In 2012, Guthrie launched the first criminal lawsuit against an alleged Twitter troll. A verdict is expected in the new year. She plays a central role at advocacy organization Women in Toronto Politics, which has the hashtag #WiTOpoli. Her TEDxToronto talk on e-harassment has been viewed 44,000 times.
Our tweeter-in-chief also happens to be a city councillor. He tweets on average 6.6 times per day. In 2015, he sparked #deadraccoonTO, told Drake-dissing rapper Meek Mill he wasn’t welcome here, photoshopped an image of himself with a man bun and called out Drake for high-fiving Raptor-killer Paul Pierce (“Yo, Drake. What the hell is this?”).
When pastry chef Kate Burnham sued her former colleagues for sexual harassment, Agg, the Black Hoof owner and super-tweeter with 11,400 followers, unleashed a firehose of 140-character support. She also organized a Kitchen Bitches conference on poisonous industry culture, convinced top chefs to speak and wrote a NYT op-ed.
Police carding was the year’s buzziest issue, and Desmond Cole was its public face. He wrote a Toronto Life cover story about it, and landed a radio show on Newstalk 1010 and a column in the Toronto Star. He met with the mayor, persuading Tory to reverse his position on carding. And now changes in provincial legislation are in the offing.
Demagogue?
It’s funny how the writer of this article doesn’t mention the reception of Guthrie’s TEDX talk or how people feel about the court case she’s involved with. Her TEDX talk has a greater ratio of dislikes to likes which indicates that what that most people hated what she said. Outside of her own supporters, most people think that trial is an obnoxious abuse of both the defendant’s and the court’s time and money. She is hardly an influential figure.