Two volunteers for the Conservative Party of Quebec were verbally assaulted and threatened with a knife while putting up election posters in two different ridings. 

“He told me that I was going to be found with my family in a ditch on the side of the road. I didn’t sleep all night. I am really afraid to go out, I am afraid for my children”, the 43-year-old volunteer who was assaulted in the riding of Rosemont, Montreal, told TVA Nouvelles. 

“A man came up and started trying to take the signs down. I told him to stop and that’s when he started to get aggressive with me,” the volunteer recalled.

The perpetrator is a 49-year-old man who was released the day after the assault took place. 

‘It is with dismay that the leader of the Conservative Party of Quebec, Mr. Éric Duhaime, learned that two volunteers were threatened with knives while they were putting up election signs for his party. The first of the two events occurred late Saturday night in the riding of Rosemont in Montreal and the second late yesterday afternoon in Sept-Îles, in the riding of Duplessis”, a press release from the party read. 

“In both cases, the attackers first attacked the poster that had just been put up by the volunteers. The volunteers were then threatened when they asked them to stop vandalizing the posters. In the case of the Montreal assault, the suspect was arrested and released the next morning. In the case of the assault in Sept-Îles, the suspect is still being sought by the Sûreté du Québec. A video was shot during the last event”, the release read. 

“I am shocked to hear what happened to these two volunteers. I am also relieved to know that they are both doing well, despite the circumstances. It boggles my mind that in a democratic state like ours, events like this can still happen. Activists of all parties, without exception, have the right to be actively involved in politics, without having to fear for their safety”, Conservative Party leader Éric Duhaime said in a statement. 

Duhaime’s party is currently the second party in the race behind François Legault’s CAQ.