Part of what we've seen in studies that we conducted since 2019 is that often these kinds of identity-based attacks and that kind of harassment can have disproportionate effects on people from racialized communities, 2SLGBTQ+ people or women. This can often overlap with some sort of disinformation about those individuals.
The distinction here is that, of course, you can have vigorous and rigorous discussion about issues, but we often see with these groups that is melded with attacks on their identities.
This has an influence on the political candidates themselves and also, I'd like to add, on their campaign teams. That's really important, because those are often people who are thinking about going into politics and potentially becoming candidates. They see the kind of online abuse and harassment directed at a candidate, and they think, “Maybe politics is not for me.”
If we're thinking about having a diverse legislature that represents the diversity of Canadians, we do need to address this issue.