CALGARY — A Toronto woman who said she felt threatened after receiving an email response from a former adviser to Prime Minister Stephen Harper has received an apology.
Janet Reymond sent an angry email to Tom Flanagan after he mused on a talk show that U.S. President Barack Obama should consider assassinating WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for leaking sensitive documents.
The initial email response from the University of Calgary political science professor was short: “Better be careful, we know where you live.”
Reymond said she took that as a threat and called Toronto police, who told her the threat was only “borderline.”
She has now received a proper apology.
“I’m sorry that I did not send a more serious response to your email,” Flanagan’s most recent email to Reymond reads. “I regret that I made glib and thoughtless comments about a serious subject. “I was never seriously proposing to do harm to Mr. Assange,” the email continues. “Now that he is in custody I hope he receives fair treatment and due process of law. I have said that several times publicly, but I also wanted to say it to you personally since you took the trouble to write. Please accept my apology.”