Woman charged with threats to PM’s wife
Comments posted on social media lead to charges against Lethbridge woman
Alleged threats targeting the Canadian government and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s wife Sophie Gregoire Trudeau over social media have landed a criminal charge against a Lethbridge woman.
Alberta RCMP’s Integrated National Security Enforcement Team (K-INSET), based in Calgary, became aware of the alleged threats posted on social media on May 11, and began tracing the account from where the messages originated.
A day later, investigators identified a Lethbridge home linked to the account holder and took a woman, identified as Lisa Seymour-Peters, 49, into custody without incident.
Cpl. Hal Turnbull with RCMP Alberta’s K Division said he couldn’t comment on the exact nature of the alleged threats because the matter is before the courts, but noted that for a charge to be laid, the threat would have to be determined to be credible.
“The problem in is trying to meet the standards set out in the Criminal Code of uttering threats,” he said.
“In this case, we believed that there was a credible threat.”
Turnbull noted it’s not uncommon for high profile politicians to be targeted over social media, and some of those instances require police intervention.
Since coming to power two years ago, Rachel Notley has become the most threatened premier in Alberta history. She was threatened 19 times in the last half of 2015 and 412 times last year, though 2016 saw authorities increase their monitoring of social media threats. Of those, 26 threats were forwarded to police to be investigated criminally.
Comparatively, before Notley’s ascension, Alberta sheriffs investigated just 55 incidents between 2003-15.
Seymour-Peters is charged with one count of uttering threats and has been released from custody on the promise not to be found within 100 metres of Gregoire Trudeau or her immediate family, and not to attend any political party gathering or function.
She’s slated to appear in Lethbridge provincial court on June 8.