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EDITORIAL: Anti-women YouTube tag needs explanation

Conservative Party of Canada Leader Pierre Poilievre speaks during Question Period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Sept. 22, 2022.
Conservative Party of Canada Leader Pierre Poilievre speaks during Question Period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Sept. 22, 2022. Photo by BLAIR GABLE /REUTERS

If Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre is as repulsed by misogyny as he says, he needs to investigate who embedded an anti-female tag in his official YouTube videos going back to 2018.

Not just dismiss it by saying it’s impossible to figure out who did it on the same day Global News broke the story of the hidden tag #mgtow, short for “Men Going Their Own Way.”

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YouTube tags, unlike those on Twitter, are not visible to the reader, but are a way for people — in this case men with anti-female views — to connect with each other.

When Prime Minister Justin Trudeau demanded Poilievre apologize for “purposefully using his videos to appeal to far-right, misogynistic online movements” that have had, “devastating real-life consequences for women” Poilievre went on the offensive.

He said he removed the tag as soon as he learned of it, that he condemns the organization it referred to and he denounces all forms of misogyny.

That included, Poilievre said, Trudeau firing Canada’s first Indigenous attorney general, Jody Wilson-Raybould, during the SNC-Lavalin scandal, disrespecting minority women in his caucus who decided to leave politics and dressing in Blackface so many times, he can’t remember how many.

While those are good lines in the Parliamentary debating club, it doesn’t explain how the YouTube tag went undetected for four years.

The Conservatives say no one working for Poilievre today inserted the tag, but if they know that, why is it impossible to figure out who did in 2018?

Did that individual think it would be to Polievre’s political advantage to attract votes from men who don’t like women?

Did anyone authorize the use of the #mgtow in advance?

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Declaring there’s no way to determine who was responsible on the same day the tag was discovered, isn’t an adequate response.

Poilievre would never have accepted such an answer from Trudeau if their roles had been reversed.

This isn’t the first time Poilievre has been accused of anti-women views by the Liberals and it won’t be the last.

That’s why he has to be ready to defend himself, in this case by making a serious effort to find out who put the #mgtow tag on his YouTube feed and why.