Poilievre faces calls to apologize, explain misogynist YouTube tags
CBC
YouTube videos uploaded to Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre's YouTube channel included a tag associated with a misogynist men's rights movement — and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is calling on him to apologize.
"MGTOW," which stands for "Men going their own way," was a tag on YouTube videos on Poilievre's channel going back to 2018. Global News first reported the story and reported finding the tag on 50 of Poilievre's most recent YouTube videos.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called on Poilievre to apologize in the House of Commons Thursday.
"If it were not for Global News, we would not have learned that the Conservative leader has been purposefully using his videos to appeal to far-right, misogynistic online movements," Trudeau said in the House of Commons.
"These are anti-women movements and they have had devastating real-life consequences. Mr. Speaker, I call on the Conservative leader to stand in this House, take responsibility and apologize."
Poilievre did not apologize. He said he has addressed the issue.
"I condemned this organization and I corrected the problem as soon as it became known to me, Mr. Speaker," Poilievre said.
"I condemn all forms of misogyny."
Global reported that the tags were deleted soon after it inquired about them. CBC News was able to confirm the existence of the tags using the Internet's Wayback Machine.
A YouTube help page says tags are "descriptive keywords you can add to your video to help viewers find your content."
Poilievre's office has not responded to questions from CBC News about who added the tag to the videos and why.
Poilievre responded to a question from Liberal MP Mark Gerretsen about the tags in the House of Commons Thursday morning.
"Of course we on this side reject all misogyny and all acts of extremism, and that is how we will always conduct ourselves over here," Poilievre said.
The Southern Poverty Law Centre (SPLC) lists the MGTOW acronym in a page on the male supremacy ideology. The SPLC defines MGTOW as men "who present themselves as male separatists and have chosen to remove themselves from the negative influence of women entirely."
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