Justin Trudeau shuffled his cabinet this week and one of the key moves was
Catherine McKenna, who endured online abuse at environment but will her new
portfolio make it any easier to be a female politician I Catherine McKenna do
solemnly and sincerely promise and declare Catherine McKenna changed
portfolios this week after years of abuse of attacks while she was Minister
of Environment and climate change those attacks picked up after former
Conservative MP Jerry Ritz called her climate Barbie on Twitter it ignited
online and got so bad but can I even called out a rebel news
reporter I just would like a commitment that you will not call me names that you
won't talk about the color of my hair that you won't make fun of me that the
reason I'm asking you not to do this is because I have two daughters that there
are lots of girls that want to get into politics and it is completely
unacceptable that you do this but the attacks got more and more vicious than
came the election McKenna required a security detail after her family was
threatened and of course this her photo in the front window of her office
defaced with a highly charged insult her reaction I am a bit shaken look I'm
tough but I but McKenna is not alone NDP MP Jenny Kwan had a panic button
installed in her constituency office and former Alberta premier Rachel Notley
actually received death threats many on Facebook sites but this isn't just a
Canadian problem a study of 39 countries revealed that more than 80% of female
lawmakers have been subjected to misogynist remarks humiliating images
mobbing intimidation and threats democracia Brasileiro the former
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff was called a lying cross titude by one
blogger and images of the president with her legs splayed on social media were
plastered on cars in the UK last month former Tory MP and a subaru tweeted out
a threatening letter she received with a word
written in big letters at the bottom of the page and former Jamaican Prime
Minister Portia Simpson Miller she was depicted in a major newspaper
wearing a bikini and demanding her husband's credit card so McKenna has
been shuffled to the infrastructure file will that put an end to the hate joining
me now from Ottawa is Catherine McKenna now as minister of infrastructure and
communities so minister of course she recalled climate Barbie that happened
online and then we've read that there was a big uptick online after a former
Conservative MP tweeted that out is that what you notice is that when it really
started to pick up well it actually started a lot earlier it's sort of
pretty quick after I've named Minister of Environment and climate change I
didn't do anything about it I've for a long time I thought it was better if I
just ignored it but one day after I was a long day the United Nations we were in
international discussions when both world leaders about climate action I
came back and my twitter feed had exploded and I realized that that
jerry-rigged said tweeted out something that had climate barbie on it and that
time I just decided to reply and I think my team was like don't do it but I said
just had enough of this and so look I you know one of these weird things I
didn't play with Barbies as a kid so maybe that makes that extra annoying but
I was thinking about it and my girls are kind of funny about these things and I
said well you know what time to get a climate action Barbie so the answer is
there one there isn't one but if there was one I think she'd be on a bicycle
she'd have her water bottle a reusable water bottle she'd have her you know
metal straw and she'd be pretty awesome a lot of the abuse happened online like
how do how does that change things well it happened online which is obviously
problematic not just for me but other people seeing it I realized that you
know you can mute people if they're abusive I block when people say things
that are beyond the pale or or are threatening violence but I realize the
problem is other who engaged with me you know I'd have a
little I'd have girls engaging with me and the haters would start hating on
them and that is just it was it was brutal and it would be you know people
internationally who would get involved with with these folks so that was bad
but then I I also noticed that it started jumping off line where people
would stop and you know yell at me you know just hurl abuse and I think
that's that's that's even worse now that we're getting to the point where people
it's one thing to have an anonymous name and be doing it online and some of them
may be BOTS they may not even be real people but to have real people think
it's okay add to hurl abuse and I I've often with other people so you know
whether whether I'm with my kids or my brother with his his young daughter that
is really unacceptable and I felt like that was just a bit shocking Hillary
Clinton has said that to her part of the explanation might be people reacting to
women in positions of power what do you think of that argument yeah there's
something very strange and I I think social media has really accelerated this
kind of you know unacceptable dialog I don't know if it's a dialogue this
unacceptable behavior and now that it's coming offline I mean that's obviously a
lot worse and I think certainly social media companies need to step up a lot
more I'm often told well why don't you just you know report us and report if
you just see something that's a problem and as a leak I'm not gonna spend my
whole day reporting I can spend my whole day reporting people my team could do
that that I'm sure social media companies they have algorithms they have
ways they could make sure that people have to maybe have a real name our
account is verified but there are tools that they have and they should want that
because I think social media is amazing it means that I can talk to a whole
range of people young people sorts of people can reach out to me you can learn
you know about things that are going on really cool information but we shouldn't
have to deal with all the abuse Catherine McKenna has been great to talk
to you thank you so much great thanks