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Why hundreds of Quebecers are turning to social media to make sexual misconduct accusations – CBC.ca

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4 years ago

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When Sabrina Comeau took to Instagram on July 2 to publicly accuse someone of sexual assault — fighting tears as she told her story in a live video — her intention was to warn others, to prevent it from happening to someone else.

The 21-year-old Montreal woman didn’t anticipate a swarm of Quebecers would follow in her footsteps, denouncing their alleged abusers by name for all forms of sexual violence and harassment.

These people, mostly young women, are using social media to create their own form of justice, Comeau said. 

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“We’re doing this because [the government is] not giving us resources or helping to denounce our aggressors without being pointed at,” she said. 

Since early July, several Instagram accounts have been created for victims and survivors of sexual violence to tell their stories online, bypassing the well-established but often difficult process of filing a police complaint and going through the court system.

So far, the current movement has not reached beyond Quebec, which Comeau attributes to the language barrier and the fact that higher-profile people who have been called out — such as celebrity Maripier Morin and singer Kevin Parent — are known mainly to Quebecers.

Most recently, anonymous allegations of sexual misconduct have surfaced against Yves-François Blanchet, leader of the federal Bloc Québécois.

“The justice system is not for victims,” Comeau said. “There’s not a lot of protection. Even if I go to the cops, the chances of something actually changing is so small. And the wait — in three years, will I feel like facing this person in court? No.”

When Sabrina Comeau took to Instagram on July 2 to publicly accuse someone of sexual assault, her intention was to warn others, she said. (Instagram)

There are Instagram pages for Montreal and the Montreal South Shore, Gatineau, Quebec City and other regions, as well as pages specific to different groups — from the restaurant and music industries to the tattooing and academic communities. 

Some have shared their online testimonies anonymously on group pages, while others, like Comeau, shared their stories on their personal accounts. 

A new form of justice?

Many of these people are naming their alleged abusers. This has led several of those called out to send cease-and-desist letters or threaten to sue for defamation. The low-cost legal clinic Juripop has been offering legal advice to the people who posted their denunciations.

In the case of the Bloc Québécois leader, involving an alleged incident in a Montreal bar in 1999, Blanchet has denied all claims, saying he “invites the person who published the allegations to complain to competent authorities.” 

He said he hopes justice can always be served to protect “real victims” of criminal acts. 

When victims of sexual violence come forward with a police complaint, they often feel shamed, disbelieved and intimidated by police, said Carrie Rentschler, an associate professor at McGill University in Montreal who teaches feminist media studies and has been monitoring online feminist movements since before the launch of the #MeToo movement. 

She said victims turn to social media, where spaces focus on survivor support, to achieve some sense of justice. 

“Part of that is an ability to name behaviours that people have suffered from over time … and then raising a question: What might responsibility look like? It might not necessarily be a police case,” Rentschler said. 

Since Sabrina Comeau posted her experience to Instagram in early July, pages specific to regions across Quebec and a wide range of interest groups have sprung up where people can share their stories. (Instagram)

The movement is pushing people to think of different ways to hold others accountable for their actions. 

Some of the people publicly named have lost their jobs over online allegations of misconduct. Others have apologized publicly or committed to starting therapy to change their behaviour. 

Francine Pelletier, a prominent Quebec feminist commentator, writer and filmmaker, understands the reasons behind the online allegations but is concerned about the methods being used. 

“There are other ways to do it,” said Pelletier.  “By starting to address the people directly, the men in this case, who supposedly made mistakes. Address them first before deciding that they are bad apples, that they are social pariahs. I think there’s an element of justice that needs to be respected.” 

Changes on the way

In response to the online outcry, Quebec Premier François Legault said while he has confidence in the justice system, Justice Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette is working on making the process less onerous for victims.

“I salute the people who denounced, whether online or not,” Legault said. To those being denounced, Legault said, “Come on guys, show some respect.”

Last year, then-justice minister Sonia LeBel assembled a group of experts to come up with ways to make it easier for victims of sexual assault to navigate the justice system.

Comeau said she’ll believe the commitment to change when she sees it. 

“I don’t believe in words, I believe in action,” she said. 

The only way to achieve systemic changes is to address systemic problems, said Concordia University Prof. Marlihan Lopez, a Black Lives Matter activist. (Ivanoh Demers/Radio-Canada)

The only way to achieve systemic change is to address systemic problems, said Marlihan Lopez, a professor at Concordia University’s Simone de Beauvoir Institute in Montreal who is also a Black Lives Matter activist and has worked with rape crisis centres. 

“A lot of people can’t take to social media to disclose,” such as victims of domestic violence, Lopez said. Education and prevention, she said, are the first steps in eliminating ingrained sexism in society. 

On Sunday, a demonstration protesting sexual violence is planned in Montreal.

#BlackLivesMatter ‘a social justice springboard’

The online call-outs come as the anti-Black racism movement, sparked by the killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor by police in the United States, spreads worldwide. 

“It wouldn’t be the first time that an anti-racist movement acted as a social justice springboard for other struggles,” Lopez said. 

Different forms of systemic oppression — racism, sexual violence and others — are all tied together, said Nathalie Batraville, a Black feminist scholar at the Simone de Beauvoir Institute. 

“People felt compelled to also share other forms of systemic oppression that are present in our society, specifically gendered violence,” Batraville said. 

Batraville said this moment fits into the larger conversation of shifting funding away from police and toward resources that prevent violence and create conditions where accountability is possible. 

“All of these things are really important and can only happen if there’s a massive shift in how we think of justice,” Batraville said. 

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DJT Stock Rises. Trump Media CEO Alleges Potential Market Manipulation. – Barron's

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April 19, 2024

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DJT Stock Rises. Trump Media CEO Alleges Potential Market Manipulation.  Barron’s

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DJT Stock Rises. Trump Media CEO Alleges Potential Market Manipulation. – Barron's

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Three drones downed after explosions heard in Iran’s Isfahan: State media – Al Jazeera English

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5 hours ago

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April 19, 2024

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Iran’s air defences have brought down three small drones over the central city of Isfahan, state media reported, hours after United States broadcasters, quoting senior US officials, said Israeli missiles had hit an Iranian site.

Iranian state television reported explosions in Isfahan as air defences were activated and flights across several areas, including the capital, Tehran, and Isfahan, were suspended.

Airspace was reopened about four and a half hours after the incident and there were no reports of casualties.

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Second Brigadier General Siavash Mihandoust, the top military official in Isfahan, told state media that air defence batteries hit “a suspicious object” and there was no damage.

ABC News and CBS News had reported earlier that Israel had carried out a military operation in Iran.

Italy’s Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said the US told the Group of Seven (G7) foreign ministers that it had been “informed at the last minute” by Israel about an attack on Iran.

“But there was no sharing of the attack by the US. It was a mere information,” Tajani told reporters in Capri, Italy, where the G7 ministers met.

However, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken refused to confirm reports about the Israeli attack, during a news conference in Capri.

“I’m not going to speak to that, except to say that the United States has not been involved in any offensive operation,” Blinken said.

The top US diplomat said the G7’s focus is on de-escalation. Asked to describe the current US-Israel relationship, Blinken noted that Israel makes its own decisions, but the US is committed to its security.

Iranian media said no strikes were launched on Iran from outside the country, and the attack was believed to have been carried out using small quadcopters that would have to have been launched from inside Iran.

Reporting from Tehran, Al Jazeera’s Dorsa Jabbari said Iranian media were downplaying the incident.

“The location in Isfahan province is an Iranian military airbase that belongs to the country’s army, and not the Revolutionary Guards [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, IRGC]. I think it’s important to highlight that,” she said. “This base houses multiple squadrons of F-14 Tomcat fighter aircraft.”

“We also understand that the air defence systems over the city of Tabriz in the northwestern part of Iran were also activated,” Jabbari reported.

A military factory belonging to the Iranian army in Isfahan was attacked by multiple quadcopters in January 2023, failing to damage the facility that was protected by air defence batteries and mesh wiring on its roof to counter small unmanned aerial vehicles.

Iran blamed Israel for that attack and arrested four people, executing one of them in January 2024, for operating on behalf of Mossad, the Israeli spy agency.

Israel had promised to respond after Iran launched a barrage of drones and missiles on the country on April 13, after a suspected Israeli attack on Iran’s consulate compound in Damascus killed 16 people, including two IRGC senior generals.

Governments around the world urged restraint and a push to de-escalate tensions across the region.

Isfahan is considered a strategically important city and one that is host to several important sites, including military research and development facilities, as well as bases. The nearby city of Natanz is the location of one of Iran’s nuclear enrichment sites.

In a speech in Damghan, in central Iran, Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi made no mention of Isfahan but praised the Iranian attacks on Israel, saying they gave the country strength and unity.

Kioumars Heydari, the commander-in-chief of the ground forces of the Iranian army, said Iran remains vigilant to confront any other potential aerial threats.

“If suspicious flying objects appear in the sky of the country, they will be targeted by our powerful air defence,” he was quoted as saying by the state-run IRNA  news agency ahead of Friday prayers in Tehran.

‘No damage’ to nuclear facilities

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmed that “there is no damage” to Iranian nuclear sites as the United Nations nuclear watchdog’s chief Rafael Grossi called for restraint and said nuclear facilities should never be targeted in military conflicts.

The reported attack “was far more limited than many expected”, Iranian arms control expert Ali Ahmadi told Al Jazeera, adding that Israel “has much more limitations in its operational range” than many think.

“Certainly, after Iran’s retaliatory capacity was criticised, it benefits from advertising how ineffective what Israel did was as well. Iran also needs to prepare the public for a much softer reaction than it has talked about in the last couple of days,” he pointed out.

Ahmadi said that prior to today’s incident, Iran was preparing several options for a massive retaliation, including getting allies involved.

But considering the limited scope and impact of the alleged attack, which he described as a “security sabotage” rather than a “military assault”, it would be a mistake to carry out a significant response, he stressed.

There were also reports of explosions in Iraq and Syria, with Iranian state media saying there were explosions at multiple military-linked sites in Syria.

Syria’s official news agency SANA quoted a military source as saying that missile strikes in the early hours of the morning caused material damage to air defence sites in the country’s southern region. The report did not specify the exact location and the extent of the damage but blamed Israel.

The US and a number of European countries had been calling on Israel not to respond to Iran’s attack.

On Thursday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres painted a dark picture of the situation in the Middle East, warning that spiralling tensions over Israel’s war on Gaza and Iran’s attack on Israel could descend into a “full-scale regional conflict”.

“The Middle East is on a precipice. Recent days have seen a perilous escalation – in words and deeds,” Guterres told the UN Security Council.

“One miscalculation, one miscommunication, one mistake, could lead to the unthinkable – a full-scale regional conflict that would be devastating for all involved,” he said, calling on all parties to exercise “maximum restraint”.

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