MONTREAL — Reaction is pouring in on social media after Canada’s environment minister confronted a reporter for The Rebel over the right wing site’s insistence on calling her “climate Barbie.”
Catherine McKenna has received hundreds of messages of support from citizens and fellow politicians after she pushed reporter Christopher Wilson for a commitment that The Rebel will stop using the term in its articles and on social media.
The exchange occurred as Wilson asked McKenna a question about hydroelectricity at a news conference in Vancouver on Friday.
Wilson eventually replied that he would not personally use the name but did not have editorial control over others.
Liberal MP Seamus O’Regan and NDP ethics critic Nathan Cullen were among several politicians who congratulated McKenna for taking a stand against what Cullen called misogynistic language.
Others, including The Rebel founder Ezra Levant, have taken to Twitter to defend the use of the nickname and continued to use it repeatedly.