Michelle Rempel Garner speaks about harassment on the campaign trail

As the election takes on an angrier tone and concerns about safety mount amid a cancelled Liberal Party event on Friday, Hon. Michelle Rempel Garner is speaking out about her experiences with harassment on the campaign trail, and most recently at a Calgary diner.

"This morning, a video of a man cornering me at a table in a restaurant last night while I was having dinner has been circulating on social media." her statement began.

"Last night after protestors at a Justin Trudeau event crossed a significant line into threats of violence, Global News's Mercedes Stephenson tweeted, 'More and more protesters have been appearing at Liberal campaign events, some getting very aggressive. Tonight the Liberal campaign has cancelled an event over security concerns. This is super rare in Canadian politics."

On this point, the MP from Calgary-Nosehill pushed back: "I wish she were right. But, sadly this is not 'super rare." said Rempel, noting that it is "an all too frequent occurrence for me and many of my colleagues, particularly women, of all political stripe."

While the 2019 Federal Election saw a record number of female candidates and a record number of female MPs elected to the House of Commons, issues of sexism and harassment remain a significant barrier.

Rempel shared some of her own experiences, "in the spirit of hoping this will spur some action" on harassment to prove it isn't necessarily a partisan issue but reflective of the current climate in Canadian politics.

"In the last two weeks alone, I have had two men spot me on the street, jump out of a car with cameras, and chase after me down the street demanding I respond to conspiracy theories," said Rempel, "and last night, while having dinner with my husband, I was accosted by a large man who aggressively approached us and cornered us at our table to do the same thing. For these individuals in these moments, I feel like they don't see me as a human. In those moments, I also fear."

"In the last two weeks, I have also received a death threat from someone who called my office in escalating states of verbal abuse over the course of days," she added.

"Vigorous political discourse is vital. But a line needs to be drawn somewhere. Because at the end of the day, I would like Mercedes to be right; cancelling events due to security should be "super rare." In fact, it should never happen at all." Rempel concluded.

You can read the statement in full here.