{"id":14901,"date":"2025-01-30T17:10:06","date_gmt":"2025-01-30T17:10:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/torontotribune.ca\/index.php\/2025\/01\/30\/fredericton-mp-jenica-atwin-says-online-hate-helped-push-her-out-of-federal-politics\/"},"modified":"2025-01-30T17:10:06","modified_gmt":"2025-01-30T17:10:06","slug":"fredericton-mp-jenica-atwin-says-online-hate-helped-push-her-out-of-federal-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/torontotribune.ca\/index.php\/2025\/01\/30\/fredericton-mp-jenica-atwin-says-online-hate-helped-push-her-out-of-federal-politics\/","title":{"rendered":"Fredericton MP Jenica Atwin says online hate helped push her out of federal politics"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Jenica Atwin is leaving federal politics for the \u201ctime being\u201d in part because of the online hate she receives, saying the level of toxicity she\u2019s had to face has been surprising.<\/p>\n

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The Fredericton member of Parliament was first elected in 2019 with the Green Party before crossing the aisle to join the Liberals in 2021. It was around the time she joined the party of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that she decided to close her X account \u201cbecause it was actually harming my mental health.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cJust the constant barrage, the vitriol, the threats, and I think women, in particular my female colleagues, we\u2019ve got it on a different level than a lot of our male colleagues,\u201d she said in a recent interview.<\/p>\n

She knew that going into politics would make her a target of negative online comments, but the amount of vitriol she received took her by surprise. The hate-filled messages on social media and in emails increased in 2022, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when thousands of truckers and other people occupied Parliament Hill during the convoy protests against vaccine mandates and other restrictions imposed by government.<\/p>\n

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During the protests, Atwin\u2019s office regularly received \u201chate calls\u201d from people in Canada and the United States. She said that \u201cany time\u201d she would speak in the House of Commons, \u201cit would follow with a flood of these hateful messages and voice mails being left or things my team had to sift through, sometimes, again, actual threats that we had to follow up on with police.\u201d<\/p>\n

The hate she received included bomb threats, threats of sexual violence, and other verbal abuse. \u201cIt\u2019s very bizarre stuff that people are feeling somehow emboldened enough to type and send.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Such constant hate and insults \u201cchip away\u201d at people\u2019s resiliency and take a toll on mental health, she said, adding that her parents, siblings and husband would get upset seeing vitriol about her online.<\/p>\n

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But it isn\u2019t just her and other female colleagues who face such toxicity. She said she also worries about the effect the hate has had on the prime minister and his family. \u201cMy goodness, the prime minister \u2014 he bore the brunt of it all,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI worry for his children. Anyone associated with him. He\u2019s made the comment to us before, those \u201cF\u2014 Trudeau\u201d flags \u2014 Trudeau, that\u2019s the name of his children, too. His kids have really picked up on that.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Quebec, following a wave of resignations of elected officials, the provincial government introduced legislation last year that includes fines up to $1,500 for people who threaten or intimidate politicians.<\/p>\n

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