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Yesterday @MackLamoureux published an article on Vice concerning the efforts of Peter Downing to first separate the province of Alberta from Canada and then become an American state. 1/18 #ableg #abpoli #Wexit #Cdnmedia #CanadianMedia #cdnpoli https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/935gm3/separatist-leader-now-wants-alberta-to-join-the-us
The article notes that Downing himself has an unseemly history. I wrote about some of this when I operated the ARC blog as have @VestsCanada since then.
Here are some of those articles. 2/18
https://tinyurl.com/y3oaksah
https://tinyurl.com/y2mv78ll
https://tinyurl.com/y2ggf8nw
Here are some of those articles. 2/18
https://tinyurl.com/y3oaksah
https://tinyurl.com/y2mv78ll
https://tinyurl.com/y2ggf8nw
More. 3/18
https://tinyurl.com/y5xef9s9 (this one is especially interesting)
https://tinyurl.com/y3elatcn
https://tinyurl.com/yxttbudw
https://tinyurl.com/y5xef9s9 (this one is especially interesting)
https://tinyurl.com/y3elatcn
https://tinyurl.com/yxttbudw
I think it is important to understand how toxic this particular movement is and the kind of independent country or American state a large percentage of the active supporters seem to envision. 4/18
To demonstrate this point, I want to discuss the reaction of most WEXIT supporters who commented on this story. 5/18 https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/alberta-salma-lakhani-lieutenant-governor-muslim-1.5633053
I don't want to get into whether Canada should or should not continue to maintain a connection to the Crown, though that is absolutely a legitimate discussion. I want to look at how WEXIT supporters who commented on this story responded to Lakhani's appointment specifically. 6/18
Earning an honours degree in clinical biochemistry from the University of Manchester, Salma Lakhani has lived in Edmonton 40 years. She ran an early child education centre and has been honoured for her community and charitable work focused on human rights and health. 7/18
Lakhani is an accomplished Canadian. She is also a Muslim Canadian who immigrated from Uganda.
THAT is what most of the WEXIT supporters who commented on the announcement were focused on. 8/18
THAT is what most of the WEXIT supporters who commented on the announcement were focused on. 8/18
When I got these screen shots on June 30 there were 559 comments. Not all were xenophobic in nature; some commentators called out the racism, but those were a distinct minority. Most of of the comments were virulently racist, xenophobic, Islamophobic, and misogynistic. 9/18
I'll post a representative sample, however I do need to warn readers that there are threats of sexual and physical violence included. If you are uncomfortable (and to be fair everyone SHOULD be uncomfortable) seeing these kinds of comments skip to the end. 10/18
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Again, while not all the comments were of this nature, they do represent at least 95% of the comments that were left.
This serves as an example of the kind of Alberta the most enthusiastic WEXIT supporters envision.
It is an ugly, ugly, vision. 18/18
This serves as an example of the kind of Alberta the most enthusiastic WEXIT supporters envision.
It is an ugly, ugly, vision. 18/18
