Hate messages: Liberal MNA calls for a united front from the leaders

A Liberal MNA has been bombarded with hate messages following her speech on Tuesday to mark the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia at the National Assembly.

Shaken, MNA for Westmount-Saint-Louis, Jennifer Maccarone, broke her silence for the first time on Friday from the malicious outrage that her publications evoked for several years.

She expressed the hope that the party leaders would issue a joint statement, including Premier Legault and the opposition leaders, to call for inclusion and respect than just tolerance.

“I get so much hate every time I publish something that I do it backwards, I wonder if I’m going to do it because I don’t know if I can,” she told in an interview with The Canadian Press.

“It doesn’t just affect me, it affects my family, my children, my colleagues, there’s a ripple effect. It’s not just one person who is attacked, it’s everyone around you who is also affected,” she continued before her voice broke into sobs.

The video of Liberal MNA Maccarone’s speech on Tuesday prompted a disturbing number of aggressive and inappropriate messages.

Her speech in the National Assembly was posted on social media, and since then, Internet users have been calling her ‘trash’, ‘crazy’ and ‘an old crone,’ according to screenshots found by The Canadian Press.

There are also all sorts of comments: ‘she makes me puke’; ‘why do you want to normalize homosexuality?’; ‘LGBT people went too far, they’re paying the price’; ‘why should the majority have to bow to the madness of a minority?’; ‘stop trying to make everyone love and accept you’, etc.

The Liberal MNA sees this as reason to continue raising awareness and encouraging dialogue.

“I’m deeply saddened,” she said, “because we want society to evolve, but on the other hand, it confirms the need for this type of discourse” against homophobia and transphobia.

A Liberal Party spokesperson says that at least a hundred hateful comments have been removed on both Facebook and Instagram.

Messages accused Maccarone of being a trans woman, and even attacked her two autistic children.

“Should I forward the comments to the Sûreté du Québec (for investigation)?” asks the MNA. “There are limits.”

Incidentally, Maccarone’s speech denounced the hateful comments made by high school students against the LGBTQ+ community.

“Let’s work collectively, as members of the National Assembly, to building a Quebec where justice does not depend on who you love, nor your gender nor your courage to be yourself,” she concluded.

This is not the first time that elected representatives have denounced aggressions directed at them.

In Nov. 2019, as part of the international cyberbullying awareness campaign ’12 Days of Action to End Violence Against Women,’ Québec solidaire (QS) MNA Christine Labrie read out loud in the National Assembly the insults she and her colleagues on the QS bench received.

During the pandemic, many people took their anger out against health measures by insulting the premier, elected government officials, and members of the opposition on social media.