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Erin O'Toolecpac / LifeSiteNews

January 14, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) – A popular Canadian columnist blasted Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) leader and Member of Parliament (MP) Erin O’Toole for his apparent silence regarding the recent Big Tech purge of conservative voices that picked up steam after Twitter banned U.S. President Donald Trump from its platform last week. 

“Just where is the Leader of Her Majesty’s Opposition? I might even expand the question to nearly the whole of the Conservative party,” wrote Rex Murphy, a well-known Canadian commentator and author who writes for the National Post.

Murphy’s opinion piece titled “Canada is in crisis. Erin O'Toole, where are you?” was published yesterday. 

It touches heavily on O’Toole’s apparent silence regarding Big Tech’s censorship of conservative voices, which saw social media giants Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube all ban Trump’s accounts, in the aftermath of the January 6 U.S. Capitol protests. 

The social media giants all alleged that Trump’s words helped flame the violence that took place, despite the fact Trump told protesters at Capitol Hill to go home “in peace.” 

Murphy spoke about the “recent events down south, in the wake of the attack on the Capitol” calling it the “most extravagant example” of “cancel culture” that has been seen in recent times. 

“Normally that’s the term to describe a Twitter gang-up on some person or news outlet that ‘offends’ the prize sensibilities of woke puritanism, the storm of snarl and condemnation that falls on the unhappy head that violates the new politically correct scriptures,” wrote Murphy.

Murphy went on to note that in his view, the “larger” version of “cancel culture,” that being whereby large corporations “with an oligarchic power over the flow of information and communication in general,” all seemingly in concert “decide in concert to shut down a president.”

“The same companies that then go on a full spree of overt and covert cancellation of all sorts of accounts and users, purging individuals and groups from their ranks,” wrote Murphy. 

“The tech oligarchs — rich beyond dreams, powerful beyond measure, accountable to nothing but their own untrammelled whims — decide who may ride the information superhighway and who may not.” 

Shortly after banning Trump, prominent conservative voices on Twitter and other platforms were also banned, in what was and continues to be a large purge of conservative voices by Big Tech. 

Apple and Google banned the alternative social media platform Parler from their app stores, with Amazon dealing a large blow to the free speech Twitter alternative by banning them from their servers, which meant the site went offline. 

Trump’s social media ban was not celebrated by all world leaders, however. Mexico’s president spoke out against Trump’s ban as did German Chancellor Angela Merkel

On January 6, O’Toole took to Twitter to condemn the “storming of the Capitol.” 

“The storming of the Capitol Building is an astonishing assault on freedom and democracy. I am deeply saddened to see chaos grip our greatest ally today,” wrote O’Toole

However, regarding the recent Big Tech censorship of Trump and other conservative voices, O’Toole has been silent, which Murphy blasted in his opinion piece.  

“This is not, emphatically, an American issue. It would be nice to hear from Mr. O’Toole, in the strongest voice he can bring to bear as Opposition leader, what he and his party feel about this — in my view — grand and frightening overreach,” wrote Murphy.

“During his run for the leadership of the Conservative party he was fairly intense on the whole notion of cancel culture, quite declarative of his opposition to it. It’s fair then to ask, when we have an example of cancel culture leaping up the scale to what amounts to high censorship, exercised by simply fiat by a quartet of tycoons, why is he not out front condemning it … Or proclaiming, Google forbid, he’s for it.”

In early 2020, O’Toole did pledge to fight Canadian “cancel culture,” as part of his leadership drive for the CPC. 

In his opinion piece, Murphy put forth a question to O’Toole, directly asking him what his thoughts are regarding Big Tech wielding such enormous “power.” 

“Mr. O’Toole, here’s the question. What do you think of Apple and Google and Twitter and Amazon exercising such power? They operate in Canada, too, you know. On the whole broad phenomenon of cancel culture, large and small, are you as intensely opposed to it now, as when running for the position you now hold,” opined Murphy. 

Murphy also called out O’Toole for being “quiescent” regarding Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government’s handling of the COVID-19 crisis in Canada. 

“We have a government in Ottawa shovelling money by the hundreds of billions of dollars out the door, the national debt morbidly swollen, Parliament a caricature of itself, and a minority (Trudeau) government waltzing about as if it had the most secure majority in the entire history of the Confederation,” wrote Murphy. 

“But our opposition party, the constitutional instrument of challenge and debate, is off the field. The Leader of the Opposition is quiescent.”

In conclusion, Murphy opined that he cannot recall “a time in which the opposing party in Parliament has been so limp and feeble,” noting that he is not so worried about the damage to the CPC itself but to “the proper exercise of our democracy.”

Contact information for respectful communication:

MP Erin O’Toole – Leader of the Conservative Party of Canada – Leader of the Opposition
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario,
Canada
K1A 0A6

Email: [email protected]
Telephone: 613-992-2792
Fax: 613-992-2794