'His politics are a threat to Canada': Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre faces public backlash for misogynist "MGTOW" tags in YouTube videos

'His politics are a threat to Canada': Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre faces public backlash for misogynist "MGTOW" tags in YouTube videos
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Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre came under fire on Thursday when Global News revealed that the YouTube videos uploaded to his YouTube channel included a tag associated with a misogynist men's rights movement.

"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 reported finding the tag on 50 of Poilievre's more 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.

"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."

Although Poilievre did not apologize, he did address the issue and said that he "condemns" the organization and corrected the problem as soon as it became known to him.

"I condemn all forms of misogyny, including when the prime minister fired the very first female Indigenous attorney general," he said.

Shortly after the news broke, "Incels" started trending on social media.

According to Wikipedia, an Incel is 'a member of an online community of young men who consider themselves unable to attract women sexually, typically associated with views that are hostile toward women and men who are sexually active'.

The Southern Poverty Law Center (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."

Jacob Johanssen, a professor of communications at St Mary's University in London, U.K., said MGTOW is an online community that can be defined "male supremacist or isolationist."

Politicians, public react to the news