Aaron Derfel

2 days ago | montrealgazette.com | Aaron Derfel

In the last few of months of his fulsome life, Marc Garneau remained active on social media — a domain usually rife with tasteless trolling — choosing instead to post stirring tributes to the country he loved and staunchly defending Canada’s independence and economic interests. “In life, most of us are guided by what is right and what is wrong. When something is wrong, we must speak up and stand our ground despite what lies ahead. This is such a moment in Canada’s life.

3 weeks ago | montrealgazette.com | Aaron Derfel

Quebec Lieutenant Governor Manon Jeannotte’s office has contacted Dawson College about its investigation into racist trolling on the social media platform Discord by medical school applicants to determine whether to rescind a youth medal awarded to a student, The Gazette can confirm.

3 weeks ago | montrealgazette.com | Aaron Derfel

Discord, an increasingly popular social media platform based in San Francisco, has deactivated a controversial channel used by Quebec medical school applicants that was overrun by antisemitic and other racist messages, including threats of violence, The Gazette can confirm. Hours after the newspaper reported last Friday about a virulent stream of hateful content on the 1,400-member Med serveur channel on Discord, the chat forum suddenly disappeared.

3 weeks ago | montrealgazette.com | Aaron Derfel

Warning: This story contains offensive language and imagery. Quebec’s Higher Education Minister, Pascale Déry, is denouncing a virulent stream of racist and other hateful messages on a popular social media platform for medical school applicants after The Gazette broke the story over the weekend. “The calls for violence and expressions of hatred in these exchanges are totally unacceptable in Quebec,” Simon Savignac, Déry’s press attaché, said in a statement on Monday.

4 weeks ago | montrealgazette.com | Aaron Derfel

Warning: This story contains offensive language and imagery. A group chat for Quebec medical school applicants on the popular social media platform Discord has been overrun by misogynistic, racist, homophobic and antisemitic slurs, provoking widespread condemnation by Jewish doctors’ groups across the country. One of the groups, Jewish Clinicians Against Antisemitism, has filed a criminal complaint with Montreal police against at least one Discord user, alleging he is a student at Dawson College.