Content warning: everything hateful thing you can imagine

March 8, 2023 1:19 PM

Canada's first Indigenous Governor-General, Mary Simon, shares some of the comments that lead her to turn off comments on her socials.
posted by jacquilynne (26 comments total)

"I must respectfully disagree."

She’s so much more restrained than I could ever be.
posted by chavenet at 1:55 PM on March 8, 2023 [7 favorites]

She’s so much more restrained than I could ever be.

we both know she has to be. She has to be smarter and work harder and put up with more crap then any of those scurrilous fools, bigots, and trash who leave those comments

social media amplifies the worst in humanity. There is good to be had, but the worst seems overly prevalent
posted by elkevelvet at 3:27 PM on March 8, 2023 [31 favorites]

Amen, elkevelvet, amen.
posted by y2karl at 4:29 PM on March 8, 2023

Some days being Canadian is a badge of honour that I wear proudly when viewing events on an international stage.

This is not one of those days.

I admit I don't follow closely enough to know if she did a good job or a bad job as GG. But I am 100% sure that none of those comments are warranted, or appropriate, from anyone... Let alone another Canadian.
posted by Snowflake at 5:20 PM on March 8, 2023 [1 favorite]

I do want to believe I live in a relatively free and mature and tolerant country. A few years ago, when Kathleen Wynne was re-elected as Ontario premier (I think the first openly gay premier in the country), I recall she called her wife onstage as well to jubilant cheers; something unthinkable in many places and even here not that many years back.

However, on social media, I do see quite a few people who, let’s say, share a skin tone and passport with me, who are not shy about sharing how angry and scared they are of how irrelevant they feel. They are often in Oakleys in the cab of their pickup, for some reason. Safe space?
posted by ricochet biscuit at 5:46 PM on March 8, 2023 [5 favorites]

"I cannot and will not just brush off or ignore comments, or offer a platform for the spreading of stereotypes and tropes that I have spent a lifetime opposing," Simon said in her statement.

Good for her for taking this stance. Those comments--and the people behind them-- are appalling and I'm glad she's not offering them an outlet anymore. Let them find another place to spew their bile. Maybe they'll choke on it instead.
posted by rpfields at 5:50 PM on March 8, 2023 [5 favorites]

I also made the mistake of reading the comments today on a Facebook ad for the Official Languages office's recommending for gender neutral writing. I am taking heart from the fact that for every asshole, another asshole was pushing back on them. But all in all, a lot of assholes in Canada and they are all in the comments.
posted by jacquilynne at 6:59 PM on March 8, 2023 [1 favorite]

"The Internet removes the veneer of humanity from its combatants." -- Mensch
posted by blob at 8:19 PM on March 8, 2023 [1 favorite]

But all in all, a lot of assholes in Canada and they are all in the comments.

By their F🍁CK TRUDEAU flags as their profile pics shall ye know them.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 9:58 PM on March 8, 2023 [5 favorites]

I've only been able to find stories from a few weeks ago which refer to comments from her press office. I'm curious what the response of colleagues in government or even opposition has been, especially those who are not white (either English or French speakers) — can't possibly imagine she is the only one who has had to deal with online abuse/racism of this kind or degree.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 12:21 AM on March 9, 2023

By their F🍁CK TRUDEAU flags as their profile pics shall ye know them.

I really really really want someone to design a smaller sticker, block letters that people like myself could clandestinely slap under or beside those stickers, it would read:

TOP or BOTTOM ?
posted by rozcakj at 5:42 AM on March 9, 2023 [6 favorites]

I have often thought that many Facebook commenters’ dizzying obsession with Trudeau can only be explained by erotic fixation or else being paid piecework by their handlers at fifty cents per mention (a dollar if they use a schoolyard misspelling of the surname).

I mean: there are several politicians at the federal, provincial, and municipal levels whom I find embarrassing and disappointing but I often go days or even weeks without typing their names.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 6:05 AM on March 9, 2023 [7 favorites]

I feel like I say this every day at this point, but what the fuck is wrong with people?
posted by Ben Trismegistus at 7:33 AM on March 9, 2023 [5 favorites]

It's all exactly as awful as I expected, though I find some solace in the fact that at least some of these people are idiots. The Governor General is a largely symbolic role and, much like the monarch she represents, is essentially a figurehead. So when jerks ask, "When is she going to start doing her job?" I feel compelled to wonder what, exactly, they think her job is? Has the right adopted the recent liberal fantasy of having governors or lieutenants general using their powers to defy the will of the electorate and not recognize governments and/or legislation that they personally find objectionable? Are they implying her job is to remove Trudeau from power or something?
posted by asnider at 9:08 AM on March 9, 2023 [2 favorites]

I really really really want someone to design a smaller sticker, block letters that people like myself could clandestinely slap under or beside those stickers, it would read:

TOP or BOTTOM ?
posted by rozcakj at 7:42 AM on March 9

LOL! I thought about getting small bumper stickers made to put under "fuck Biden" bumper stickers that said "but no homo" but never got around to it.
posted by joannemerriam at 9:19 AM on March 9, 2023 [2 favorites]

Sadly, I am not surprised by this ugliness.

If memory serves, something very much like it happened to some of the women who dared to run against Kenney for the leadership of Alberta's UCP party; ditto for some women who ran against Ford for leadership of the Ontario PC Party.

Closer to my home, and closer to the GG's situation, Melanie Mark, the first indigenous woman elected to the legislature, recently resigned her position, saying the "place felt like a torture chamber", "the opposition are absolutely awful" and "The nastiness from white men in here is awful. I put up with enough abuse in my life."

Not too long ago in Kamloops there was talk of renaming a bridge near the residential school to Reconciliation Bridge and it brought out pretty much the same level of vitriol.

For years, I've regularly heard complaints from a friend about the brutal racism he hears from the neighbours of his parents whenever he visits them in north central BC (Houston, Prince George area).

Somebody in a car gave the finger to my 13 year old daughter and her classmates when they were marching on a street for last year's Orange Shirt Day.

And the list goes on... but I suppose I can take some comfort that my daughter told me there were way way more people honking and shouting support.
posted by house-goblin at 9:56 AM on March 9, 2023 [4 favorites]

And, yes, the sheer level of personalized hatred of The Justin is nuts. It's so fucking high school, like he kicked them out of his house party when they were 16 and they'll never Ever FORGET!!!!
posted by house-goblin at 10:04 AM on March 9, 2023 [2 favorites]

Unfortunately, this is not new when it comes to Canadian Governor Generals - both Michaëlle Jean and Adrienne Clarkson also faced racism and idiots in person, media and online.
posted by rozcakj at 11:25 AM on March 9, 2023 [2 favorites]

I wish I could be confident that the power and influence of the "angry racist loser" voting bloc in Canada will wither away to irrelevance in my lifetime, but that's the CPC base and much like the Republicans in the U.S. they are going to do everything they can to elevate and cater to that group in the hope that they can make it larger.
posted by The Card Cheat at 11:39 AM on March 9, 2023 [1 favorite]

I tend to think our prime minister is generally mediocre and occasionally rises to the level of indifferent. I am confidently informed that Poilevre is going to absolutely tromp him in the next election.

I need someone to draw a cartoon of Trudeau about to cross one more name off a board:
HARPER
SCHEER
BERNIER
O'TOOLE
BERNIER
PEEPEE
posted by ricochet biscuit at 1:41 PM on March 9, 2023 [2 favorites]

Let's not swap out a well-to-do white male for an example of this same kind of injustice. There are no end to well-to-do white males waiting to step right into his shoes and be just as bullet-proof.

For young women, indigenous people, young people of color, these kinds of comments that Simon has received have a chilling effect. They are meant to do just that. By denying them an easy platform to punch down, she has reserved space for marginalized people to be inspired, to be thoughtful, to be introspective about their futures and maybe to have some hope. She's smart.
posted by amanda at 2:13 PM on March 9, 2023 [4 favorites]

here is where we're at in Canada: in the small town I live in, across from the Roman Catholic church, the homeowner has his black pick-up truck with the full back window decal behind the driver: "F#CK TRUDEAU"

everyone leaving the church Sunday gets to see that, any kids walking by his place on their way to the middle school sees it

you can take or leave the Catholic church thing: who am I to dwell on a single fuck when we know what the church has done to people over generations. but it's just so weird to me, that the so-called conservative movement in Canada has turned into this execrable mess of identity politics, and they've chosen to stake their identity on being assholes. slap a coat of "freedom" on that and you have buy-in, and that is where we are at.
posted by elkevelvet at 3:03 PM on March 9, 2023 [2 favorites]

Are they implying her job is to remove Trudeau from power or something?

They perhaps looked over their kid’s report on the King-Byng Affair and succumbed to flights of fancy.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 3:45 PM on March 9, 2023 [1 favorite]

but it's just so weird to me, that the so-called conservative movement in Canada has turned into this execrable mess of identity politics, and they've chosen to stake their identity on being assholes.

I do think you can trace much of this directly back to the subject of the article, the century-and-more of dehumanizing First Nations people in order to justify taking away their land and destroying their culture. The assholery is woven in.
posted by clawsoon at 8:35 PM on March 9, 2023 [4 favorites]

Not too long ago in Kamloops there was talk of renaming a bridge near the residential school to Reconciliation Bridge and it brought out pretty much the same level of vitriol.

And it is not like the current name is especially meaningful. The bridge currently named after the highway it services. A highway that is merely a spur of a highway that took its name from a pass it traversed that itself (the highway) was renamed in 1990. The spur does not go thru the named pass and said pass was named after the nickname of some white guy. Opposition was pure racism.
posted by Mitheral at 9:36 AM on March 10, 2023 [3 favorites]

And it is not like the current name is especially meaningful. The bridge currently named after the highway it services...
Don't I know it! I grew up in Kamloops and when I heard about the racist push-back one of my first thoughts was, "WTF even is the name of that bridge?" And when I called my mom to tell her about it she couldn't remember either. Like, I think I was saying stuff to her like, "you know, not the Red Bridge, the other one, closer to the residential school, the one for going to Raleigh, or taking the Yellowhead north." [Note to the non-Kamloopsians: the name of the bridge is the Yellowhead bridge.]

Back on topic, I suppose the JT derail shows how he gets personalized hate, while Mary Simon gets generic female and indigenous hate. Sort of like how historical photos often have captions listing the names (and titles) of the important European men, but only say "Inuk woman" for people like Mary Simon.
posted by house-goblin at 8:03 PM on March 10, 2023 [1 favorite]