Conditional discharge for Sask. woman who threatened prime minister in TikTok group chat

Warning: This story contains explicit language.

A Saskatoon woman who threatened the prime minister on October 2023 in an online chat on the platform TikTok is not going to jail.

Marly Dansereau appeared in Saskatoon provincial court on Wednesday. Judge Lua Gibb accepted a joint sentencing submission from prosecutor Paul Goldstein and defence lawyer Logan Marchand. They had recommended a 12-month conditional discharge.

"Miss Dansereau didn't know she was being recorded when she said what she had said, which led to the charges. And ultimately, there's a sense of, do we really want to saddle people with a permanent criminal record for something they said where they didn't even know they were going to be recorded?" Marchand said in an interview.

"Should you be defined by one stupid thing you said that you thought you were saying it in privacy?"

The threats against the prime minister emerged during a profanity-laced nine-person chat on TikTok in early October.

"Guess who was in La Ronge last weekend?" Dansereau asked the group.

"F--k-face was. I was literally hours away from him. And if I f--king could get off work and go kill the motherf--ker I f--cking would."

There is then a back and forth with other people on the chat on whether someone could come up with gas money.

"Hey, if someone's willing to pay my hourly wage so I can skip work and go and do that, f--k I would. I would do us all a favour."

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had travelled to Lac La Ronge, about 380 kilometres north of Saskatoon, at the end of September to meet with community members, survivors and leaders to mark the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.

RCMP were told of the the online threat, investigated and then, on Oct. 18, 2023, arrested Dansereau and charged her with uttering threats to cause bodily harm.

Marchand said that Dansereau accepted responsibility for what she said.

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"I think it's important that people do know that Miss Dansereau not only openly apologized in court for her actions …  she provided a confession to the police and essentially told them what had happened," he said.

"All of the circumstances were looked at, including the seriousness of the threat, what was actually said, Miss Dansereau's personal circumstances, the remorse that she's shown, the guilty plea that was entered in docket, some of the collateral consequences that have happened to her."

The sentence means that Dansereau must abide by a host of conditions, including performing community service, for 12 months. If she is successful, then she will not have a permanent criminal record.