Social Services Minister Lisa MacLeod said she is “standing by” a recent Progressive Conservative party fundraising email that suggested anti-Ford protesters want to “cut off” the Premier’s head.
The e-mail, sent to supporters on Tuesday, described a recent demonstration outside Queen’s Park in which a guillotine was unveiled and protesters carried signs reading “may history repeat itself, chop chop!”
While Premier Doug Ford condemned the protest last week, the party quickly turned the act into a fundraising plea asking supporters to donate as little as $1.
“This is serious,” the email reads. “Protesters showed up last week at Queen’s Park waving communist flags. And they brought out a guillotine. Yup. A guillotine.”
MacLeod said the request for donations was one of the “best read” fundraising emails that the party has sent to date and says it’s reflective the party’s new stance on threats of violence.
“I’m not putting up with it anymore, our government is not putting up with it anymore,” MacLeod stated, saying her ministry now has around-the-clock Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) protection as a result of threats stemming from the government’s unpopular changes to autism treatment funding.
While the government originally referred the guillotine protest to the OPP, the Premier’s Office told CTV News Toronto it will no longer pursue a police complaint. No reason was provided for the decision.
MacLeod called a liar by the NDP
MacLeod claimed during Question Period last week that an effigy of Premier Doug Ford was decapitated during the protest, despite a lack of photo or video evidence to support that allegation.
“I was given photos from our team,” MacLeod told reporters on Wednesday without specifying whether the pictures actually showed a decapitated effigy of the Premier.
CTV News Toronto has not been able to independently verify the claim.
NDP Leader Andrea Horwath believes MacLeod “lied” about the claim in the legislature and is asking for an official apology.
“That didn’t happen. That’s not the truth,” Horwath said. “She needs to apologize to the house for making that accusation.”
