Thank you, Chair.
Thank you for the invitation to appear today. I apologize in advance if I get emotional.
I'm deeply troubled by the serious implications that increasing harassment and threats have for the safety of MPs and our staff, for the ability of MPs to fulfill our roles and ultimately for the integrity of Parliament and the long-term sustainability of our democracy. While I worked for over 25 years in real estate investment banking, which was a male-dominated industry, and certainly experienced some misogyny and harassment in my previous career, it doesn't come anywhere close to what I've experienced as an MP. The level of threats and misogyny that I'm subject to, both online and in person, is such that I often fear going out in public. That is not a sustainable or healthy way to live.
I've been verbally assaulted in the grocery store in my community, with a man yelling, “[Eff] Trudeau. [Eff] you. You're going to jail for what you've done.” At a Burlington business event, a man aggressively told me to watch my back, and said that I was going to get what was coming to me as he pointed his finger in my face.
The toxic drive for social media likes and clips among elected officials has hindered constructive conversations, exacerbated differences between us and diminished our capacity to show empathy toward each other. In emails, calls and on social media, one of the clearest examples of this degradation of political discourse is the increasing use of a four-letter derogatory term starting with “c”, which I am not comfortable repeating here in Parliament. You know, in all my life prior to becoming an MP, both personally and professionally, I have never been called this word before, but during my time as an MP, it has become completely normalized among the public to use this word to label and degrade me and my fellow women MPs.
Today I want to share with the committee, with Parliament and with Canadians excerpts of communications that I personally have received during my time as an MP through email, by phone and on social media. I also want you to think of my incredible staff, who are being subjected to this abuse on the phone and from reading what people say. This has real, negative consequences for their mental health and for the ability of MPs to continue to hire and retain staff.
I want to be clear that while I will use specific examples of the actions of some Conservative MPs, I do not want to suggest in any way that this reflects all Conservative MPs. In fact, this pin I am wearing today was a gift from a Conservative MP. I have friends across the aisle.
I think it bears mentioning that there are many, many more examples than I have chosen to share with you today, but because the words used are far below the dignity of Parliament, I will not repeat them here.
Some examples include: “I really don't know how you sleazy liberal [c-words] live with yourselves. Good luck in the next election, you peice of shit." "I'm coming after you. That was it. You're done." "How are you in government—you deserve a pig shed you [effing] pos." "We are watching your every move. Nowhere is safe for you. God will make sure you are exposed on judgment day. Judgment is here. The hell fire God has waiting for you will burn you.”
Even following my announcement on May 1 that I would not be re-offering—precisely because of the harassment, misogyny, abuse and explicit threats of violence I received—dozens of hate-filled messages flooded in. For example: "Resign now, you stupid [effing] cow. Don,t wait run and hide libtard [effing] bitch!!!" "Good riddance, [c-word]. Politics, as you call it, is toxic because your party in government is a corrupt, disgusting sack of shit. If you [c-words] had governed like human beings, the country would not hate your corrupt, fascist [c-words]. Do better, you stupid [c-word].”
Lastly, “You're a sad excuse of an MP and worse excuse of a Canadian. May your life be filled with stress and anxiety. May you never know peace in your wretched days. May you live and die alone in a dark, cold place. Burn in hell, [c-word].”
The tone and tenor of public discourse has deteriorated so significantly and to such a degree that I fear the loss of trust in public institutions that we're seeing, driven by misinformation and lies being spread by politicians on social media. I worry about the outcome of this for our democracy.
Members of Parliament must understand that they drive and exacerbate harassment, abuse and threats received by other MPs when they spread misinformation and lies and make personal attacks against other members. This has been my case and the case of many of my colleagues.
One example was in 2018 when Conservative MP Rachael Thomas used her House of Commons budget, which was taxpayer dollars, to send a mailer to every household in my riding with the headline that said, “MP Pam Damoff fails to stand up for victims of rape and sex trafficking”, and “Pam Damoff Chooses ISIS over Women & Girls”. The first line of this claims, “The current government is committed to welcoming ISIS terrorists back to Canada."
We often hear Conservative MPs carelessly and baselessly using terms like “corrupt” and “treason” in Parliament and in their social media posts. Following Conservative MPs Michael Barrett, Michael Cooper, Larry Brock and Damien Kurek accusing government members of the ethics committee of being corrupt, and MP Barrett accusing me personally of being involved in a cover-up, Conservative MPs posted our email addresses on social media and encouraged the public to contact us.
As a result, my staff had to create a misogyny subfolder in my inbox. I will quote from some of the messages that I received as a result: “You are one sleazy [effing] lying [c-word].... enough is enough of you [effing] lying pieces of shit....how do you sleep....I know your ex-husband sleeps well now that he got rid of you....resign from the party....resign from Oakville....you disgusting piece of shit....nice legacy.” “Pathetic losers, you need to go to jail. You bitches are [effed].” “Hey you [effing] traitor....get the [eff] ou of cnanda before wen deal with you properly.”
These are all different messages, by the way. It's not the same one.
Furthermore, “You are a treasonous piece of garbage. You should be in prison for supporting the destruction of our country and people. You are a criminal.” Another one said, “Your beloved boss is going to stand infront on the Nuremberg tribunals, as should all of you. You're disgusting pathetic Satanist-worshipping humans and you're all finished.” And then the last one said, “You are an arrogant, elite, and unhinged beotch! You are going to rot in max security when revolution comes. I suggest you step down now while you can, TRAITOR!”
While I have been the target of the gun lobby for many years and receive far more than just “mean tweets”, as they call them, I want to give another specific example of an MP's comments directly causing an influx of hate through social media, emails and phone calls. During clause-by-clause consideration of Bill C-21, Conservative MP Blaine Calkins posted a video accusing me of equating hunters with the Danforth shooter, which I absolutely did not. As a result of his video, some of the threats and abuse that I immediately got were, “You stupid [c-word], it's up to the government to justify taking away legal property, not the person to keep it, and fear is not a justification. I hope and pray to God that you will die a horrible, painful death, and your family too, because you and your genes are a piece of shit and need to be removed from the planet.” “Come on, God, answer my prayer. She is a lie-beral whore and a waste of human skin.” Another one said, “In medieval times, this would be considered treason and it would be off with your head and hung from the gates.” Another one: “Well, look at this lying liberal sack of shit. Go [eff] yourself, Pam, preferably with this semi-automatic assault rifle dildo”, with an accompanying photo that he sent. Then the last one, “Even if you sucked my cock, I wouldn't vote for you.”
While I report explicit threats of violence towards me to police, they often say they don't cross the line for them to do anything. I note that the RCMP commissioner recently said we should look at giving police additional tools in legislation to adequately respond to threats against politicians. I believe he's testifying before the committee, and I look forward to his testimony.
I agree with those arguing that a healthy dose of partisanship and criticism of the government are inherent to this place and have always been core tenets of Parliament and a healthy democracy, but what I have experienced, and what many other parliamentarians and our staff have experienced, does not constitute legitimate criticism of government policy, nor a healthy debate of ideas. I'm deeply worried about our Parliament and our democracy should this continue unabated.
While it may be difficult to control the words and conduct of others, I believe it is our collective responsibility as parliamentarians to set the tone and an example for how we interact and debate with each other, and to rise above personal attacks and hostility.
At minimum, we need to call out inappropriate behaviour in our own political parties, and harassment and abuse by MPs towards other MPs. I am heartened that elected women representatives in Halton recently signed a public pledge to stand up for each other and to call on police to do more to combat abuse and threats towards elected officials.
Parliamentarians are called to conduct our work with civility, compassion and respect: respect for each other, for our position, for our office, for the legislative process and for the institution of Parliament and Canadians.
It is not lost on me the difficult challenges that we face, the issues we have to overcome and divisions we have to heal. However, I believe Canada can represent the best in each of us if we, as parliamentarians, do our part.
I want to, again, thank the committee for the opportunity to appear today, and I'm happy to take any questions you may have.
Thank you, Chair.