A message for the people of Carleton
Episode Stats
Harmful content
Misogyny
2
sentences flagged
Toxicity
1
sentences flagged
Hate speech
5
sentences flagged
Summary
In this episode, I talk about why TikTok is no longer a viable option for me anymore, and why I m starting to post more about Iran on other social media platforms. I also talk about how important it is to have a voice on social media, especially when it comes to raising awareness about human rights violations in Iran.
Transcript
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Hi everyone. This is a message for the people of Carleton, people who have
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elected me to represent them at Queen's Park. Even though I was elected five
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years ago, it's still such an honor to be your representative and to be your
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voice at Queen's Park. I will always be humbled and grateful for the opportunity
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to serve and represent my community. I'm sure that some of you by now have
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noticed that the type of videos, type of content that I'm posting on my Instagram
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page and my Twitter is a little different. The majority of the videos that I've been posting
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in the past few weeks have been focusing on what's happening in Iran and trying to raise awareness
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about human rights violations and abuses by the terrorist and illegitimate Islamic regime in Iran
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against the people of Iran. This isn't something that I just started doing a few weeks ago. I
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actually started posting about what's happening in Iran and raising awareness on my TikTok account
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back in September. And in my spare time, when I was done working for the day and I was done
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serving and representing the people of Carleton, I would talk about Iran. I would make videos,
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share information, provide updates on the Iranian people's fight for freedom and democracy.
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I have been doing this since September 18th, two days after the brutal murder of Masa Amini at the
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hands of the terrorist and illegitimate Islamic regime in Iran, just because she wasn't wearing
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her hijab properly. Since then I've made hundreds of videos. My TikTok account had almost 300,000
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followers. I had almost 12 million likes on my videos. My highest viewed video on TikTok had
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over 18 million views. The reason that I didn't share those videos on Instagram or Facebook is
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because I already had a very big following on TikTok and I knew that a lot of people were
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downloading my videos and sharing them on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and other social
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media platforms. Quite often, I would come across those videos, which was kind of cool. But a few
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weeks ago, we had to get rid of our TikTok accounts. And even though I've always maintained
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that my TikTok account is personal and something that I did on the side, and it was only on my
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personal phone, I still had to get rid of my personal account. I mean, my videos on TikTok
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were so influential, so widely shared that I was being interviewed by media outlets all around the
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world to talk about what's happening in Iran. I even did an interview with a Croatian media outlet
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and when my constituency office received the email I actually had to look them up on Google
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to make sure that they were legit because I'd never heard of them before. But they were basically
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like the state broadcaster for Croatia and very well known by Croatians.
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country. Women walked her out freely. They had the same rights as men. I mean, women could wear
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the hijab if they wanted to. If they didn't want to, they didn't have to. It's a very rich country.
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They are incredibly wealthy because of the oil that they have, but the people are poor.
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There's huge amounts of unemployment. Young people who are highly educated, you know,
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Over 70% of Iran's youth have university degrees, but after they graduate, there's no work.
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And if they try to speak up or say something to the government, they're put in jail.
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For the past seven months, I was able to sort of keep a distance between my personal life and my job as a politician.
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I mean, I did post a few videos here and there on Instagram about what's happening in Iran,
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But the main focus of my Instagram and Facebook and Twitter accounts was just posting updates here and there about work because I didn't really have that many followers.
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And so that's why I didn't really post anything about Iran on my other social media accounts because I already had a big following on TikTok.
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I was able to raise awareness effectively about human rights abuses and violations in Iran.
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But now that TikTok is no longer a viable option for me at the moment,
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that leaves me with no other choice but to try and raise awareness on other social media platforms.
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But I can also appreciate the fact that for many of my constituents,
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the people of Carleton, the people that I represent,
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that I have been raising awareness about what's happening in Iran for the past seven months,
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I had almost 300,000 followers, millions of likes, and was being interviewed worldwide.
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And so I can appreciate the fact that now that I'm starting to post more about Iran
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on Instagram and Twitter and Facebook, simply because of the fact that I can't use TikTok
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It might seem like I'm not doing my job as your representative.
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I guess I just didn't realize how many constituents follow me on my Instagram and Twitter and
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Facebook social media accounts, especially since the number of followers I have is really
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small, and it's really difficult to tell how many people from the riding of Carlton actually
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The things that I post about my job don't really get that many likes or views or shares.
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I just assumed, obviously incorrectly, that no one really paid attention to my social media accounts.
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And so I wanted to take a moment to apologize to the people of Carleton if I made anyone feel like I am not focusing on them,
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or I am not focusing on doing my job, or that the priorities of the people of Carleton are not number one.
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My parents immigrated to Canada when I was a year old.
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The first thing that my father told me as soon as I got elected in 2018 was to never
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forget your roots, to never forget the people of Carleton, and to always put them first.
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and even to this day every time I see him one of the first questions he asks
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is how is Carlton how are the people and he'll bring up all the names of so many
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different people that he has met over the years my dad asks me about Vera
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Mitchell in Metcalf, Earl Stanley in York's Corners, Greg Thurlow in Osgoode,
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Alan Hahn in Manatek, Brian Winters in Stitzville, and the list goes on and on and on. And he always
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says to me, Goldie, never forget why you are a politician. Never forget that people put their
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faith and trust in you to represent them at Queen's Park. To the people of Carleton, I just
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want to let you know I will post more videos and updates about all the work that I'm doing in the
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writing. I've been writing columns in the local community papers for the past like two or three
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years. I also send out emails to people on my mailing list and of course there's my government
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website. But to the people of Carleton, I hear you loud and clear. Since I seem to have more
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constituents following me on my Instagram and Twitter and Facebook accounts than I realized,
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I promise you that I will post videos and provide updates about what I'm doing in Carleton.
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And I'll even do it in the same way that I've been posting updates about Iran.
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You know, sort of this casual, I don't want to say one-on-one because it's not really one-on-one,
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Unfiltered, unscripted, just me as a person, as a human being,
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speaking to you about what's going on in the riding.
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because let's be honest I'm not a really big fan of those like pre-recorded scripted videos I just
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feel so awkward doing that I know I shouldn't be used to it by now because I've been elected for
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five years as a politician but I just I don't know it's weird and I'll tell you a funny story
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literally every single event that I go to my staff will spend so much time writing out a speech for
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me and making sure that it's proper and all the information is there and you know properly
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formatted and whatever and they'll hand me the speech and I'll go up to the podium and I won't
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even bother looking at the speech like I'll just start talking because I find that more often than
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not if I'm just speaking from the heart it's just more authentic. If I was in your shoes and I was
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going to go hear a politician speak I don't want them to read me a speech like if they want to read
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a speech just like send me the text of the speech and I'll just read it at home. If I go to hear
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someone speak i want to hear them speak i want to have like a conversation with them i want to know
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who this person is i want to know what makes them tick i want to know what their personality is like
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and i don't know if that is a good thing as a politician or not but um i'm just a regular
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normal person like everyone else who is blessed to have the opportunity to represent
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the people of carlton serve canada which is the best country in the meantime just keep in mind
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that I have seven months worth of videos from TikTok that I will be uploading in the next few
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months. And so just because I'm re-uploading videos that I made months ago about what's
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happening in Iran or sharing information about what's happening in Iran, it doesn't mean I'm
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not doing my job. I have a whole team of people working for me. I have one person here in Queens
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Park helping me out. I also have a number of people helping me out at my constituency office
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in Richmond. My constituency office in Richmond is open five days a week from Monday to Friday,
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9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Candice and John are there. They are amazing and my staff are 100% dedicated to
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serving the people of Carleton. Every single video that I post about Iran or every single time I
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raise awareness about Iran, in fact every single video I even post about what I'm doing in the
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riding, I do that myself. I make those videos on my phone. My staff don't make any of my videos.
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They don't edit any of my videos. They don't post any of my videos. It's all me. I want my staff to
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focus 100 percent on serving the people of carlton and that means answering emails answering phone
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calls getting back to people doing research all of the important stuff even this video that i'm
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filming right now do you want to see my setup here's what my setup looks like right now and
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i'm keeping my phone screen on because it's like phone-ception but yeah like this is this is my
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fancy video setup and there's a reason for that it's because i want to prioritize all of my
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resources every single moment of my working time on the people of carlton for the people of carlton
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because that is my job that is what i was elected to do and moving forward i will do a better job
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of posting more videos about things that are happening in carlton and the work that i'm doing
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as your local representative. Because now that I know that you guys actually follow me on my social
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media accounts, that you pay attention to what I'm doing on my social media accounts, our Carlton
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conversation series is just getting started. Talk to you soon, Carlton.