Canada: CFWIJ condemns the sexist online attacks against journalist Christy Somos

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September 23, 2021, Toronto- Journalist Christy Somos received vile emails after politician Maxime Bernier tweeted out her email addresses alongside several of her colleagues. Displeased by their coverage of his work, and their line of inquiry, Bernier encouraged his supporters to “play dirty”, thus initiating a violent targeted harassment campaign against the journalists. Although later taken down, the journalists faced hostile digital attacks as a result of his statement. 

Christy Somos tweeted about the deeply gendered threats and attacks that she was forced to confront due to Bernier’s tweet. Notorious for his provocative rhetoric and far-right populism, Bernier has managed to mobilize extremely dangerous and majoritarian sentiment within the country. Him, purposely targeting women journalists and journalists of color in his tweet only worsened the situation

Bernier’s tweet brought forth widespread condemnation from journalists, and the tweets were eventually taken down because they violated Twitter’s rules and regulations.

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The Coalition For Women In Journalism condemns the actions of Maxime Bernier. This was a willful attempt to intimidate journalists and prevent them from asking difficult questions.It is no secret that right wing sentiment can be provoked on social media fairly easily, resulting in real life consequences for members of vulnerable communities. Social media platforms need to devise more vigilant ways to prevent incidents like these. Bernier should issue an immediate apology for the distress he caused.