Something stinks in Barrie Ontario. In March of this year, on the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, Barrie City Councillor, Keenan Aylwin, called out two local CPC MPs, John Brassard and Alex Nuttall, for remaining silent after Scheer spoke at United We Roll. He also pointed out that Nuttall was Facebook friends with Faith Goldy and stated that the two MPs were "playing footsie with white supremacists." They didn't take kindly to this accusation, but, instead of doing something productive, like denouncing white supremacy, they decided to sue Aylwin for defamation instead.
I assumed Barrie city council would stand behind Aylwin, but unfortunately, I was wrong. Instead, on June 12th they voted unanimously to reprimand Aylwin, and demanded that he remove the "offending" Facebook post. As reported by Fatima Syed in the National Observer, the Integrity Commissioner had introduced a new code of conduct, and Council found Aylwin had run afoul of it "by denigrating a fellow elected official in a public forum and fail[ing] to treat him with "dignity, understanding and respect.”
As Syed's article explained, council had a tough choice to make. If they voted to reprimand their colleague, it sends a message that they are censoring criticism of dog whistle politics, but if they didn't reprimand, they would potentially be disrespecting the role of the integrity commissioner.
While I appreciate this is challenging, it is worrisome that councilors would rather repeat "He broke the code! He broke the code!" than fully consider the important issues of racism, dog whistle politics, and censorship, before making what this writer believes was a blind decision en masse.
Even after having a couple of days to consider it further, the councilors remained unmoved. On June 14th, Global News reported that they decided to uphold the reprimand. In response, Brassard opted to drop his lawsuit, stating that “I am satisfied with the findings made by Council and the Integrity Commissioner." Nuttall also dropped his suit on the same day and it seems the matter is considered closed.
Except, it is anything but. The issues that prompted Aylwin's Facebook post remain, and now there is the added concern of politicians being censored for speaking out about other elected officials. Aylwin reflected on his experience with Syed:
Based on what I found, I have some questions.
As I don't want to get sued, I will say up front that I found no direct posting of Nuttall's that indicates beyond a doubt that he is "playing footsie with white supremacists." What I found were several troubling social media associations and potentially related concerns that should be addressed.
I'll start with the most pressing:
Ahem.
1. If Nuttall is concerned enough about his reputation around the issue of white supremacy to sue for defamation, why on God's green earth is he still following Faith Goldy on Twitter?
It seems like common sense that if you don't want to be accused of playing footsie with white supremacists, don't follow them or their sympathizers on social media.
2. Speaking of following white supremacists, why was he Facebook friends with Kevin J. Johnston, the white supremacist who targeted Barrie's mayor, until at least late May?
It appears that sometime since this Tweet went live on May 23rd, Nuttall unfriended Johnston.
.@JohnBrassardCPC and @AlexNuttallMP are each suing Barrie councillor @KeenanAylwin for $100,000 for a Facebook post criticizing their silence on Andrew Scheer speaking at same event as “neo-Nazi sympathizer Faith Goldy,” and playing footsie with white supremacists. #cdnpoli 1/— Canadian Anti-Hate Network (@antihateca) May 31, 2019
was Facebook friends with Faith Goldy before Goldy was banned from Facebook under its policy against white nationalism, which they recognize is indistinct in its expression from white supremacy. Rather than an explanation or an apology, he's suing a critic. 2/— Canadian Anti-Hate Network (@antihateca) May 31, 2019
@AndrewScheer promised that “there is absolutely no room in . . . Canada for intolerance, racism and extremism of any kind. And the Conservative Party of Canada will always make that absolutely clear.” 3/— Canadian Anti-Hate Network (@antihateca) May 31, 2019
Now it’s time for you, Mr. Scheer, to prove that you mean it. Condemn Faith Goldy and Yellow Vests Canada, apologize for taking so long, and tell your MPs to drop their lawsuits. Otherwise your promise is meaningless. Full post: https://t.co/s5ZmIGvD1H 4/— Canadian Anti-Hate Network (@antihateca) May 31, 2019
I assumed Barrie city council would stand behind Aylwin, but unfortunately, I was wrong. Instead, on June 12th they voted unanimously to reprimand Aylwin, and demanded that he remove the "offending" Facebook post. As reported by Fatima Syed in the National Observer, the Integrity Commissioner had introduced a new code of conduct, and Council found Aylwin had run afoul of it "by denigrating a fellow elected official in a public forum and fail[ing] to treat him with "dignity, understanding and respect.”
As Syed's article explained, council had a tough choice to make. If they voted to reprimand their colleague, it sends a message that they are censoring criticism of dog whistle politics, but if they didn't reprimand, they would potentially be disrespecting the role of the integrity commissioner.
While I appreciate this is challenging, it is worrisome that councilors would rather repeat "He broke the code! He broke the code!" than fully consider the important issues of racism, dog whistle politics, and censorship, before making what this writer believes was a blind decision en masse.
Even after having a couple of days to consider it further, the councilors remained unmoved. On June 14th, Global News reported that they decided to uphold the reprimand. In response, Brassard opted to drop his lawsuit, stating that “I am satisfied with the findings made by Council and the Integrity Commissioner." Nuttall also dropped his suit on the same day and it seems the matter is considered closed.
Except, it is anything but. The issues that prompted Aylwin's Facebook post remain, and now there is the added concern of politicians being censored for speaking out about other elected officials. Aylwin reflected on his experience with Syed:
“I think the problem here is that there are some politicians out there that are walking a very fine line (and some would call it dog whistling), where in one breath they will denounce racism, as they should, and then in another breath will support groups like the Yellow Vest movement or United We Roll that we know are rife with white nationalist elements and hateful elements. And they fail to make the connection between the harmful views and those in those movements and the creation of an environment where violence can fester. If there’s anything we can learn from my experience, it’s that there is a great risk to calling out white supremacy in this country.”The fine line Aylwin mentioned can come in the form of associations, dog whistling, enabling, or blatantly offensive remarks, among other things. Given that Nuttall was indeed Facebook friends with Faith Goldy while she was on that platform, more digging was in order.
Based on what I found, I have some questions.
As I don't want to get sued, I will say up front that I found no direct posting of Nuttall's that indicates beyond a doubt that he is "playing footsie with white supremacists." What I found were several troubling social media associations and potentially related concerns that should be addressed.
I'll start with the most pressing:
Ahem.
1. If Nuttall is concerned enough about his reputation around the issue of white supremacy to sue for defamation, why on God's green earth is he still following Faith Goldy on Twitter?
It seems like common sense that if you don't want to be accused of playing footsie with white supremacists, don't follow them or their sympathizers on social media.
2. Speaking of following white supremacists, why was he Facebook friends with Kevin J. Johnston, the white supremacist who targeted Barrie's mayor, until at least late May?
This is alarming. Nuttall allows a man who was charged with a hate crime on his FB. Brassard was out on Twitter cheering on the Yellow Vest Convoy to Ottawa. The rise of white supremacy being overlooked by elected MPs is something we should all be worried about. @VestsCanada https://t.co/GZ0LXa8s7n pic.twitter.com/A5Bjio6iwO— Aylan Couchie (@AylanX) May 23, 2019
It appears that sometime since this Tweet went live on May 23rd, Nuttall unfriended Johnston.
