The District of North Vancouver has seemingly struck a blow against Donald Trump—or so it appears. While the bureaucrats in Ottawa deliberate on responding to Trump tariffs, the District of North Vancouver has exacted its revenge by blocking Elon Musk’s X. How else can you explain this petty and performative move—a Sieg Heil of sorts aimed at cancel culture’s newest villain?
If you believe the District, they cancelled X because it doesn’t align with its corporate values and because of the rampant racism and homophobia the municipality found on the social platform. “There are homophobic comments. There are racist comments that are now allowed on that social site, and they’re just inconsistent with what I think are the community’s values and our organizational values,” the CAO told North Shore News.
Stuart also assured the community that this move had nothing to do with American politics, though his statement smacked of a common bureaucratic tendency to confirm the truth by denying it.
Ever since the manic billionaire Elon Musk wrenched Twitter from the left and pushed it to the right, the so-called progressives have been itching to cancel X and punish Musk for his perceived moral transgressions. With Trump cozying up to Musk, the latter’s strange hand gesture finally gave DNV the validation to act on its confirmation bias.
But if racism and homophobia on X had honestly bothered DNV, they would have quit it long before Musk’s takeover. While it’s convenient to pretend that X has become the hotbed for misogyny, racism and homophobia, the pre-Elon Musk Twitter was no utopia. Taliban, whose views on women and gays need no explaining, have been tweeting since 2011!
Terrorist organizations, from ISIS to al-Shabad, have also been using Twitter as a propaganda tool for years. In 2023, just a few months before Elon Musk did a hostile takeover of Twitter, Stephen Slainsky, the Middle East Media Research Institute executive director, wrote a column in the Wall Street Journal urging Musk to keep ISIS off Twitter. He wrote: “Twitter had become the main platform on which nearly every jihadist group was active; by December 2015, ISIS was telling followers that Twitter and Facebook should be used as the main social media platforms “where the general public is found.”
This was long before Musk’s takeover of Twitter.
Facebook, where the District of North Vancouver is still active, is no better at weeding out racism or homophobia. While the District keeps spending the taxpayer’s money on it, some companies have pulled ads from Facebook, alleging it doesn’t do enough to stop the spread of racism and homophobia.
Regardless of one’s views on social media, the District of North Vancouver has done a disservice to its residents by wading into cultural wars far removed from the day-to-day issues of local governance. Over 13,000 residents followed—and engaged—with the district and highlighted issues that matter to local government: sewer, flooding, and accident-waiting-to-happen traffic spots.
Woke dogma’s signature move
Cancel culture is woke dogma’s signature move. It undermines democracy, dialogue, and free speech. It has now started leaching into our public institutions, infecting even local governments. West Vancouver Public Library, for instance, has announced it would reduce its activity on X. Other municipalities in the Lower Mainland will also follow suit, eager to claim the high moral ground.
Yet, not all citizens are willing to cede it.
Though the DNV apparatchiks’ could hardly be bothered, the public reaction was far from positive. Consider these replies to DNV’s last tweet: “How absurdly childish you are.” “Speech you hate isn’t hate speech.” “I bet not a single DNV resident had a say in this.” Perhaps the most pointed critique came from a citizen who reminded the District of its true purpose: “You don’t have values. You are a district! Your job is to be available where the community is. We’ll be sure to make that clear come the next election.”
Gagandeep Ghuman is the Editor of the North Shore Daily Post
Are you completely out of your mind? You’re upset that they didn’t leave the Nazi platform sooner? Better late than never, and we should have just moved on. You didn’t need to spew this editorial nonsense to the world.
And please, stop it with the woke business. I get it; it’s a great term to use for things that you don’t agree with, but it’s childish.
Is this the kind of “journalism” we can expect from the North Shore Daily?
Do you work at the DNV, Bryan ? You probably do !
I don’t follow what that would have to do with anything. However, no I do not work there.