MPP Lisa MacLeod once again under police protection

Nepean MPP Lisa MacLeod is once again under police protection after receiving "threatening emails" and experiencing an "unexplained mischievous incident to her personal vehicle in Ottawa," according to a tweet Thursday from her deputy chief of staff. 

"Minister MacLeod thanks the OPP, the Ottawa police and the broader public for their concern over her safety and security," wrote Derek Rowland.

"Minister MacLeod continues to condemn threats and verbal harassment against politicians and the danger it poses to them, their families and their staff."

MacLeod, who is Ontario's minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport, previously received significant public backlash over potential changes to Ontario's autism funding model, and avoided a rally in March 2019 due to "credible threats."

Ottawa police soon arrested and charged a 41-year-old woman with multiple counts of uttering a threat to cause bodily harm, as well as criminal harassment.

That same month, MacLeod was also rushed out of an International Women's Day breakfast in Ottawa shortly after finishing a speech at the event. 

Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath issued a statement on Thursday condemning attacks and harassing behaviour against MacLeod, as well as federal Infrastructure and Communities Minister Catherine McKenna and Ottawa deputy mayor Laura Dudas. 

"No woman should have her sense of security threatened in the home, workplace or in public," said Horwath. "I stand with my colleagues in denouncing these acts of hate towards women in the political community, and hope to see the perpetrators held fully accountable for their actions."

Ottawa police launched a hate crime investigation on Monday after a man screamed obscenities outside McKenna's Catherine Street constituency office last week.

Earlier this year, Dudas asked the city's integrity commissioner and city clerk to look into creating official social media policy aimed at reducing online abuse and "vitriol" directed to city officials, saying she'd received online abuse triggered in part by a tweet from Coun. Shawn Menard.

On Thursday, Dudas also published a statement denouncing an act of "vandalism and violence" that took place at her home last week while she and her children were asleep. 

"Entering political life, one expects to have their decisions challenged," Dudas wrote. "This is meaningful debate and is welcome. But no one enters politics, or any job, willingly trading it for their safety or the safety of their families."