Catherine McKenna env min

<h3 style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; padding: 0px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.333; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In Canada, Politicians and an Election Targeted</h3>Government policies on climate change also appear to be triggering toxic online activity. Early this week, Canada Environment Minister Catherine McKenna, who is implementing that nation's carbon tax policy, said that she has been <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-49627153" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit;">assigned an additional security detail </a>because of abuse she has received both online and in person.And last week, a Canadian government agency issued a <a href="https://www.international.gc.ca/gac-amc/publications/rrm-mrr/alberta_elections.aspx?lang=eng" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent;">report</a> concluding there was evidence of a campaign of coordinated, false social media postings around last April's election for premier of Alberta—a campaign in which climate policy was a key issue. The majority of the questionable postings were in support of the eventual winner, conservative Jason Kenney, who won the election while pledging to repeal the province's carbon tax, which he did in May, and to create a "war room" to combat the oil industry's opponents.The government agency, Rapid Response Mechanism Canada, was created as part of the G7 nation's effort to respond to <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/federal-probe-finds-co-ordinated-social-media-bots-in-alberta-election-1.4582325" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent;">foreign influence in democratic elections.</a> RRM Canada said there was no evidence of foreign actors involved in the questionable social media activity around the Alberta election. But, the agency said, "some national actors were disseminating material using tactics that were similar to those used by foreign actors."Gerald Kutney, an Ottawa-based consultant and author of <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Politics-Protocol-Routledge-Explorations-Environmental/dp/0415729319" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent;">a 2014 book on climate politics</a>, said it has become difficult to discern what is genuine discussion and what is coordinated attack messaging on Twitter around climate change."It's no longer social media, it's bot media," he said. "It's difficult to know the difference."