Canadian Environment Minister Catherine McKenna made a conservative reporter the subject of a Vancouver news conference on Friday. McKenna accused Rebel Media reporter Christopher Wilson of referring to her as a “climate Barbie” and insisted that he promise not to do so again.
Wilson sparked McKenna’s interrogation when he identified himself and asked the environment minister if the Trudeau government believes hydroelectricity to be clean energy.
McKenna ignored the question and instead attacked Wilson: “So you’re the Rebel Media that happens to call me ‘climate Barbie.’ I certainly hope that you will no longer use that hashtag,” McKenna said.
Wilson claimed he had never personally called McKenna a “climate Barbie.”
McKenna demanded that Wilson’s news agency cease using the label, to which the reporter offered: “Me personally, yes, but I don’t have editorial control of others.”
After the reporter accused the minister of blacklisting The Rebel from an announced climate change summit, McKenna suggested it might be a good idea if they send a reporter in order to understand climate change.
Wilson asked again if McKenna was going to answer his question about hydroelectricity but the minister sidestepped the issued again by referring to how upset she remained over the “climate Barbie” remark.
The reporter told McKenna that conservative journalists were also upset by McKenna’s repeated use of the term “climate change deniars” because it carries with it “all the connotations of Holocaust denial.”