By Amy Chen
Succumbing to intense criticism from Canadians, Conservative Party leader Andrew Scheer took to Twitter on Sunday to condemn the attack in Charlottesville, where a suspected white supremacists rammed a car into a crowd holding a counterprotest against a neonazi rally killing one person and injuring 19.
The recently elected Tory leader’s condemnation came more than 24 hours after the attack, even though other Canadian leaders were quick to condemn the violence.
The leader of the official opposition only posted his condemnation on Twitter, where he has approximately 39,000 followers, but failed to do the same on Facebook, where he is followed by 89,000 people, as he has done with other posts.
“Conservatives condemn these acts of racism, violence and hatred,” Scheers tweet read. “Prayers are with victims, their families, and people of #Charlottesville.”
Conservatives condemn these acts of racism, violence and hatred. Prayers are with victims, their families, and people of #Charlottesville.
— Andrew Scheer (@AndrewScheer) August 13, 2017
Canadians took to social media to express disgust at Scheer for remaining silence in the aftermath of the tragedy in Charlottesville.
“Your silence on the white supremacist terror attack is deafening,” Queen’s University student Jonathan Shepherd-Cerda wrote on Scheer’s wall.
“It’s now Monday evening,” Brian Busby of St. Marys, Ontario asked Scheer. “When might Canadians expect your comment on the tragic events that took place in Charlottesville this past weekend? Why have you remained silent when other leaders – in Canada, the US, the UK, Germany, and other countries – have condemned the violence and racism?”
“The problem in the US and Canada right now is that many, save for few, GOP or CPC politicians are willing to accommodate evil, bigoted, and tyrannically minded media or groups for the sake of maintaining control or whatever voting base is favourable to those things,” Robert Falconer of Calgary, Alberta said.
Many believe that the reason that Scheer remains silent on Facebook while tweeting about the Charlottesville tragedy is that he is afraid to alienate his base.
“Scheer has 89,000 followers on Facebook, and going by comments about the incident they make on his page, it is safe to say that a significant majority identify more with the perpetrator of the attack than with the victims,” Trevor Smith of Vancouver, BC said. “But he only has 38,000 followers on Twitter, so, if he choose to minimize the damage by tweeting instead.”
