Attacks began after Faisal Moola messaged Tim Hortons and thanked them for dropping adverts by a company involved in pipeline project

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

A prominent environmental scientist in Canada has become the target of racist attacks on social media after expressing his support for a fast food chain’s decision to stop running adverts by a company involved in a controversial pipeline project.

Faisal Moola, an adjunct professor at the University of Toronto, and a director of one of Canada’s largest environmental organisations, was subjected to hundreds of abusive tweets after directing a message to the Tim Hortons chain.

The restaurant group recently announced it would no longer run adverts on its restaurant televisions for Enbridge Inc because of its proposed Northern Gateway pipeline that would cross British Columbia to the Pacific Coast.

Moola’s 21-word tweet in support of the decision – “@TimHortons Thank you for decision to drop the #Enbridge Ads from Tims TV. This decision is good corporate stewardship#cndpoli@SumOfUs” – was met with a barrage of abuse.

Faisal Moola (@faisal_moola) .@TimHortons Thank you for decision to drop the #Enbridge Ads from Tims TV. This decision is good corporate stewardship #northerngateway

“I was called a foreign-funded extremist, a terrorist, a radical and anti-Canadian,” Moola told the Guardian. “I was told to ‘go back where I came from’, to ‘stop destroying the economy’.”

Moola, who is a director of the David Suzuki Foundation, was also incorrectly vilified as an “Arab” with “Middle Eastern oil connections”.

The incident came after the government introduced sweeping new anti-terror legislation, which many activists had warned would conflate environmentalists with violent jihadists.

Moola, whose family was originally from South Africa, was born and raised in Ontario. He said he was shocked by the intensity of the online abuse.

The attacks began right after Conservative broadcaster and pro-oil pundit Ezra Levant tweeted a mobile-phone screen grab of Moola’s profile to thousands of his followers.



“Another U.S.-funded anti-oil troll pressured @timhortons was this lobbyist, Faisal Moola of @DavidSuzukiFDN,” Levant wrote.

Ezra Levant (@ezralevant) Another U.S.-funded anti-oil troll who pressured @timhortons was this lobbyist, Faisal Moola of @DavidSuzukiFDN pic.twitter.com/vM5UiPbNu4

Moola has since filed a “hate incident” complaint with the National Council of Canadian Muslims.



Meanwhile conservative activists have launched a campaign to boycott Tim Hortons using the hashtag #BoycottTims.

Digital analysis by Ottawa and Boston universities showed that Levant was the most influential user of the hashtag, followed by a rightwing website, a Conservative party strategist and two accounts run by oil industry lobbyists.

Levant told the National Observer that he did not support the racist abuse, but accused Moola of “playing the little lamb”.



“I obviously don’t agree with any racial epithets thrown at him. I have never described Moola’s race or religion. To me, his central identity is that of environmental extremism, which I suspect is his most important self-identity,” he told the website.

Moola said the incident showed that environmental campaigners needed to recognise that their opponents are “aggressive and powerful”.

“I think it’s ironic that I’m being attacked for being unpatriotic for championing very core Canadian values like protecting clean water, wildlife and wilderness which are threatened by the proposed Enbridge pipelines,” he said.

