Alert buttons could be provided to MPs

In an interview with The Canadian Press, before Thursday’s adjournment of work for the summer, Marco Mendicino revealed that he himself had been targeted by death threats on social networks in recent weeks.

The public safety minister said he and the police, along with the Parliamentary Protective Service, were reassessing the whole issue of MPs’ safety, after a series of incidents involving threats and intimidation.

Among the measures being actively considered could be providing MPs with panic buttons to immediately notify law enforcement if they encounter a threat.

Mr Mendicino says he received a number of death threats on Instagram after tabling his bill for increased gun control in the Commons last month. In one of the posts from an Instagram account titled terrorist elitethe Minister was told: Someone’s gonna shoot you.