Democracy depends on the willingness of ordinary citizens to participate in public life. When a talented person decides to run as a candidate, they should expect public scrutiny, criticism, and debate. However, they should not become the target of a social media smear campaign orchestrated by influential media personalities before they have even had an opportunity to introduce themselves to voters.
Yet that is exactly what happened to Maryse Letarte, the former Green Party of Québec candidate in Borduas.
When Maryse, an artist known for her Christmas music and children’s productions, announced her candidacy, she did so because she believed the Green Party best represented her values. Our electoral platform resonated with her, and she fully supported it. In her public statements, she spoke enthusiastically about environmental protection, animal welfare, local agriculture, and her opposition to military escalation.
Even before her candidacy was announced, we informed her that the party was regularly subjected to media attacks because of its opposition to the escalation of the war in Ukraine. She told us that she understood this reality and was prepared to defend peace, even when that position generated controversy. She publicly stated that the Green Party of Québec embodied her environmentalist, progressive, and pacifist convictions, and she defended our opposition to war and increased military spending.
A few days later, Richard Martineau, one of Québec’s most influential conservative columnists—who is anti-feminist, anti-vegan, anti-peace, anti-Palestinian, anti-left, and Islamophobic—publicly targeted her on social media. He accused her of supporting Russia simply because she represented a party opposed to military escalation and increased military spending.
Mr. Martineau’s post, amplified by his large social media following and his platform in Québec’s most widely read newspaper, was followed by hundreds of hostile comments directed at Maryse. For someone taking her first steps into politics, it was an especially brutal introduction to public life.
During the first few hours, Ms. Letarte remained firm in her anti-war convictions while denouncing Martineau’s smear campaign:
Alex Tyrrell’s anti-war position has nevertheless received support from numerous peace organizations, including the Mouvement québécois pour la paix, Artistes pour la paix, and Voice of Women for Peace.
Campaigning for peace is never easy. It is always more politically acceptable to follow the path of confrontation. At the moment, this approach is popular in Canada. Mark Carney is proposing to increase federal spending on the arms race while reducing investment in the environment and social programs.
Then, under enormous pressure, as the comments became increasingly aggressive, insulting, and numerous, she changed her position.
In her resignation letter to the party, Maryse wrote that she had received “hundreds” of negative comments, had been subjected to online harassment, and was requesting the immediate removal of her profile from the party’s website in order to bring the situation to an end. She resigned as a candidate only a few days after her candidacy had been announced.
What followed was even more troubling.
Within a matter of days, she went from publicly defending our pacifist platform to thanking Richard Martineau for changing her mind and encouraging others to reach the same conclusions.
Everyone is free to change their opinion.
However, democracy suffers when political participation is shaped more by pressure campaigns on social media than by thoughtful debate. No candidate should be pushed into abandoning their campaign—or their opposition to the arms race and war—because of online harassment or because influential media personalities mobilize thousands of people against them on the basis of false information.
This disinformation campaign essentially claimed that the Green Party of Québec, a firmly pacifist party, supported the war and the invasion of Ukraine.
The prestige of being a star columnist at the Journal de Montréal does not come with a filter. A few months earlier, Martineau had called a woman from Québec’s political left a “poor idiot” and a “stupid fool” live on the radio. Several public figures are genuinely afraid of Richard Martineau, of becoming the target of one of his columns, and of being subjected to his hostility.
This episode also raises a fundamental question about media concentration in Québec.
When a handful of media conglomerates have the power to amplify attacks against candidates while controlling a large part of the public conversation, democracy is weakened. Independent journalism is essential. Media concentration is not.
Citizens deserve access to a genuine diversity of perspectives rather than a public debate shaped by disinformation produced by a small number of media personalities and corporations.
We also regret that her first experience in politics ended in a wave of harassment and online hostility. That said, we remain convinced that democracy depends on the ability of ordinary citizens to participate in political life without fearing intimidation or smear campaigns based on false information.
The solution is not to reduce the number of voices taking part in public debate, but to multiply them. A healthy democracy requires independent journalism, genuine diversity in media ownership, and the courage of ordinary citizens who are willing to enter politics without fearing retaliation from powerful media empires simply because they oppose militarism.
