Death threats. Racist taunts. Vows of violence. Inside the increasingly personal attacks targeting Canadian female journalists, some are so violent they are not fit for publication, say advocates.
The harassment — which also targets the male journalists, by the wayside, some of their editors and even their families — is not new. But the scale of the attacks intensified in the last few months as Canadian journalists, who are also white and female, were left with few options amid the political crisis in the country.
In late January, a group of masked men wearing balaclavas and masks attacked a female journalist for writing a Facebook post critical of the government’s refugee intake.
That attacker was never found.
In April, a journalist reported being followed and accosted on the street after interviewing a woman about her experience getting refugee status.
The attacks are not just targeted individuals, either. Women in the industry are seeing a rise in online threats and other harassment.
The latest incident happened to a female journalist after she posted a comment on Facebook that was critical of how Immigration Minister Andrew Scheer was dealing with a surge in refugee status applications.
And it wasn’t just women, there were also threats against two male reporters, Andrew Scheer and Andrew Merola, as well as two male editors of the Globe and Mail, who have both responded to the harassment with their own responses.
“We are all scared. The attacks are relentless,” one female reporter told The Epoch Times in an email.
“This is a new low, but I am hoping that a few people will listen and take action,” she said.
It’s not only women that are going through what she’s going through, she said.
“I’ve been told about threats to my life in the past five months,” the reporter said.
She added she’s been targeted for speaking out about the refugee