Peace bond for woman accused of threatening PM, wife

A Lethbridge woman accused of threatening Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his wife has been placed on a peace bond and ordered to stay away from the Trudeau family.

During a brief hearing Monday in Lethbridge provincial court, Lisa Seymour-Peters agreed to the peace bond, which includes a $1,000 no-cash recognizance, under which she must keep the peace for a year and not have any contact with the prime minister and his wife. She is also prohibited from publishing anything about the Trudeau family or anything relating to weapons, race, or religion.

Court was told the 49-year-old woman published threatening messages on Twitter May 9, in which she responded with a “bullet to the temple” to concerns she has with the labour minister. She also responded with a bullet to concerns she has with Trudeau and his wife Sophie.

On May 11, the RCMP “K” Division Integrated National Security Enforcement Team in Calgary received information pertaining to threats against the Canadian government. K-INSET investigators were able to identify the social media account from which the threatening messages originated.

Police identified an address in Lethbridge and the individual account holder, Seymour-Peters, was subsequently taken into custody without incident May 12 and charged with uttering threats to cause death or bodily harm. Using social media to make threats against an individual or a group of people is unlawful under the Criminal Code.

However, the Crown opted not to prosecute the accused, who appeared in court with her lawyer Monday, and the charge was withdrawn after she agreed to abide by conditions of the peace bond.

The Crown has the discretion to impose a peace bond, which is a court order requiring the defendant to keep the peace and be of good behaviour. A peace bond may be issued under section 810 of the Criminal Code or under the court’s common law jurisdiction to bind a party over to keep the peace.

Judge Derek Redman warned Seymour-Peters that if she breaches the peace bond, she may be liable to pay the court $1,000 and she could be charged.

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