Bradley slams ‘repugnant’ attack on councillor
Regional chair, others support Ip for ‘taking the high road’ following podcasters diatribe against councillor
Niagara Region Chair Jim Bradley has slammed the “offensive and repugnant” remarks directed at a regional councillor during a recent online podcast.
He was responding to a diatribe against Coun. Laura Ip, of St. Catharines, made by host Jim Fannon during a show titled, “Radical Feminist Pigs and my Twitter Rage and Hate.”
In a statement Friday, Bradley credited Ip for “taking the high road” in her response to Fannon’s podcast. Numerous others, including several elected officials, also supported Ip on social media after reading about Fannon’s comments.
On Twitter, St. Catharines
MPP Jennie Stevens wrote “cruel attacks have no place in a space that we need to gain more great female leaders, not less.”
The video was recorded in late March but brought to Ip’s attention last week. Most of its 39 minutes is spent attacking her. Fannon — a former Niagara radio personality and Green party candidate — said he “hates feminists” and labelled Ip a “f--ing bigot pig” and a “c--t.”
He criticized her response to Niagara West MPP Sam Oosterhoff’s pledge last year to make abortion “unthinkable in our lifetime.” Fannon also knocked Ip for what he said were disrespectful tweets that mocked religion, and he made reference to Ip’s sister’s death by suicide seven years ago.
Bradley said “there are no circumstances where this type of language is acceptable, and it only serves to denigrate a member of our community and degrade our public discourse.”
He said Ip’s “dedication and tenacity speaks for itself and her commitment to our Region is beyond reproach.”
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.
In an interview with The Niagara Falls Review on Wednesday, she said “all of these guys are only trying to get to me, to hurt me.”
“To any of the women they do this to.”
She said Fannon’s video was made to inflict “maximum pain” and caused her to have second thoughts about seeking re-election.
In a separate interview Wednesday, Fannon told The Review he was “frustrated” when he recorded the podcast, and “I’m the first guy to admit to having an issue directing my hate in positive places.”
He said, “I probably could
“There are no circumstances where this type of language is acceptable.” JIM BRADLEY
NIAGARA REGION CHAIR
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.”
However, Ip called it part of a pattern of attacks against her that makes her question her safety.
“Fannon — if we’re going to call it courage — had the courage to put his name behind it,” she said. “The ones that frighten me are the anonymous ones … Those are the ones that really unnerve me.”