Canadian women are banding together to take down a man who has been filming them in awkward and embarrassing situations without their permission and then sharing the clips on the internet.

Luke Howard, a self-described 'pick-up artist' from Ottawa, Canada, has been asking out women on the street for months. But instead of just asking them on a date, the 36-year-old has also secretly filmed each of them to capture their responses and, in a lot of cases, their less-than-enthusiastic reactions.

Understandably, many women haven't taken kindly to being filmed - especially when they learned that the recordings had ended up online. So together, they've been popularizing the hashtag #CorneredInOttawa to draw attention to the problem of street harassment and make Luke stop.

Sketchy behavior: Luke Howard (pictured) recorded women on the street without their permission and then uploaded the videos - in which he is seen trying to pick them up - to YouTube

A good cause? He says that he used the videos to teach other men how to battle social anxiety and approach women for a date

Luke claims that the videos are a public service. He posts them to his YouTube channel, Lukeutopia, and writes about them on his blog, in an effort help other men overcome social anxiety and learn how to pick up women on their own.

However, he doesn't ask the women's permission before posting these, which can come as a nasty surprise when they find their faces online.

According to one victim who spoke to VICE, women in Ottawa have been up in arms about Luke and his antics for months, warning each other to 'look out for this guy'.

But lately, many of them have been using the hashtag #CorneredInOttawa on social media platforms to tell their stories and spread the message further.

'I was #CorneredInOttawa by #LukeHoward & his friend who blocked my path. My friendliness was a deescalation tactic. I did NOT like it,' wrote one woman named Tabrina.

'I was followed into my lobby saying he noticed me at a bar & had to come say hi. Physically had push him out the door. #corneredinottawa,' wrote Caitlin Hung.

Guilty conscience? Since facing backlash, Luke has taken the videos down from his YouTube channel

Spreading the message: Women have been using the hashtag #CorneredinOttawa to point out his behavior

Not happy: Many women protested that they didn't give permission for the recordings to be shared and they didn't like being harassed on the street

After the hashtag picked up and Luke started to face backlash, he took the videos down - though he still doesn't think he was wrong to record them in the first place.

'Videotaping conversations in the daytime outside is not illegal,' he argued in a blog post. 'However I absolutely take the point that I should have been a better editor. I should have edited out personal information and blurred faces at the start.'

Videotaping in public without someone's consent is, as he said, legal - but that doesn't mean it didn't make many women uncomfortable. Several of them even filed complaints with the police, but were told that there was nothing that could be done if the video wasn't sexual or taken in a place where privacy could be reasonably expected, like a changing room or bathroom.

Constable Chuck Benoit of Ottawa did concede, though, that some of what happened could be considered harassment.

'As soon as one person feels they want to conclude this conversation...and there's a pursuance from the other party continuing the conversation, that's where the harassment component, the legal part of it, starts,' he told CBC News.

Tricky legal ground: Recording people without their permission is legal as long as it is isn't explicitly sexual or in a place where there is a reasonable expectation of privacy

Sorry not sorry: Luke said that it was never intention to make women uncomfortable and disputes the claim that he harassed anyone

They liked it: He insists that many women were flattered by his attention and encouraged him to keep it up

Luke insists that he never meant to harass anyone and apologized for upsetting the women whom he filmed.

'At no point was it my intent to harass anyone,' he wrote on his blog, adding that he didn't believe that he ever 'cornered' women as they were free to walk away at any time. 'I would never wish a woman to ever feel threatened or uncomfortable... If a women ever felt threatened or uncomfortable in my presence then I'm genuinely and truly sorry, that was never my intent.'

He also claims that, from his experience, no one seemed to be bothered by what he was doing - and some women who were married or in relationships even encouraged him to keep it up because 'it's making women's day [sic]'.

However, several of the women who have taken up the #CorneredInOttawa hashtag have contested this, insisting that almost all women would prefer not to be approached that way.