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in si de ha lto n. co m O ak vi lle B ea ve r | T hu rs da y, F eb ru ar y 22 , 2 01 8 | Burlington MP attacked online after announcing pregnancy 10 NEWS 0 Pam Damoff 1*1 ©© P a m D am off I was a young Parliament Hill staffer when I met Pierre Trudeau in early 1980's. Now I'm an MP working with ©JustirtTrudeau #kindacool Twitter sc reenshots This pinned tweet from Dec. 27, 2016 from Oakville North-Burlington MP Pam Dam off s Twitter page was the subject of a derogatory message posted by a social media user @WayneNikitiuk on Feb. 6, 2018. © Pam Damoff M O -© P a m D am off Having Opinions are my Own to your profile doesn't make opinions like this ok ©WayneNikitiuk and deleting them doesn't make them go away. We can't un-see them. You and ©RaymondJamesCDN saw the letter from my son. Maybe next time show decency and civility in your opinions. So you're a public parasite living off the productive private sector for your ENTIRE life!? I'd be f@cking embarrassed • Continued from page 1 Damoff, of why she decided to respond. "Social media creates keyboard warriors, who type things they would nev­ er say to your face. Sadly, when I put out comments on gender equality, it often pulls in the trolls who post negative comments." After receiving backlash on Twitter to his tweet, Nik- itiuk - a Vancouver, B.C. resident and portfolio man­ ager at Raymond James - Wayne Nikitiuk Financial Group - removed his post; but not before other social media users had taken screenshots of it. The next day, Feb. 7, Da­ moff responded on Twitter, posting: "Having 'Opinions are my Own' to your profile doesn't make opinions like this OK @WayneNikitiuk and deleting them doesn't make them go away. We can't unsee them.. Maybe next time show decency and civility in your opinions." Damoffs son, Fraser, al­ so sent Nikitiuk and his company an email express­ ing his distaste of the tweet. "I figured that if someone had said this to my mom in person, I would step in and confront them and this op­ portunity allowed me to do the same, only virtually," he said. "We'll never have more diversity in politics if we normalize this virtual abuse on our elected offi­ cials." Twitter user apologiz­ es to Damoff after taking down tweet Damoff eventually re­ ceived an emailed apology from Nikitiuk on Feb. 7 - who also told the Beaver by email he "deeply regretted" his actions. "It was a thoughtless tweet - disrespectful and wrong in every sense," he wrote to Damoff in his email. "You are correct of course that no matter one's differing political views, it is important to maintain a level of decency and civility both online and off," he con­ tinued. "As you also pointed out, you have had a long and successful career in both the private and public sec­ tors, and it is very clear that you've made a hugely posi­ tive impact in your commu­ nity and with your constitu­ ents and many supporters in your community." Damoff admitted this wasn't the first time she re­ ceived an offensive tweet - in fact, the frequency has increased since she's en­ tered federal politics, she said. "But they were always there," she noted. "I have re­ ported tweets to Twitter Canada and had them re­ moved.. I am happy that he (Nikitiuk) apologized, but still disappointed that he would post something like that in the first place. I did accept his apology." Damoff said it was im­ portant for women to stand up to bullying and call it out, as it shouldn't be some­ thing they should have to accept. "I accept that people will disagree on policy matters, in fact, it is important that we have those conversa­ tions," she explained. "But don't make negative per­ sonal comments on social media. And if anyone is the recipient of those com­ ments, they should report it and call it out." She noted she felt female politicians are subjected to bullying, especially online, more than their male coun­ terparts - going as far to say it was quite commonplace for women in politics. Burlington MP Karina Gould said she too has been harassed online, particular­ ly after she announced her pregnancy when one per­ son told her she was "a trai­ tor to the country." "Online commentators have suggested I abort my baby. Others have wished some pretty awful things on my unborn child and fami­ ly," she said. "It's not the norm, but I have experienced occasions where constituents will try to diminish my intelligence, or will make very insulting statements online, via email and when they call my office. Sometimes they are aggressive.. Bullies act when they feel threatened, so I try not to let their com­ ments and actions get to me." The Beaver reached out to Hatton's mayors to see if they felt their female coun­ cillors were bullied and ha­ rassed more than their male colleagues - Rob Bur­ ton (Oakville) and Gord Krantz (Milton) said nei­ ther of them have seen their councillors bullied, while Rick Goldring (Burlington) said he was "unable to quantify the actual occur­ rences or speak to the per­ sonal feelings or reactions by individual councillors." In Damoffs incident, her colleague Liberal MP for Central Nova Scotia Sean Fraser took to Twitter, to support her, posting: "As a man working in politics, I simply don't deal with the same kind of unwarranted hatred my female col­ leagues put up with daily. @PamDamoff you are a top notch MP - glad you're call­ ing out the trolls!" Damoff also received on­ line support from several Twitter users, including Burlington MPP Eleanor McMahon and Halton Re­ gional police Chief Steve Tanner. McMahon said she con­ tacted Damoff after the inci­ dent and told her how much she admired her for how she handled it, calling it an exercise in class and diplo­ macy. "If we don't call these in­ stances out and don't call on people to be better in the ele­ gant way that MP Damoff did. then what does that say?" she said. "I sometimes walk away from those encounters where someone has said to me something that I found egregious and I think to my­ self, if I was a man, would that have happened... would you have said that to me? And if the answer is no. that's when it's troubling." Online bullying, ha­ rassment of female politi- • See BORDERING, page 20 O AKVI LL E Switching Gears -- Transportation Master Plan (TMP) Review Goes to Council Monday, February 26, 2018 - 7 p.m. Town Hall, Council Chambers 1225 Trafalgar Road The draft report, including staff recommendations for the TMP Review will be presented to Council on Monday, February 26, 2018. The draft report is currently available for review on the town's website. Online feedback and more details Visit oakville.ca. You can follow the town on Facebook and Twitter. Questions Email the project team at tmp@oakville.ca or call one of the project leads: Jill Stephen, Project Manager Town of Oakville, 905-845-6601, ext. 3308 Neil Ahmed, Senior Project Manager WSP, 905-823-8500 oakville.ca Accessibility If you have any accessibility needs, please let us know before February 21 by contacting Jill Stephen at 905-845-6601, ext. 3308, (TTY 905-338-4200), email jill.stephen@oakville.ca or fill out the accessible online feedback form at oakville.ca. s w i t c h i n g g e a r s mailto:tmp@oakville.ca mailto:jill.stephen@oakville.ca Burlington MP attacked online after announcing pregnancy