REGION OF QUEENS – Some Queens County politicians say they’re feeling more unsafe as residents react to recent provincial and municipal decisions.
On Feb. 26, after the budget was introduced and cuts to local arts facilities were announced, members of the Queens District RCMP were called to Queens MLA Kim Masland’s Liverpool home.
She told police she got a notification from her security system just before midnight of an intruder outside on her property. She was in Halifax at the time.
RCMP arrested a 35-year-old Liverpool man for trespassing at night. He was released on conditions until his court appearance.
Masland told CTV News that when she returned to Liverpool after the incident, she felt fear for the first time in her home community.
More than 250 people upset with the cuts protested outside her office on March 4 and March 11.
Many people criticized Masland, who is also minister of natural resources and emergency management, for not knowing about cuts to many community groups beforehand. She was credited with helping to restore the funding to some groups.
Region of Queens Mayor Scott Christian said that he’s also contacted RCMP about menacing messages he’s received after council voted on March 10 to raise their salaries.
“Some of the reaction and it’s a small group of people in the community, just rose to really kind of abusive, harassing, threatening. I can’t accept abusive and threatening behaviour toward myself or my family or any other members of council and their family.”
He would not specify the comments that led him to call the RCMP.
“The safety of members of council and staff is paramount. There were certain actors who, from my perspective, did step over the line.”
An RCMP spokeswoman said she had no record of a formal complaint.
Christian and Queens County councillors were criticized after voting to accept a citizens’ committee recommendation giving the mayor a 41 per cent raise and each councillor about a 70 per cent raise.
The salary hikes, which are effective April 1, come as councillors grapple with their 2026/27 operating budget which will include a property tax increase.
Some people applauded the salary decision, while others vented their anger on Christian’s Facebook page. He said a small number of people also confronted him and some councillors in person or sent more worrisome emails.
As a result, Christian said he asked the RCMP to monitor a March 12 public meeting at Liverpool Regional High School about water and sewer in the Mount Pleasant area. Senior staff and three councillors were at the meeting, attended by about 50 people, who had many questions, but the tone was largely respectful.
An RCMP officer was parked in a school lot and stayed until after the meeting was over. He appeared to stay in his cruiser during the whole meeting, but did not enter the school.
An RCMP spokeswoman said the officer was there “as a simple precaution to ensure community safety.”
Dalhousie University professor Robert Huish says it’s healthy for people to disagree with politicians’ decisions. But it’s too easy for it to cross the line “into the world of vigilantism”, making people feel unsafe in their workplace.
And he says those types of comments can have the opposite effect of shutting down constructive conversations between politicians and voters.
“And the message that it sends to youth, particularly to young women, is stay out of politics,” says Huish, who is the associate dean of research in the faculty of arts and social sciences at Dal.
“And that’s a terrible thing to normalize, to say to young people, ‘Don’t get into politics. Look what we have to put up with.’ Or, especially to young women. ‘Look, it’s not safe for you to be in here.’ That’s terrible. We’re losing the plot. That’s really the kind of message that’s coming out of this.”
By Rick Conrad, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Original Published on May 20, 2026 at 10:59
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