CALGARY — Pierre Poilievre is defending comments he recently made regarding a woman who told him she felt safer in Mexico than in Vancouver, arguing the anecdote reflects broader concerns among Canadians over crime and public safety.On Monday, when the Conservative leader was challenged over the comments at a news conference where it was noted that crime statistics generally show Mexico to be less safe than Vancouver, Poilievre said he highlighted the woman’s story because he believed her concerns were shared by many Canadians, particularly women."There are a lot of women who frankly feel very unsafe in Canada today,” Poilievre said, pointing to testimony from women before parliamentary committees who said they left Canada because they feared for their safety after violent offenders were repeatedly released from custody..He cited the case of Bailey McCourt, a 32-year-old mother of two from Kelowna, BC, who was murdered by her former partner on July 4, 2025."There are women right across this country who do not feel safe, who are afraid to go on transit, who are afraid that a violent ex is being released yet again under Liberal laws," Poilievre said, adding critics were trying to dismiss legitimate concerns over public safety.“Liberal commentators online that tried to silence this lady that I met at the airport, frankly, they should be ashamed of themselves,” he stated.“They have no business telling a woman that she should not demand safety in her community.”He also reiterated his party’s goal of overhauling Liberal criminal justice policies if elected.“These Liberals expect me to be quiet about it. I'm not going to be quiet about it,” Poilievre said."My job is to fight for the safety of women and men right across this country. That is going to require a wholesale repeal of all the Liberal crime laws that have unleashed chaos on the streets of Vancouver and right across this country."The woman — who goes by the name “Lioness” online — at the centre of the controversy has confirmed that she met Poilievre and thanked the Conservative leader for taking the time to speak with her..“I would have loved the opportunity to share in detail why I left Canada and how I believe it can be fixed,” she wrote on X.“I’m rooting for you. Make Canada safe, prosperous and great again.”Despite criticism from some quarters, Poilievre’s comments come at a time when a broader debate is taking place in Canada over crime trends and public safety.In February, an analysis by The Hub argued that violent crime was surging in Canada, having increased significantly in every province and nearly every major city over the last decade, with some provinces recording their highest violent crime severity levels since the Crime Severity Index was introduced in 1998.The study, conducted by Dave Snow, a senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, noted that crime “has spiked during the exact period in which the criminal justice system has come under increasing strain, and our cities have been overrun with generalized disorder.”Snow also argued that in most provinces, violent crime severity had not only returned to mid-2000s levels but had surpassed those previous highs by a significant margin.John R. Lott Jr., president of the US-based Crime Prevention Research Center, also weighed in on X, arguing that commonly cited crime statistics do not capture the full picture of criminal victimization..Lott cited data that he said showed Canada's violent crime victimization rate was substantially higher than that of the United States.“Canada’s crime problem is worse than people realize,” he said, adding that the country’s “overall violent crime victimization rate was 295% higher than the US rate.”He also pointed to robbery and property crime statistics, arguing that Canadians face a significantly higher risk of robbery and burglary than Americans."Canadians are roughly 366 times more likely to be robbed than to become homicide victims," Lott said."Property crime shows a similar pattern."
