Restraint and respect are qualities that are on the way out on social media. Faced with insults and threats, Quebec MPs and their relatives no longer hesitate to file a complaint.
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Thus, the leader of the Parti Québécois (PQ), Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, has just contacted the Sûreté du Québec following a series of hateful messages uttered against him on February 19.
At the height of a demonstration in Ottawa, while journalist Félix Séguin was taken to task by activists from the Freedom Convoy, the leader of the Parti Québécois spoke on social networks.
“I told myself it took courage to do this job. I just tweeted because that’s what it meant to me. We had to support this work,” he said.
An avalanche of hate messages followed.
“I ask the police to assess whether expressions like “your turn will come”, “die calisse”, “you are going to fall by the wayside”, it is of a criminal nature”, wondered Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon in an interview with TVA Nouvelles.
52% of messages blocked on François Legault’s Facebook page
All politicians noted an increase in hate messages on social media.
The dozen or so people who moderate the prime minister’s pages hid 108,000 of the 207,000 posts on his Facebook page between January 1 and 31.
Among these messages, 356 comments were reported to the SQ.
The director general of the CAQ and chief organizer, Brigitte Legault, is concerned about this increase in violence.
“If I see you in the street, this is going to happen. For women we talk about violence. Very likely that in there there are people who have been arrested. We don’t want to know why, but the number of people who use it as a release. It’s really higher than before,” she said.
On François Legault’s Instagram page, his team masked 77% of 17 of the 22,000 messages during the same period. On Twitter, moderation is impossible, she says.
“Don’t Touch My Children”
Political commitment is often difficult for those around you. The leader of the official opposition, Dominique Anglade, like many other elected officials, is the subject of disgraceful comments.
Several of these messages are aimed at his family: “your daughters must have a host of you, traitor”, “you will be arrested soon, say goodbye to your children”, etc.
“It is the denigration of women, these are words that are despicable. It’s the woman-sex object, it has no place. You decide to go into politics, you decide to go into it, you give the best of yourself, but your children did not choose that, ”she protests.
The solidarity deputy for Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, Alexandre Leduc, asked his family to leave the house in 2021 after a threat.
“They told me: ‘Find yourself a hiding place, Leduc, we’re coming!’ Precautions had then been taken accordingly. My spouse and my daughter had taken refuge with my parents in the suburbs on the day of the demonstration,” he explains.
The Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions is categorical and stresses that “it is not because these are threats and behaviors that are behind a screen that they go unpunished”.
“In the end, when you plead guilty or are found guilty of a criminal offence, of threat of harassment, there is a sentence that will be imposed by the court” underlines Me Audrey Roy-Cloutier.