Virtual town hall event interrupted by racist slurs and imagery
A virtual town hall event to discuss the 2022 city budget was hacked by users who took over the meeting screen and flooded the comments with racist slurs and images.
The City of Windsor 2022 Budget Town Hall put on by the Windsor Law Centre for Cities in partnership with Activate Transit Windsor-Essex came to an abrupt halt Wednesday night after someone in the virtual meeting shared their screen and drew racist slurs for attendees to see and continued sharing offensive language in the comment section.
“I sincerely apologize that somebody harmed and ruined that space for folks in this way,” said one of the event speakers Kiemia Rezagian.
Once it was clear what was happening, organizers quickly tried to remove the person from the event.
“I would like the flow of this event to continue, however, I don’t like that our chat is populated with very hateful language and I’m sorry for everyone who had to witness that,” Rezagian said to the event-goers.
Unable to remove the individual, organizers closed the event and planned to restart.
The virtual town hall was put on to discuss the draft City of Windsor 2022 Budget for residents to hear from officials including CAO Jason Reynar who was set to provide an overview of the budget and answer any questions from the community.
Five city councillors as well as community leaders and members were on the call.
“It’s unfortunate that this is what happens sometimes when you try to be public and inclusive with events,” said Windsor Law Centre for Cities director Anneke Smit. “We’ll do our best to get restarted right away and thanks everyone for your understanding.”
The event was able to get back up and running around 8 p.m. after the disturbance.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
'Anything to win': Trudeau says as Poilievre defends meeting protesters
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is accusing Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre of welcoming 'the support of conspiracy theorists and extremists,' after the Conservative leader was photographed meeting with protesters, which his office has defended.
'My stomach dropped': Winnipeg man speaks out after being criminally harassed following single online date
A Winnipeg man said a single date gone wrong led to years of criminal harassment, false arrests, stress and depression.
Bank of Canada officials split on when to start cutting interest rates
Members of the Bank of Canada's governing council were split on how long the central bank should wait before it starts cutting interest rates when they met earlier this month.
'One of the single most terrifying things ever': Ontario couple among passengers on sinking tour boat in Dominican Republic
A Toronto couple are speaking out about their 'extremely dangerous' experience on board a sinking tour boat in the Dominican Republic last week.
7 surveillance videos linked to extortions of South Asian home builders in Edmonton released
The Edmonton Police Service has released a number of surveillance videos related to a series of extortion cases in the city now dubbed 'Project Gaslight.'
Ukraine uses long-range missiles secretly provided by U.S. to hit Russian-held areas, officials say
Ukraine for the first time has begun using long-range ballistic missiles provided secretly by the United States, bombing a Russian military airfield in Crimea last week and Russian forces in another occupied area overnight, American officials said Wednesday.
BREAKING Manitoba government tables bill to end ban on homegrown recreational cannabis
Manitoba is planning to lift its ban on the home growing of recreational cannabis.
All Alberta wildfires to date in 2024 believed to be human-caused: province
There are 63 wildfires burning in Alberta's forest protection area as of Wednesday morning and seven mutual aid fires, including one in the Municipal District of Peace.
Pilot proposes to flight attendant girlfriend in front of passengers
A Polish pilot proposed to his flight attendant girlfriend during a flight from Warsaw to Krakow, and she said yes.