“Somebody’s going to be shot” PCO clerk fears election campaign will be ultra violent

Privy Council Clerk Michael Wernick told the House of Commons justice committee Thursday that he is deeply concerned about Canadian politics and where things are headed.

Wernick appeared at the committee to address the controversy surrounding SNC-Lavalin and the Trudeau Liberals, but his testimony started with him voicing concern about the overall state of public political dialogue leading up to the October election.

"I worry about the rising tide of incitements to violence when people use terms like 'treason' and 'traitor' in open discourse. Those are the words that lead to assassination," said Wernick.

"I'm worried that somebody's going to be shot in this country this year during the political campaign."

Twitter has become a type of cesspool for political hatred, and of course, Trudeau’s name comes up as many times as anyone else's. The rhetoric that is concerning Wernick is actually fairly easy to find throughout twitter. All one has to do is search “Trudeau should be shot” and within a few scrolls, you will find Tweets from throwaway accounts like this:

Yellow Vest Canada’s Facebook page also recently got into some hot water after the PM’s life was threatened. Their page was temporarily deleted, and made a return shortly after.

The hashtag #traitortrudeau has appeared on Twitter posts critical of the prime minister in recent weeks.

At a town-hall meeting in January, a Saskatchewan woman accused Trudeau of selling out the country to globalists, adding that traitors were once hanged for treason in Canada.

Conservative Sen. David Tkachuk has also received flack for stating that the convoy of truckers who met on Parliament Hill this week should “roll over every Liberal left in the country.”

Tkachuk has since stated that he will not be apologizing for the statements, claiming that the words he used were a figure of speech.

Wernick did not mention Tkachuk by name Thursday, but he said it was "totally unacceptable" that a parliamentarian would allude to rolling people over after 10 pedestrians were killed in a van attack in Toronto last year.

"I hope that you as parliamentarians are going to condemn that," he said.

He also expressed dismay about what he called the "trolling from the vomitorium of social media.”

"Most of all I worry about people losing faith in the institutions of governance of this country, and that's why these proceedings are so important."

Though there is plenty of evidence to support Wernick’s claim, it’s a very bold move to publicly state his opinions on this matter.

He is right. The West is polarizing in a dangerous way that is worrisome, and the language being used by many people online is brash, and often crosses the line.

We aren’t event too far removed from the 2012 Montreal shooting. On September 4th of that year, the Parti Quebecois won the Quebec general election with a minority government.

Party leader Pauline Marois was partway through her victory speech to her supporters, when a masked man named Richard Henry Bain approached the building and opened fire with a semi-automatic rifle, taking the life of a stage technician and injuring another.

Bain was quickly taken down by police. While being led to the police vehicle during his arrest, the suspect called out “The English are waking up!” and “It’s going to be f*cking payback.”

Canada is not immune to division. Far from it. Civil discourse appears to be out the window, we all know that. The echo chambers are louder than they ever have been before. To acknowledge the rhetoric in this fashion though, is not going to make you any friends.

It’s a lesson that we should all know at this point: do not feed the trolls. It’s a very difficult situation, because there is indeed disgusting language being used online about our elected officials. But acknowledging the trolls does nothing but makes them stronger.

Trolling, the art of enraging people online by saying outlandish things, is named after the practice of trolling for fish, a type of fishing in which boats trail a baited line along behind them. In that same sense, online trolling is leaving “bait” behind you (saying salacious things) and hoping to get a “bite” (a response, acknowledgement, etc.)

People will say things online. Calling Trudeau treasonous is usually nothing more than disgruntled Canadians voicing their opinions online. Obviously calling for his death is not okay, and should be called out and discouraged.