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Sixth Global Summit: Hate and Harassment Against Elected Local Officials

Publication Date:

22/01/2026

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Event Reports

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Attacks Against Elected OfficialsCivic trustGender-based harassmentHate and harassmentSixth Global SummitToronto

— 9 minutes reading time

This report provides a summary of discussions during the session and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Strong Cities Network Management Unit, Strong Cities members, event sponsors or participants.

Introduction

On 9 – 11 December 2025, the Strong Cities Network held its Sixth Global Summit in Toronto (Canada), bringing together more than 300 representatives of local governments, national governments, civil society organisations, academia, the private sector and international organisations. This included nearly 60 mayors and governors, as well as 110 other local government officials from 100 cities and 42 countries. Under the theme Stronger Together: Forging Safer, Connected, Thriving Cities in a Changing World, the Summit provided a platform for city leaders to share practical and innovative solutions to prevent and respond to hate, extremism and polarisation, and build safer, more resilient and more inclusive communities.

The Summit agenda included a parallel session on Hate and Harassment Against Elected Local Officials that focused on rising levels of online and offline hate and harassment targeting elected leaders and municipal councils around the world.

Scene-setters and participants from across Canada, the United States, South Africa, Kenya and Scotland all joined the discussion. Participants explored hate and harassment as core risks to local governance and democracy, the role of social media in accelerating false narratives targeting city leaders and officials, identity-based harassment targeting marginalised groups, practical security measures for local elected officials, community-led responses to counter hate, challenges in recruiting quality candidates, and partnership-driven approaches to counter emerging threats from disinformation and online abuse.

Featured Speakers:

• Amber Morley, Deputy Mayor, Toronto (Ontario, Canada)
• Judy Eagle, Councillor, Flin Flon, (Manitoba, Canada)
• Phyllis Dickerson, CEO, African-American Mayors Association (United States)
• Kari Kruse, Project Manager, Prince Edward Island Coalition for Women’s Leadership (Canada)
• Shona Morrison, President, Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (Scotland)

Key Takeaways

1. Hate, harassment and disinformation are now core governance risks for local officials. Social media accelerates and amplifies false narratives, often outpacing governments’ ability to respond, directly affecting local elections, public trust and the personal safety of local officials and their families. Local governments can no longer treat online abuse and misinformation as peripheral issues.
2. Digital resilience is as much human as it is technical. Effective responses require strengthening critical thinking, mental resilience and community trust alongside platform engagement. Digital resilience mirrors community resilience: access, belonging and the ability to question information are essential defences against online hate and manipulation.
3. Identity-based harassment disproportionately targets women, people of colour and historically marginalised groups, creating systemic barriers to political participation. Without adequate institutional support and legal protections, qualified candidates from diverse backgrounds are being driven away from local and other public service, threatening the representativeness and legitimacy of local democracy.
4. Proactive, partnership-driven strategies are essential to counter future threats. Cities need forward-looking approaches – youth advisory boards, cross-government and civil society partnerships, ethical use of predictive analytics and pre-election norms against misinformation – to anticipate emerging risks from AI, deepfakes and geopolitical information operations rather than reacting after harm occurs.

Key Themes 

1. Hate and Harassment are on the Rise

Participants highlighted how hate, harassment and false narratives are now common facts of life for elected officials across countries and jurisdictions. While reports of intensity and frequency varied by individual experience, all participants shared incidents of hate and harassment affecting their communities and deep concerns about their personal safety, the wellbeing of their families and the erosion of civil democratic discourse in their communities. Even seemingly non-controversial issues can result in flare-ups of community tension, and local leaders and officials from marginalised backgrounds are more at risk of experiencing this hate.

Women and people of colour are especially at risk of identity-based harassment that weaponises their backgrounds and seeks to delegitimise their right to hold office. Multiple participants noted how attacks often focus on officials’ identities rather than their policy positions or governance abilities, with harassers targeting not just the officials themselves but also their families. Amber Morley, Deputy Mayor, City of Toronto (Canada), shared that being the first woman of colour to hold the title of Deputy Mayor in Toronto’s history leads some to focus more on her identity than her ability to offer solutions and work hard for her constituents. Councillor Morley lamented how this narrative can sometimes overshadow other important issues.

Another participant shared how in her municipality, the first woman of colour to serve as city manager chose not to renew her contract due to threats to herself and her family and a lack of support from her council. While local elected officials may not be able to prevent all harassment and threats originating from members of the public, they do still have an important role to play in publicly denouncing this hate and standing up for municipal staff. This is why Judy Eagle, Councillor, Flin Flon, (Manitoba, Canada) emphasised how valuable building and maintaining trust among council members is, and that even if they do not always agree with each other, they do stand up for one another. 

2. Online Environments Pose Exceptional Risks

Special attention was paid to how social media accelerates and amplifies false narratives and leads to increased harassment, both on and offline. Kari Kruse, Project Manager for the Prince Edward Island (PEI) Coalition for Women’s Leadership, spoke to how online harassment can often be seen as a form of tech-facilitated gender-based violence. Kruse pointed to how online rhetoric has led to the in-person harassment of female local elected officials, especially in small communities like those on PEI, where residents know where officials live and work. To help keep these officials safe, the PEI Coalition for Women’s Leadership created a digital self-defence toolkit that includes context, definitions, behaviours and an incident reporting log. Resources like this one ensure that local elected officials are prepared to recognise, name and respond to tech-facilitated gender-based violence, equipping them with the knowledge and tools to navigate the digital landscape safely while continuing their public service. Denys Volkov, Executive Director of the Association of Manitoba Municipalities (AMM), also shared that his organisation worked with Strong Cities to produce a toolkit for local elected officials to prevent, respond, and counter hate and harassment. Like PEI, Manitoba contains many small, rural municipalities that may lack the resources, institutional support systems and capacity to address these growing threats on their own.

Shona Morrison, President of the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA), spoke about how the ‘hollowing out of local democracy reporting’ and the prevalence of clickbait-driven coverage fails to accurately represent council policies and events. COSLA has actively worked to counter this, securing an agreement with the BBC for in-depth interviews with new candidates about why they are standing for elected office, helping to rebuild truthful democratic discourse and ensure the public receives accurate, substantive information.

3. Proactive Solutions are Possible to Aid in Prevention

Participants shared numerous practical strategies that local elected officials can implement to protect themselves and maintain constructive civic engagement. One South African participant described how managing digital harassment requires creative solutions, such as setting up automated responses on WhatsApp for unknown contacts that redirect them to a secondary number managed by support staff, preventing officials from being overwhelmed by hostile messages or baited into unproductive conversations.

Physical safety measures were also discussed extensively, with Phyllis Dickerson, CEO of the African-American Mayors Association, recommending that local officials establish direct communication lines with local police departments, vary their daily routes to and from work, strengthen home security systems and ensure family members understand safety protocols and emergency procedures.

Beyond personal security, participants explored how redesigning public engagement formats can reduce opportunities for disruption while maintaining democratic accessibility, such as through breaking participants into smaller discussion groups, which eliminates the platform for grandstanding. Similarly, participants emphasised the importance of encouraging positive community mobilisation to counter hostile actors. Examples included pro-housing advocates in Raleigh (North Carolina, USA), who showed up in solidarity to model inclusive behaviour, and pro-shelter supporters in Toronto (Ontario), Canada, who positioned themselves to cheer loudly and counter negative energy at a community parade.

This session comes at the end of a year where Strong Cities placed a renewed emphasis on hate and harassment targeting elected officials. From direct engagements in Canada, to the AMM Strong Cities Toolkit, to support offered through Prevention Academies, Strong Cities has been working to equip municipalities with practical tools, peer learning opportunities and evidence-based strategies to prevent, respond to and counter this hate.

Next Steps

Strong Cities will continue supporting municipalities to address these threats through practical tools, peer learning and strategic partnerships. Going forward, this work will include:

• Facilitating peer learning opportunities that connect elected officials experiencing hate and harassment with counterparts who have successfully navigated similar challenges
• Strengthening partnerships with municipal associations and networks across North America to ensure local leaders have access to timely guidance, peer support and evidence-based strategies
• Integrating support for elected officials into the existing Prevention Academy programme
• Leveraging Strong Cities’ global network to identify and share promising practices from municipalities worldwide that have successfully countered hate targeting elected officials

For municipalities interested in applying learnings from this session to protect local elected officials from hate and harassment, consider:

• Working with local media to ensure new candidates receive coverage in the press
• Making use of publicly available toolkits
• Redesigning public meetings to reduce combativeness and the ability to grandstand
• Working with other elected officials to create a united front against hate
• Promoting a “see something, say something” culture among staff
• Setting up an automatic WhatsApp reply for unknown numbers to screen harassment

Additional Resources

Recent Strong Cities policy briefs and resources:

• City Leadership in Partnering with Local Communities for Social Cohesion: Ten Considerations for Mayors and Local Governments, Strong Cities Network, 2025
• National-Local Cooperation: Opportunities and Lessons Learned for Secondary and Tertiary Prevention, Strong Cities Network, 2025
• City Leadership in the Face of Rising Incivility and Polarisation: Ten Considerations for Mayors and Local Governments, Strong Cities Network, 2025
• Innovations in Prevention: Piloting Multi-Actor Frameworks in Small and Mid-Sized Cities in the United States, Strong Cities Network, 2025
• A Toolkit for Cities: Building a Multi-Actor Local Prevention Framework, Strong Cities Network, 2025
• A Toolkit for Manitoba Municipalities: Addressing Anti-Government Hate and Harassment, Strong Cities Network, 2025
• A Guide for Cities: Preventing Hate, Extremism & Polarisation, Strong Cities Network, updated 2025
• A Guide for Mayors: Preventing and Responding to Hate, Extremism & Polarisation, Strong Cities Network, updated 2025
• A Guide for City-Led Response, Strong Cities Network, May 2024
• City Spotlights Library, Strong Cities Network

Further Resources

• North America Regional Hub: Addressing Anti-Government and Anti-Establishment Hate in Times of Crisis — A conversation with Manitoba Municipalities, Strong Cities Network, April 2025
• North America Regional Hub: Enhancing Local Efforts to Address Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence (TFGBV) and Misogyny as Drivers of Social Polarisation and Violence, Strong Cities Network, December 2025
• North America Regional Hub: Countering Online Harms in British Columbia — The Role of Municipalities in Preventing and Responding to Online Threats to Social Cohesion, Strong Cities Network, September 2025

Donors & Partners

The Sixth Global Summit was co-hosted with the City of Toronto and the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, and delivered with generous support from the Government of Canada, The Fourth Freedom Forum, The Toronto Foundation and Charities Aid Foundation.

Contact Information 

For more information about the Sixth Global Summit or the Strong Cities Network, please contact [email protected].

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