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CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. — Green MLA Hannah Bell says she has received a death threat after comments she made at an event organized by the P.E.I. Coalition for Women in Government.

She spoke to the media Thursday after apologizing in the legislature for the comment, which she said was a quote from a Harvard research study and has since been taken out of context on social media.

Bell talked about leaving the legislature Tuesday night to find a death threat in a note on her car.

The Charlottetown police have an open file after she reported the threat, she said.

“It is not OK for me to be worrying about my safety and my family’s safety and having an open file with the police because I dared to say something that upset the people that I work with.”

The comment Bell referred to was made at a feminist conference where she said many of the women were familiar with the article she was quoting, which dealt with research about gender parity quotas.

The title of the research piece was about “mediocre men,” Bell said, and it was something that wouldn’t resonate well with somebody who didn’t understand the context.

“That’s something that I have to learn as a politician continually is that everything you say is something that could be taken out of context, so you always have to be careful.”

“It is not OK for me to be worrying about my safety and my family’s safety and having an open file with the police because I dared to say something that upset the people that I work with.”

— Hannah Bell

Bell said she didn’t expect her comments to be “weaponized.”

She referred to social media posts about the comment, including one Opposition MLA Darlene Compton posted on Facebook on May 28, which was critical of Bell.

Compton’s post said she couldn’t sit by and accept Bell’s comment that made light of her peers, their talent and their incredible work ethic.

Bell said her intent was not to comment on her colleagues.

She can understand how hurtful that could be for her colleagues, but when it happens on social media and a woman makes the comment there can be an escalation that ends up being sexist and hateful, Bell said.

"The amount of anger and threat even in the comment threads is quite staggering.”

She questioned if people indirectly support that type of behaviour by posting on social media allowing people to say the kinds of things that were being said about her and women in general in P.E.I.

“Because the next thing that will happen is that actually somebody will do something that you can’t take back,” Bell said.

Bell said she has had to consider her personal security and that of her family and she now has to explain to constituents that she can’t meet with them alone unless she knows who they are.

“It’s not because I don’t value their time and want to meet with them, but I genuinely don’t know if I’m going to be safe,” she said.

Bell said she has received anonymous threats online before, starting when she was first elected, but they weren’t as direct as the one she received Tuesday.

Compton, who also spoke to the media Thursday about her Facebook post, said she felt she had to say something about Bell’s comment at the conference.

“It’s always been my belief that we can’t raise anyone up by calling people down,” she said.

As for the comments left on her Facebook post, Compton said she didn’t see any that were threatening.

Compton said she didn’t think any MLA should be subject to threats.

“We open ourselves up to criticism, but it needs to stop there,” she said.

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