The Green Party of Canada is expressing concern after its leader Annamie Paul received online threats regarding one of her in-person events.
"Most of the security threats are online," said Paul. "We haven’t had any hecklers showing up at rallies or press conferences. However, there have been online posts proposing to come and disrupt our in-person events. Recently, there was an entire Facebook thread, on a public group, proposing that someone come and assault me at one of my events.”
On Aug. 26, the Green Party of Canada issued a media release calling attention to the bigotry and misogyny that public figures face in today’s political landscape - particularly on social media.
“Social media makes it much easier to rile people up and to provoke people into extreme acts. The hate that has been directed at me and other candidates is alarming. There needs to be more accountability. We need to do better in developing community education strategies and outreach programs to help address bigotry and misogyny,” Paul said in the media release.
A United Nations report published earlier this year said that there is an increase in online hate against minorities, despite the efforts to curb hate speech and dangerous rhetoric.
Paul said the RCMP should have been more involved with the event with online monitoring of threats and security details for party leaders.
“Imagine the brilliant pool of public servants Canada is missing out on because we cannot protect them from such despicable harassment. We need to do better. Social media corporations must be held accountable for the venom that is being disseminated every day on their platforms,” Paul said.
