The Right Hon. Mary Simon spoke at MacEwan on digital responsibility, increasing polarizations, and solutions for abuses Canadians face online
As part of her first official visit to the province as Governor-General, the Right Hon. Mary Simon made a stop at MacEwan for a chat and panel discussion on issues around online harms.
One of Simon’s priorities as the crown’s representative to Canada has been raising awareness of harm on digital platforms and social media, especially regarding targeted abuse and harassment online.
In February 2023, her office disabled the comment sections for all of its official social media due to increasing “abusive, misogynistic and racist engagement.” Since then, Simon, who is Inuit and the first Indigenous Governor-General to Canada, has toured the provinces while speaking on the issue at large.
“It just got worse and worse,” Simon said in front of an audience of MacEwan students, faculty, and local high school students.
“We decided as a group in the office to do something, and the only way to make a statement was to go public about it. I didn’t want to walk away from it.”
Simon went on to mention how she’s seen it affect other women who hold public office.
In 2021, Catherine McKenna, who also received harassment and threats for years as the federal government’s infrastructure minister, stepped down from office.
“These conditions are not improving,” Phillips added.
Part of Simon’s strategies to help is to get Canadians to collaborate and find solutions and also create “networks of resilience” for those who are struggling with online abuse and harassment.
The former is something MacEwan’s vice-president (Indigenous initiatives and engagement), Terri Cardinal, said helped her in her role at the university.
“That first year was really difficult for me. It was difficult in that I was engaging more publicly. I was doing a lot of work and research in residential schools,” Cardinal said during the panel discussion.
“Anytime that there was a new article or something that came out in the public, I would get emails, letters…”
Going to elders, sharing experiences and finding support helped Cardinal.
Eventually, she stopped going to the comment sections and started making podcasts and “trying to contrast the negativity with sharing our beautifulness with others,” Cardinal told the audience.
Photos by David Slater
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