Statement: condemning racist social media
Channel: Linda Duncan
Date: 2019-04-10

Today in a show of support for Anti-bullying Day I have joined many of you wearing pink. 
But I wish to respectfully suggest wearing pink is just not enough. As elected representatives, we can and must do more.
Yesterday I was informed of hateful social media posts intended to demean and bully many of the young Edmontonians who participated in the recent Daughters of the Vote program. I now learn many more delegates are suffering similar levels of harassment. Appallingly some posts criticize the spending of tax dollars to send Muslim, Indigenous and black delegates to Ottawa. These posts are frankly vicious, and racist. Some are attacked simply because they dared to call for greater action to address Islamophobia and racism.
It was suggested these young women could simply delete their pictures and bios or Facebook pages to make them less visible.
This is wrong. We must demand deeper action against this much wider group spewing abuse through social media. 
And we should all congratulate these young Canadians who continue to bravely speak truth to power.