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.
PETITION UPDATE (2/23/21) -
LifeSite has signed on to a Media Research Center (MRC) letter to all 50 state Attorneys General, calling for an investigation into Big Tech.
Google, Facebook, and Twitter have monopolized the industry, and are using their influence to collect user data, suppress content, and silence those who voice ideas and beliefs counter to their own.
As we urged prior, action must be taken to combat these efforts, and that is why we’ve joined the MRC in this fight.
Please take a couple of minutes to READ this LifeSiteNews article about MRC's initiative: https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/lifesite-joins-effort-asking-state-attorneys-general-to-investigate-big-tech-for-deceptive-trade-practices
Then, please SIGN and STOP using Twitter, Facebook, Google (YouTube) and Amazon to take back your privacy and freedom of speech!
________________________________________________________
PETITION UPDATE (2/9/21) -
YouTube just completely removed the LifeSiteNews YouTube channel. This isn’t a ban, every single one of our videos is completely gone. Being completely removed from YouTube means we’ve lost access to 300,000+ followers.
This is the latest and appalling affront to free speech which is happening to many conservative and Christian organizations.
Please SIGN this petition and STOP using YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Google (owner of YouTube) and Amazon to take back your privacy and freedom of speech!
We are not going to take this lying down!
Thankfully, we have backups of all our videos:
You can watch our current videos on Rumble, here: https://rumble.com/user/LifeSiteNews
Or on our LifeSiteNews Catholic Rumble channel, here: https://rumble.com/user/LifeSiteNewsCatholic
You can also sign-up to receive email alerts about our recent videos here: https://bit.ly/LifeSiteVideoSub
Please help us build Rumble and our other alternative platforms by donating through our secure link: https://give.lifesitenews.com/
After you SIGN this petition, please also see our 'Goodbye Google' resources to find out how to quit Big Tech and learn more about good alternatives!
____________________________________________________________________________
PETITION UPDATE (1/26/20) -
Twitter has again locked LifeSiteNews out of two of our accounts on the platform for displaying a message noting that President Joe Biden’s newly named Assistant Secretary of Health “Rachel” Levine is a man.
Both accounts displayed a simple message which read: “Biden names transgender ‘woman’ as Assistant Secretary of Health. ‘Rachel’ Levine is a father of two who divorced his wife in 2013 after 30 years of marriage.” The tweets also included a link to LifeSite’s article Biden names transgender ‘woman’ as Assistant Secretary of Health, and contained part of the opening sentence of that article, “Joe Biden has announced his intention to appoint a gender-confused man” as Assistant Secretary of Health.
For stating biological or Biblical truths, Twitter and Big Tech are trying to shut down conservative voices.
Therefore, it is now more important than ever to consider dumping Twitter, Google (who own YouTube) and Facebook. To be clear: LifeSite is still using Twitter and Big Tech to encourage others to migrate away from these illiberal platforms.
This is not the first time that LifeSiteNews has been censored by Twitter. In December 2019, Twitter indefinitely suspended our account for a tweet that linked to an article on transgender activist Jonathan “Jessica” Yaniv.
At the time, Twitter gave LifeSite the option to delete the tweet and reactivate our account right away. LifeSite remained steadfast that the tweet did not violate any of the company’s “rules and policies,” and sought several appeals with Twitter, while looking into legal action against the company.
And, while LifeSite's account was eventually restored, we must now consider what course of action we will pursue in this case, over and above appealing the ban.
Meanwhile, since taking office on Wednesday last week, Joe Biden has already signed an executive order which will force women’s athletic programs, restrooms, and locker rooms to be open to men. He has also turned back the Trump administration’s policy protecting women’s sports programs in schools.
Last week, LifeSite was banned for two weeks from our YouTube channel, after the site determined that one of our videos about vaccines violated YouTube’s “community guidelines.” We are also in the middle of appealing this ban.
Please considering SIGNING and SHARING this petition. Thank you!
__________________________________________________________________________
Twitter just deplatformed President Trump premanently! And, other conservatives, including General Flynn and Sidney Powell, were also summarily deplatformed.
Conservatives, Christians and freedom-loving Americans of all political persuasions must now take a decision to preserve their free speech AND their ability to peaceably assemble by dumping Twitter and Big Tech, and by finding other good alternatives to communicate with each other and share their opinions.
Please SIGN our petition-pledge to Dump Twitter and Big Tech, and take back your freedom of speech and privacy. [CLICK HERE for our "Goodbye Google" resources page to find good alternatives to Twitter, Facebook, Amazon, and Google!]
When you use Twitter or Facebook to communicate, and, or, Google and Amazon to search for something online, these companies can stifle your ability to share your thoughts and opinions and manipulate your search results, threatening your privacy, your freedom of speech, and even our democracy.
Evidence suggests that Twitter and Facebook's 'community guidelines' are selectively enforced against conservatives and Christians, while Google rigs their search algorithms to direct traffic away from conservative and Christian websites, effectively choking traffic to those sites.
Simply put, Twitter, Facebook, Google (who owns YouTube) and Amazon appear to be actively suppressing access to pro-freedom, pro-family and pro-life news and opinion.
Don't contribute to this assault on democracy: Stop using Twitter, Facebook, Google and Amazon as your default social media platforms and search engine! [CLICK HERE to find a good alternative to Google.]
To repeat: a few liberal and completely unaccountable computer programmers in Silicon Valley are dictating what we do and do not see in our Twitter and Facebook feeds, and in our Google searches.
We, here, at LifeSite, also recently had our Twitter account suspended by the company over "misgendering" a man who claims to be a woman.
LifeSite has also experienced a fall-off in Google search-related traffic since the company updated its search algorithms at the beginning of May.
And, since the November election, Twitter and Big Tech appear to have dramatically INCREASED their censorship of conservatives and Christians as the President Trump disputed the results of the election and when evidence of election fraud began to mount.
Now, it seems likely that they are trying to cut-off conservative leaders (like President Trump) from conservatives on the ground, and effectively exclude us from the national conversation.
But, this tactic will not work. Because Twitter, Facebook, Google and Amazon are not the only game in town! There are a good number of excellent alternatives which we list in our 'Goodbye Google' Resources page.
The great irony is that, while Twitter, Facebook, Google and Amazon executives talk a lot about maintaining freedom of speech and diversity, in fact, these hypocrites are ATTACKING free speech point-blank!
This kind of manipulation poses a lethal threat to our democracy, but as we see so clearly now, Twitter and Big Tech have shown no hesitation in excluding conservatives and Christians from the public square.
So, at this point, the only way to stop Twitter, Facebook, Google and Amazon is to quit using their platform.
Please SIGN and SHARE this petition to pledge to stop using Twitter and Big Tech. Then, please CLICK HERE to find alternative search engines and social media platforms. Thank you!
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Follow LifeSiteNews on these alternative channels:
Telegram: https://t.me/lifesitetelegram
Gab: https://gab.com/LifeSiteNews
MeWe: https://mewe.com/i/lifesitenewscom1
Rumble: https://rumble.com/user/LifeSiteNews
Parler: parler.com/profile/lifesitenews (currently down due to Amazon removing their web hosting)
Ready to say "Goodbye Google"? Find alternatives for search engines, browsers, email, and more: https://lifefacts.lifesitenews.com/goodbye-google/resources/
'BREAKING: Twitter permanently bans President Trump from platform' - https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/breaking-twitter-permanently-bans-president-trump-from-platform
WATCH LifeSite's exclusive series - 'Big Tech vs Free Speech' - of interviews with experts on how Big Tech censorship is killing free speech: https://www.lifesitenews.com/bigtech/
From YouTube to social media and beyond, online censorship is rampant. Read the latest articles covering this ongoing struggle: https://lifefacts.lifesitenews.com/goodbye-google/censorship/
“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