'His politics are a threat to Canada': Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre faces public backlash for misogynist "MGTOW" tags in YouTube videos
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre came under fire on Thursday when Global News revealed that the YouTube videos uploaded to his YouTube channel included a tag associated with a misogynist men's rights movement.
"MGTOW," which stands for "Men going their own way," was a tag on YouTube videos on Poilievre's channel going back to 2018. Global News reported finding the tag on 50 of Poilievre's more recent YouTube videos.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called on Poilievre to apologize in the House of Commons Thursday.
"If it were not for Global News, we would not have learned that the Conservative leader has been purposefully using his videos to appeal to far-right, misogynistic online movements," Trudeau said.
"These are anti-women movements and they have had devastating real-life consequences. Mr. Speaker, I call on the Conservative leader to stand in this House, take responsibility and apologize."
Although Poilievre did not apologize, he did address the issue and said that he "condemns" the organization and corrected the problem as soon as it became known to him.
"I condemn all forms of misogyny, including when the prime minister fired the very first female Indigenous attorney general," he said.
Shortly after the news broke, "Incels" started trending on social media.
According to Wikipedia, an Incel is 'a member of an online community of young men who consider themselves unable to attract women sexually, typically associated with views that are hostile toward women and men who are sexually active'.
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) lists the MGTOW acronym in a page on the male supremacy ideology. The SPLC defines MGTOW as men "who present themselves as male separatists and have chosen to remove themselves from the negative influence of women entirely."
Jacob Johanssen, a professor of communications at St Mary's University in London, U.K., said MGTOW is an online community that can be defined "male supremacist or isolationist."
Politicians, public react to the news
This is super disturbing - whether this was Poilievre or the people he surrounds himself with.
He wants to be Prime Minister while appealing to misogynistic online movements that Canada’s intelligence agencies view as a danger. That is a disqualifier. https://t.co/hoTtDFsDMo— Catherine McKenna (@cathmckenna) October 6, 2022
So Poilievre is courting misogynists and incels. It’s no surprise we find extremists backing him.
He’s part of the problem and his politics are a threat to Canada. https://t.co/ibE9ebIpB5— David Moscrop (@David_Moscrop) October 6, 2022
Me on Incels from 2018, “entitlement to women’s bodies—not loneliness or even simple desperation for sex— is what’s at the core of the incel ‘movement.’” That’s an entitlement that, Poilievre endorsed and recommended, Jordan Peterson seems sympathetic to. https://t.co/VlfZDSCXxk
— Tabatha Southey 🇺🇦 (@TabathaSouthey) October 6, 2022
maybe we should be concerned that the leader of the opposition put out videos blatantly trying to court incels?
— Supriya Dwivedi (@supriyadwivedi) October 6, 2022
Tagging all your videos with #mgtow to appeal to the Worst Incels is objectively the most awful part of this, but tagging every video with "Ben Shapiro" is definitely the most embarrassing. https://t.co/NAOGQr48sK
— Tabatha Southey 🇺🇦 (@TabathaSouthey) October 6, 2022
What a horrible thing to do! Embedding misogynistic tags to appeal to incels and people promoting violence against women is disgusting behaviour. This man (and his team) should never be in charge of running this country.https://t.co/lOKvnvJ1l1
— Heather McPherson (@HMcPhersonMP) October 6, 2022
So, Pierre Poilievre is into incels, bitcoin and memes.
Dude’s basically a fourteen year-old living in his mom’s basement. Someone get him Minecraft.— Carl Boucher (@CarlBoucherKnee) October 6, 2022
Pierre Poilievre: Obviously, I would never seek support from incels
Also Pierre Poilievre: pic.twitter.com/LSba0HeZ9u— Wilfrid Laurier (@PMLaurier) October 6, 2022
Pierre Poilievre, king of the incels and the worst men. https://t.co/JsIKbY56bz
— Max Fawcett 🇨🇦 (@maxfawcett) October 6, 2022
Don’t think it’s bold to say - politicians should not openly court incels. https://t.co/4hbxJ2fePl
— Asher Roth (@TheAsherRoth) October 6, 2022
There is no way on God’s green Earth Poilievre and his team “didn’t know” they were microtargeting a well known misogynist movement. As I’ve said many times, it’s their fundraising strategy. It’s 🤮. https://t.co/jLo83UlWJ7
— Gerald Butts (@gmbutts) October 6, 2022
Nation shocked that Poilievre would bother hiding connection to misogynists
https://t.co/1LLxrpBhn0 pic.twitter.com/mpHahJ9DV0— The Beaverton (@TheBeaverton) October 6, 2022
The tag is very niche and specific, not well known outside of the incel community itself and researchers. Mr. Poilievre and the CPC need to take a hard look at who is on their team and thought this was a good idea. https://t.co/qPBGvzqUW6
— Stephanie Carvin (@StephanieCarvin) October 6, 2022
This is pretty damning on his office and how it was operating. It's bad enough trying to spin you were only supporting the supposed good people holding downtown Ottawa hostage, but this is an explicit and specific attempt to reach a hate movement.https://t.co/S36d0W8Jcp
— Will Murray (@MurraWil) October 6, 2022
Is anyone really surprised?https://t.co/IVUntIJYfb
— Mark Gerretsen 🇨🇦 🇺🇦 (@MarkGerretsen) October 6, 2022
This: #mgtow, is an acronym for “Men Going Their Own Way." Conservatives are pretending they didn't know after using it on their YouTube Channel. Come on?https://t.co/8VSknJ52hr https://t.co/YA4HJKAzSi
— de Adder Canada (@deAdderCanada) October 6, 2022
Will you apologize for courting incels? https://t.co/h8kALMlcUj
— David Moscrop (@David_Moscrop) October 7, 2022
