A note left in Justin Trudeau’s Ottawa home during a break-in Saturday morning was placed on top of an arrangement of large knives, according to a source close to the Liberal Party leader.

Five or six large butcher knives were laid out inside the home, some on the floor, the source told the Star.

The note, which Trudeau called “threatening,” rested on the knives.

Both the Ottawa Police and the RCMP are investigating the incident, which occurred while Trudeau’s wife and three children were asleep in the house. The Liberal Party leader was in Winnipeg.

A police source told CBC Ottawa the letter warned the family to lock their doors in the future because items could have been stolen. Officers found the letter, purportedly left by the vandals, when they went to the back door of the home, the source said.

In an email to the Star Saturday, Trudeau’s spokeswoman Kate Purchase said, to her knowledge, nothing was taken during the break-in.

Trudeau said Sunday he and wife, Sophie Gregoire-Trudeau, have been discussing the amount of time he spends on the road since the burglary.

"Honestly, we're a little bit shaken," Trudeau told The Canadian Press.

"There's no question that Sophie and I have had some very serious conversations over the past 24 hours ... about this path we're undertaking together and the amount of, I don't know, I guess exposure that comes with it.”

Trudeau said he can only do his job if he’s assured his family is safe at home.

"And when my wife and kids, with the nanny, are at home on their own and someone breaks in and engages in some fairly disturbing behaviour, I think it's certainly something that gives me pause in my ability to do the travelling and the job that I'm doing that takes me away from them so much.”

On Sunday afternoon, an RCMP vehicle was still sitting outside Trudeau’s home in the Ottawa neighbourhood of Rockcliffe Park, where he moved his family from Montreal last summer after winning the Liberal leadership.

The Trudeaus are renting the home, which sits on a leafy street not far from the Prime Minister’s residence at 24 Sussex Dr. and the official Opposition leader’s residence of Stornoway.

Purchase said a formal request has been made to the RCMP for a risk and threat assessment for the Liberal leader and his family, which is underway.

Though Trudeau spent the first 12 years of his life under RCMP protection when he lived at 24 Sussex when his father was prime minister, he does not currently have any security presence assigned to him.

In an interview with the Star while he was running for the leadership, his wife, Sophie, said she occasionally worried about her husband plunging into crowds without any RCMP protection. Trudeau spends most of his weeks on the road, regularly drawing large crowds.

Trudeau is not the first political leader to face an intruder.

In 1995, then-prime minister Jean Chrétien grabbed a stone carving of a loon for protection when 34-year-old André Dallaire broke into 24 Sussex in the middle of the night, armed with a jackknife. Dallaire, a convenience-store worker from a Montreal suburb, was later found guilty of attempted murder, but not held criminally responsible because of his mental state.

More than a decade earlier, in 1982, Londoner Michael Fagan broke into the Queen’s bedroom after scaling the walls of Buckingham Palace. The charges against Fagan were dropped.

A spokeswoman for the RCMP told the Star Saturday that the Minister of Public Safety designates which people get security protection.

But Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney’s office did not reply directly to requests on Sunday about designating RCMP protection for Trudeau and his family. Instead, Blaney’s aides sent an emailed statement:

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“Minister Blaney understands the concerns of the Trudeau family. A violation of the sanctity of one’s home is an experience which no Canadian family should have to face,” the statement said.

“This matter is being currently dealt with by the RCMP which has the operational expertise when it comes to ensuring the security of political leaders.”

With files from The Canadian Press and Star Staff

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