More than halfway through a year that’s seen an attempt on the life of a United States presidential candidate and some alarming arrests in Canada, the head of the RCMP’s union is saying it’s time to put the Mounties back in charge of security on Parliament Hill.
National Police Federation president Brian Sauvé is arguing that reinstating the RCMP as the police service in the parliamentary precinct would ensure a quick and nimble response to acts of violence or armed individuals.
Four men have been charged so far this year with threatening the prime minister on social media. Just last week, RCMP in the Toronto area charged a man with making “violent threats” against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
The shooting at a Donald Trump rally in Pennsylvania last month has intensified the debate in Canada about the safety of elected officials.
Sauvé said the Parliamentary Protective Service (PPS) — which is responsible for security on Parliament Hill, at the Senate and throughout the surrounding parliamentary precinct — is “lacking” the appropriate powers to handle offenders. PPS members are permitted to carry firearms but aren’t peace officers and don’t have the power to arrest.
The PPS can call in the local law enforcement agency, the Ottawa Police Service (OPS), to conduct arrests. Depending on the nature of the threat, it can also call on the RCMP — which is responsible for protecting the prime minister, the Governor General and other VIPs, and for national security matters.
“And then you end up in that vicious cycle of whose responsibility actually is this,” Sauvé said.
“Our position is, well, let’s delineate and define who owns that jurisdiction and have an actual police service, the RCMP, do the response for whatever might occur.”
It’s an idea the union has been pushing since a public inquiry investigated Ottawa’s use of the Emergencies Act to quell anti-vaccine mandate protests in 2022. The inquiry’s final report raised serious concerns about policing in the capital and recommended the federal government look at whether changes should be made to the division of responsibilities for policing and security in the National Capital Region.
Sauvé’s renewed push comes ahead of the tenth anniversary this fall of the Parliament Hill shootings, when a gunman killed ceremonial guard Cpl. Nathan Cirillo at the National War Memorial and then stormed Centre Block.
The PPS was formed in the wake of that event, after a review found limited communication between multiple police forces created an atmosphere of confusion.
Sauvé argues similar challenges persist today.
“We have just too many jurisdictions,” he said. “And as you saw with the Freedom Convoy protests, that resulted in challenging decision-making, challenging operational response, challenging security posture, where we ended up with … weeks of just ugliness.”
Inviting the RCMP back to the Hill would not be free of controversy.
After the 2014 shootings, there was a push to make the RCMP responsible for all security on the Hill. During the ensuing debate, the late Liberal MP Mauril Bélanger argued that using the RCMP — which is ultimately accountable to the government of the day — to police Parliament “could be perceived as outside influence” and threaten Parliament’s independence.
On its website, the PPS says it acts as “a separate and distinct organization from the RCMP and the government of Canada,” although its director is a member of the RCMP. The service reports to the Speakers’ offices.
RCMP commissioner not on board
The union’s president is proposing a dedicated RCMP detachment on the Hill with about 200 to 300 officers.
RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme isn’t keen on the plan.
“If the only challenge is that PPS does not have the authority to lay charges, and that’s when we have to call … OPS, well, you don’t need a detachment of 200, 300 RCMP members,” said Duheme, who served as the first director of the PPS back in 2015.
Duheme said he hasn’t seen any gaps from an operational security standpoint and policing responses to protests and demonstrations on Parliament Hill since the convoy have gone smoothly.
“They’re part of every single operation that takes place in the downtown core. PPS is integrated with the RCMP and OPS, so the flow of intel, the understanding of the operational plan, it’s fully communicated,” he said.
Duheme said he believes the union is “looking for different ways to expand the mandate of the organization.”
“But I think we just have to be cautious before we start throwing numbers of RCMP members and the need to have RCMP members on the Hill, when there are probably other solutions that are in place with regards to addressing the shortcomings that have been identified,” he said.
Duheme said lawmakers also could look at placing an OPS detachment on the Hill or designating PPS members as peace officers. This year’s federal budget pledged $50 million for the Ottawa Police Service over the next five years to enhance security near Parliament Hill.
Duheme has pitched other ways to keep MPs safe — including a new law that would make it easier for police to pursue charges against people who threaten elected officials.
He has argued that an individual’s behaviour often doesn’t meet the threshold for laying a charge under Canadian law.
Justice Minister Arif Virani, who travels with a mobile duress alarm in his pocket, has argued that police already have the tools they need in the Criminal Code.
Liberal MP pushing for protective zones
Liberal MP Marco Mendicino said something has to change as acts of harassment targeting political figures grow more common.
“The threat landscape has deteriorated significantly. It is far more dangerous for parliamentarians to carry out their work, whether on the Hill or in their ridings,” he said in a recent interview.
The former public safety minister said he and his family have experienced harassment and death threats. A man recently spat on Mendicino in Ottawa, not far from the Hill.
Mendicino is calling for the creation of “protective zones” around political constituency offices and personal residences to shield members of Parliament, their families and staff. He’s also calling on social media platforms to be more proactive in cooperating with police.
The assassination attempt on former U.S. president Donald Trump has the RCMP re-evaluating its protection of elected officials. Michele Paradis, the RCMP assistant commissioner in charge of protective policing, told Power & Politics her division needs to grow in order to address a rising tide of threats and harassment targeting MPs.
“The consequence is that if we don’t take this decisive action … it will be increasingly difficult to attract and retain good people in politics, and by extension, it will erode the public’s confidence in our democracy,” he said.
Mendicino said the PPS does an important job but he worries about its resources.
“It’s my view that at present we need more personnel and more authorities, and so whether that is by enhancing the presence of PPS or other law enforcement personnel on the Hill, or in the constituencies themselves where MPs and their staff work, we need to address that as quickly as possible,” he said.
Earlier this year, Patrick McDonell, the House of Commons sergeant-at-arms, said the number of files his office has opened on reports of harassment of MPs has jumped almost 800 per cent in the past five years.
“In 2019 there was approximately eight files we opened up on threat behaviours, either direct or in direct threat towards an MP, and in 2023 there was 530 files opened,” McDonnell said at the time.
After the Emergencies Act inquiry, Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc’s office said the department is “currently examining policing issues unique to the parliamentary precinct and the surrounding area.”
The office of the Speaker of the House of Commons, which is responsible for the PPS on the Hill, would only say that changes to Hill security would require changes to legislation.