Unifor calls out Bernier’s harassment campaign against journalists

Unifor’s Media Council strongly condemns the actions of PPC leader Maxime Bernier for Tweeting reporters’ email addresses and encouraging his followers to “play dirty” with them, which resulted in threats and harassing emails.

“Bernier clearly launched a harassment campaign targeting these reporters, who were simply doing their jobs,” said Jennifer Moreau, chair of Unifor’s Media Council.

On Sept. 22, Bernier called three reporters “idiots” on Twitter and shared their work emails, encouraging his followers to “play dirty” and contact them. This resulted in a flood of harassing emails, and one of the reporters received death threats and rape threats and suggestions she kill herself.

Unifor President Jerry Dias called out Bernier on Twitter, stating “Absolutely unacceptable. Unifor stands with all#journalists. We condemn this horrible Trump-style move by @MaximeBernier. He & his followers need to understand that #JournalismIsNotACrime. It is at the heart of our democracy.”

Media workers face harassment online and in the field constantly.

“This kind of vile behaviour has no place in the public sphere,” Moreau added.

Twitter removed three of Bernier’s Tweets and froze his account for 12 hours for violating Twitter’s “private information policy”.