The Conservative Party of Canada’s shift to the right has been worrying me for several years. For environmental as well as social reasons.
But learning that the last 50 YouTube videos of its new boss, Pierre Poilievre, included a hidden hashtag referring to a movement that promotes hatred of women sent chills down my spine.
Why is it scary?
#mgtow is the acronym for “Men Going Their Own Way”. In English: “Men follow their own path”.
This movement is not trivial.
As my colleague Mélanie Millette, associate professor in the Department of Social and Public Communication at UQAM and digital specialist, explained to me: “The MGTOWs are part of what is called the manosphere: a part of the misogynistic Internet that is made up of more or less organized movements, such as the Incels, and having the hatred of women as a transversal. »
These growing movements are masters in the art of circulating a discourse that presents women as a threat to men.
According to their ideology, men would be the victims of an overly egalitarian society between the sexes which would cause them to lose privileges otherwise due by the simple fact that they were born male.
Thus, in the manosphere, women are presented as the enemies of men and their sexual subordinates whose only function would be procreation. Violence against them is trivialized there. It is even encouraged directly in some networks.
The ideologically motivated violent extremism of certain misogynistic cyber movements is such that the Canadian Intelligence and Security Service (CSIS) considers them a real threat to security.
While feminicides are repeatedly in the news, it is imperative to question the role that misogynistic cybermovements like #mgtow can play in the trivialization, and even the promotion, of violence against women.
Did Poilievre know?
The new leader of the Conservative Party has denied being aware of a hidden hashtag linking his videos to #mgtow followers. He publicly condemned misogyny.
Knowing how much importance Pierre Poilievre places on his web strategies and given his known closeness to far-right people like Jeremy Mackenzie of Diagalon, there is reason to doubt.
But even if he is given the benefit of the doubt, there are bound to be people in his inner circle who court misogynists.
Thus, this case confirms the crossing between people who adhere to a misogynistic ideology promoted by the MGTOW and the conservative ideas of Pierre Poilievre.
The proximity of interests between Pierre Poilievre’s videos and movements like MGTOW is such that they are associated by algorithm in YouTube.
One thing is certain, the Conservatives wink at misogynists to bring them to their party.
In other words, they “cruise” them, to use the image shared by Andréanne Larouche, spokesperson for the Bloc Québécois on the status of women.
While the rise of populism around the world is weakening democracies, Canada no longer seems to escape it.