The Ontario New Democratic Party (NDP) are not only leading in the latest election polls but in the midst of doing social media damage control just two weeks away from a provincial election after numerous social media posts from candidates were brought into question.
As the National Post reports, on Friday afternoon the Ontario Conservatives hosted a news conference to expose a 2013 Facebook post from Toronto-area NDP candidate Tasleem Riaz that featured a picture of Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler with an alleged quotation beneath it: “If you don’t like a rule…just follow it…reach on top…and change the rule.”
The Jewish human rights group B’nai Brith was at the news conference:
At a news conference attended by B’nai Brith Canada this morning, @GilaMartow and @ToddSmithPC stated that a candidate for the @OntarioNDP has been “caught praising Adolf Hitler online.” #onpoli pic.twitter.com/wlvBrdiMNK
— B’nai Brith Canada (@bnaibrithcanada) May 25, 2018
In a statement reported by CBC News, Riaz claimed she had no idea how the post came to be on her Facebook page and she is “horrified” to discover the “inappropriate meme…I don’t recall sharing it in 2013 — and at no point in my life would I have done so intentionally,” she said.
As the Post notes, another Toronto-area NDP candidate was apparently a 9/11 “truther” who believes the U.S. government was behind the terrorist attacks. Riaz Dwayne Morgan has taken down his conspiracy tweets, one which read, “Now if they could do something about Bush’s role in 9/11, people could finally get closure.”
There is no Second Amendment in Canada nor any constitutional guarantee to bear arms, but NDP candidate Erica Kelly wants to eliminate any debate on the issue and blow away “these gun nuts.”
“I know this is horrible to say… but I would not be sad to see these gun nuts threatening civil war have their asses blown to f–k with a drone,” she had posted in a Facebook comment found by the Toronto Sun. “I know that’s horrible to say, but if they don’t care about kids lives being lost with the way things are there now…. I don’t really care about them either.”
Then there’s the NDP’s nominee in Mississauga Center, Laura Kaminker, who says wearing a poppy on Remembrance Day (Veteran’s Day in the U.S.) is “war glorification.”
“I just wear my peace button on my jacket as always and wait for the collective brainwashing to blow over,” the Toronto Sun cites her post. “When our masters give the signal, everyone can take off the fake poppy — made with prison labour — and create a bit more landfill. And another annual ritual of war glorification comes to a close.”
As the Toronto Star reported, NDP leader Andrea Horwath said she was fine with her candidate expressing that opinion.
“Those are certainly not values I share, but freedom of speech is a principle that we all, I think, value,” Horwath said.