Region councillor taken aback by ‘hurtful’ online attacks
St. Catharines’ Laura Ip trashed in podcast by host Jim Fannon
Another round of vicious online attacks has St .Catharines regional Coun. Laura Ip questioning why she ever ran for public office.
The latest has local podcast host Jim Fannon calling Ip a “c--t” during a show titled “Radical Feminist Pigs and my Twitter Rage and Hate.” Though recorded in late March, it was brought to Ip’s attention this week by St. Catharines city Coun. Karrie Porter, who called the show a “garbage video” made by someone who has “serious issues” with women.
“I won’t sit back and watch displays of misogyny and male rage, whether they are insidious or hysterical, like this guy, who was triggered because a female politician dared to be competent and true to herself,” Porter posted on Twitter Tuesday.
Fannon, a former radio personality in Niagara and Green party candidate, spends most of the 39-minute video attacking Ip for what he sees as disrespectful Tweets mocking religion, at one point calling her a “f---ing bigot pig.” He also said he “hates feminists,” and rips her recent public posts discussing her abortion in response to Niagara West MPP Sam Oosterhoff pledging to make abortion “unthinkable in our lifetime.”
He then said Ip “maybe” has a right to be “some mental illness activist” because her sister killed herself seven years ago.
On Tuesday Ip tweeted that she had seen the video but wouldn’t respond to it.
Contacted Wednesday, she said Fannon’s video was only made for “maximum pain.”
“He just sort of brushes off my sister’s death at one point, like it’s nothing,” she said. “That didn’t even have to be mentioned.
“All of these guys are only trying to get to me, to hurt me. To any of the women they do this to.”
The video comes less than two months after Ip was called a “garbage human being” by local business operator Adam Hyde in a Facebook group post, and had allegations about her personal life sent to other regional council members from an anonymous source.
Ip said someone also placed calls to her employer at Heartland Forest seeking to get her fired.
The Fannon video surprised her, because she was a guest on his show four years ago.
“I’ve got two children that I’m trying to get through a global pandemic,” she said. “I’ve got much bigger, more important things to deal with right now than to bother trying to respond to his nonsense.”
Reached Wednesday, Fannon said he was “frustrated” when he made the show: “I’m the first guy to admit to having an issue directing my hate in positive places.”
He said the show was a response to Ip’s constant tweets “trashing Christians,” which he said is “hateful” coming from a regional councillor. He said the notion he hates all women is “laughable.”
“I think it’s offensive when you take the Lord’s name in vain for one specific religion,” he said. “I think she mocks openly, not just Christians but all people of faith. She shows no respect.”
Fannon said he asked Ip to remove her offensive posts and she refused, leading to the video.
Asked about calling her a “c--t,” Fannon said it’s a term that could apply to both men and women.
“It’s just me being me, flying off the handle,” he said. “Yeah, I call people names. I probably could have been a little classier, more mature about it, but it was midnight and a live broadcast … I take nothing I said back, but you have a few drinks and let the s--t fly, I never imagined it would be a story.”
But Ip said it’s part of a pattern of verbal and online attacks that has her questioning her safety.
“Fannon — if we’re going to call it courage — had the courage to put his name behind it. The ones that frighten me are the anonymous ones. Because I don’t know if they are people that I actually encounter at some point. I don’t know if they know where I live, or what my children look like. Those are the ones that really unnerve me.”
All of it has soured her plans to seek re-election.
“If I had to decide today, I would not run again.”