In my effort to track down who is behind the Twitter account advocating for the death of PM Stephen Harper and calling for the Fraser Institute to be burned down (see here), I took a look at the list of ‘followers’ hoping they might shed a little light.
Running through these Twitter accounts, I found two former MP candidates and one Sun columnist.
- Stephen Lautens Calgary Sun columnist
- Marc Laferriere NDP candidate Brant riding Ontario
- Bryan May Liberal candidate Cambridge riding Ontario
I wondered why they would follow such an obvious nutbar as “following” someone on Twitter means their Tweets show up on your regular feed.
I messaged the two candidates:
Also see Lib cand @BryanMay17 and NDP cand @MarcLaferriere follow this nutbar @HockeyOpera who calls for Harper’s death
And Lautens this:
@stephenlautens Curious why you are following this nutbar @HockeyOpera who is calling for Harper’s death etc?
The replies I got back surprised me:
Lauten – “@bcbluecon I have some books you probably don’t like in my library – like to come over and burn them?”
Laferriere – “@bcbluecon i’m following you now too. Many a “nutbar” on twitter but as a clinical therapist I prefer not to use that kindof ableist lang”
May – “@bcbluecon just getting caught up on this ridiculous string of tweets…. I follow those who follow me….”
There was many more Tweets exchanged so feel free to check them out but notice how none of them condemned this person but instead turned on me for pointing it out?
Their basic ‘defence’ is that they have no obligations in the world of social media and their “following” someone on Twitter in no way reflects upon themselves. Not in my books – I would never follow someone calling for criminal activity or the death of a politician. To do otherwise makes you complicit.
There as a massive amounts of despicable Tweets from this person to choose from but none roused these 3 public figures to object. Only Laferriere did but it was after I pressured him and it was conditional.
Scary to think where the line is for them isn’t it? Who wouldn’t they follow?
