McKenna announces retirement, pledges ongoing work for climate change

OTTAWA — Infrastructure Minister Catherine McKenna says as she leaves politics she will use what platform she has to push for both climate action, and an end to the hateful comments and personal abuse targeting public figures.

Her pledge came as an RCMP officer stood guard nearby, part of a security detail McKenna has required on and off for years.

The prime minister has long had constant RCMP protection in Canada but it is far more rare for cabinet ministers to require it.

As the environment minister McKenna was a frequent target of abuse, both online and in person, sometimes as she was out and about in Ottawa with her children.

She told The Canadian Press in 2019 that she had begun to sometimes require security because of the growing threats.

McKenna says the hateful behaviour targeting public figures has to stop and while she has called it out many times from within government, she says after she leaves she will continue to push back.

She says she wants politics to be a safe and welcoming space for women, people of colour and other marginalized people whose voices are critical in rooms of power.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 28, 2021.