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Two days later, in an attempt to demonstrate that the Conservative MP hires actors to pose for him, the Twitter account Alberta Resistance shared a photograph of Katz as supposed proof.

The problem? Katz was not the woman in the video.

But in the Twitterverse, that didn’t seem to matter. The tweets from Alberta Resistance went viral; overall, the posts received more than 1,000 likes and 600 shares. According to Twitter analytics, there have been more than 160,000 impressions referring to the initial tweets.

Last Sunday, while vacationing in Connecticut, Katz was informed by her friend that her name and picture appeared to be popping up on Twitter. After signing in, she found screenshots of her acting profiles splattered across the platform. What’s more, she says she received countless messages that accused her of being a terrible and immoral actress who should be ashamed of lying that she had cancer.

“I know I’m sensitive, but it really touched a nerve when people accused me of pretending to be a cancer survivor,” she said. “My father died of cancer, two of my uncles died of cancer and my friends have died of cancer.”

She says she also received multiple messages telling her that she does not matter and that nobody cares about her.

“I had nothing to do with that video, and people were so quick to be cruel,” she said. “If I just had a little less self-esteem, I can see how I could have been depressed or suicidal.”

Katz says the misinformation spread at an even faster pace after the initial speculation was shared by prominent figures such as former Liberal MP Marlene Jennings and TV pundit Rob Silver, who is the husband of Justin Trudeau’s chief-of-staff. Jennings and Silver have since deleted their tweets and apologized to Katz.