Yes, it is. On the other hand, if you went back into the history of the Canadian Parliament and the relationships between members of Parliament and the greater public, I wonder if you wouldn't find that threats like this have been a constant at public meetings and in the newspapers and other things.
Now, these threats are exaggerated at the far end of the spectrum. As you quote them, they go beyond the merely offensive into the realm of the fairly serious, but they've always been there, and you can't look at them as unique. The unique thing, to my mind, is the anonymity.
In the past we've known who makes the threats. If somebody at a meeting throws a tomato at a member of Parliament, it's a pretty clear threat, and you know who did it, but the anonymity of the web has added a dimension that was much less important before, and this raises problems.