Who gets a free pass when it comes to commenting online about death and killing?
Newstalk 1010 radio host and Toronto Sun columnist Jerry Agar, an outspoken conservative, tested the waters of public opinion on that question last week when he retweeted a meme featuring a picture of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Alberta Premier Rachel Notley and Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne with the caption, “If these three were drowning & you could save only one, what kind of sandwich would you make?”
The original tweet from Twitter user “Pat D” (@Aviator300) included the text, “@KathleenWynne you truly define a “waste of a human”! Pat D’s tweet was in response to a Wynne tweet about fishing and getting outdoors. Pat D added that he would be eating a sandwich containing “extra bacon to piss off the Moslems!” (sic). Pat D and Jerry Agar do not follow each other on Twitter. Agar states on his Twitter account that “My views are my own, not my employers – though they should be.”
The tweet and accompanying meme seem to indicate that the lives of Trudeau, Notley and Wynne are expendable.
Alan Conter, who teaches journalism ethics and law at Concordia University in Montreal, says the tweet would certainly not be considered a criminal threat. Canadian judges, he says, are especially tolerant of subject matter that could be considered political satire.
“Is it tasteless?” asks Conter, “Yes. Is it offensive? Yes. Is it criminal? No. It would have to be a more direct threat, like asking “‘If you could only kill one, which would it be?'”
This episode follows the recent discovery that the Conservative Party of Canada’s Facebook page accumulated a number of posts calling for the death of Trudeau. That was followed on Tuesday, August 30, by Alberta Wildrose Party leader Brian Jean apologizing for making a joke about beating Notley, who has also been the subject of assassination threats by conservative trolls online in the past.
Ryerson University journalism professor Lisa Taylor notes a similar, highly-visible trend in social media in the United States where “Donald Trump has normalized the inciting, supporting or condoning of physical violence.
“Social media has been a really ugly place if you are a woman, if you are a person of colour. You don’t have to stray too far online to find ‘kill the bitch’ comments,” Taylor says.
Back in April, it was Agar who dug through the personal tweets of Black Lives Matter Toronto (BLMTO) organizer Yusra Khogali at the height of BLMTO protests outside police headquarters. He found one from February in which Khogali, responding to tweets demanding she prove racism, Islamophobia, and misogyny exist, wrote “Plz Allah give me strength to not cuss/kill these men and white folks out here today.”
The months-old tweet caused a media feeding frenzy which threatened to eclipse the group’s message around police killings of Black people, in particular Andrew Loku. The integrity of BLMTO’s non-violent direct actions, was repeatedly questioned after the story was picked up by major news outlets. Khogali reports having received death threats at the time.
Khogali posted a screen shot of Agar’s recent retweet on Facebook, wondering why mainstream media hadn’t picked up the story and raising the issue of a double standard. “Well… Look at what he’s into…where’s the media tho? Right.”
Some responses to Agar’s retweet have appeared on Twitter.
Writer Nora Loreto called Agar out: “Remember when @JerryAgar1010 tried to ruin a young Black woman’s life by twisting her words? Strange that he would RT an actual death joke.”
Agar jumped into the discussion on Twitter. When he was asked whether he supported assassination, Agar responded, “it isn’t about assassination, can you not read?” And added, “It is political satire, which is lost on the humor (sic) impaired.”
Agar’s off-Twitter writing for the Toronto Sun adds to the contradiction. He opened a Toronto Sun article on Khogali’s tweet with the words, “All lives matter. Every human life is precious and worthy of respect.”
NOW asked Agar by email what message he was hoping to send with his retweet to his nearly-10,000 followers. Agar answered: “This is really an old joke told about politicians of all stripes and I see it as political satire, certainly not to foster any actual harm to anyone, political or otherwise. I think intelligent people can see that. Some of the people commenting on Twitter don’t seem to be intelligent people.”
When prompted to explain if the tweet was a figure of speech, Agar responded that, “No one’s life is expendable, but some political careers are.”
Asked for comment, Lorrie Goldstein of the Toronto Sun, which is owned by Postmedia, brushed off the issue, responding by email, “The tweet is obviously a joke and not meant to be taken seriously. For those with no sense of humour, the Toronto Sun does not endorse doing harm to any politician, ever. Jerry Agar does not consult us on what he chooses to retweet.”
In 2014, the Sun also defended a political cartoon by Andy Donato showing Wynne’s broken glasses and knocked out teeth, presumably a representation of a beating she got after a leaders debate performance.
Bell, which owns Newstalk, where Agar’s show airs weekday mornings, had not responded to a request for comment from NOW last week.
Conter tells NOW that, “in many media organizations, employees have to be very careful with what they are posting, even on their personal accounts. People can be fired for bringing disrepute to an organization. In this case, it might be the employers don’t care. The more he offends, the happier his bosses are.”
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