When Leaders Incite Hate, Blood Follows — And Pickering’s Mayor Just Crossed The Line

By Councillor Lisa Robinson For the last five years, Canadians have been fed a steady diet of division and hate — not from the fringes, but from the very institutions we should be able to trust: our politicians and our media. It began during COVID, when the Prime Minister went on national television and asked: “Do we tolerate these people?” With those words, millions of Canadians were branded not as neighbours, not as citizens, but as problems. The government-funded media repeated the message daily, branding dissenters as “racists,” “fascists,” “Nazis,” “alt-right extremists,” even “white supremacists.” This wasn’t debate. It was dehumanization. And when you dehumanize people long enough, history shows us what always follows: violence. We are now living that reality. Look at the world stage. Charlie Kirk has been murdered — and the atmosphere that allowed that to happen was built brick by brick through years of politicians and media normalizing hate. When commentators and leaders casually suggest that people are “Nazis” or “dangers to society,” they are not merely insulting them. They are inciting others to see them as targets. And this culture of dehumanization has spread right here to Pickering. Our own Mayor and Council have repeatedly smeared me and residents — labeling them “racists”, “homophobic”, “transphobic”, “Nazis”, “alt-right” and “nutcases.” They have even posted a propaganda video of their own constituents putting targets on the backs of the very people they are elected to represent. And now, when I posted on social media of alleged threats to kill a man, kill his wife, and have her sexually assaulted if the man runs in the next municipal election, how did Mayor Kevin Ashe respond? On my own Facebook post, he wrote: “Councillor Lisa Robinson the arsonist says her house is on fire.” The Mayor of this city never condemned the threats of murder. He never condemned the threats of rape. He never condemned the intimidation or violence. Instead, he mocked it — and turned it against me. By those words, the Mayor implied that if anything happens to me — if I am harassed, threatened, or attacked — it is somehow my fault. That is victim-blaming. That is prejudice against a sitting Councillor. And worse, those words incite violence. They embolden aggressors by signaling that if they harm me, The Mayor of Pickering will stand with them, because it will be my fault. This isn’t leadership. It is reckless. It is a betrayal of public trust. And it is dangerous — not just to me, but to every resident who dares to speak out. Because once you normalize hate, you cannot contain it. Once you excuse threats against one person, you invite them against many more. The truth is politicians and media who have spent years dehumanizing citizens have blood on their hands. They may not pull the trigger or make the threat, but they create the culture where others will. They soak the ground in gasoline and then pretend to be shocked when it ignites. This has to end. Pickering deserves leaders who condemn violence, not mock it. Canada deserves media that inform, not incite. And we, as citizens, must demand a culture where disagreement is not punished with dehumanization, but debated with respect. Because if we don’t, more lives will be destroyed. And it won’t be an accident. It will be the predictable outcome of words that kill — and leaders who incite them.