-at-arms, René Jalbert, to give himself up to police.
30 years ago, Denis Lortie walked into the Quebec Parliament building and opened fire, killing 3 people and injuring 13. The dramatic footage from the National Assembly was broadcast on CBC’s The Journal one year later with re-enacted English audio.
2012: Attempted assassination of Pauline Marois
On the night of the election win in September 2012 that made her premier of Quebec, Pauline Marois was targeted by Richard Henry Bain, who was looking to attack her and other supporters of the separatist Parti Québécois. Bain ended up killing one person and injuring another, though Marois herself was unharmed.
2014: Attack on Parliament Hill
The 2014 attack on Parliament Hill began steps from the legislature at the National War Memorial, when Michael Zehaf-Bibeau shot and killed Cpl. Nathan Cirillo, who was serving as a ceremonial guard at the monument. The attacker then ran to Parliament Hill, entered Centre Block and wounded one police officer before engaging in a gunfight with others. Both the governing Conservatives and the Opposition NDP were holding caucus meetings at the time. The man was eventually shot and killed by RCMP officers and House of Commons Sergeant-at-Arms Kevin Vickers.
2020: Arrest at Rideau Hall
On July 2, 2020, a Manitoba man stormed the gates of Rideau Hall and sought an armed confrontation with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Corey Hurren crashed his pickup truck through the gates of the Rideau Hall grounds, where both the Governor General and prime minister live, and set out on foot with three loaded firearms and a knife before getting into a 90-minute standoff with RCMP officers.
Hurren told the officers he was there to arrest Trudeau and he was angry about COVID-19 restrictions and recent amendments to gun laws. He pleaded guilty to eight charges and in March 2021 was handed a six-year sentence.
More than a year before Hurren’s arrest, Canada’s former top civil servant made headlines when he spoke to a House of Commons committee about what he called the coarsening of political debate and the threat it poses to people who run for office.
Michael Wernick, then the clerk of the Privy Council of Canada, said there is a “certain innocence” in Canada when it comes to political violence.
“I worry about the rising tide of incitements to violence when people use terms like ‘treason’ and ‘traitor’ in open discourse,” Wernick told the committee. “Those are the words that lead to assassination. I’m worried that somebody is going to be shot in this country, this year, during the political campaign.”
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