Critics of a popular British Columbia TikToker and former BC Conservative staffer have tried to get him cancelled over comments he made in videos about immigration and women's safety.
Adam Beattie, known online as Robin Skies, has not backed down, vowing to continue making videos tackling "difficult subjects."
In a story for The Tyee, Jen St. Denis drew attention to one particular TikTok video Beattie posted on January 2. It showed Granville St. buzzing on New Year's Eve with a crowd of what appeared to be almost entirely men of Indian descent.
"I want to point out something that's glaringly obvious," he said. "It's not the fact that everyone in this video is brown. It's the fact that everyone in this video is a man."
Beattie questioned why on the biggest party night of the year, there were "no women in sight."
"You have to ask yourself the question, why?" he continued. "It's because these women don’t feel safe going out because these men make them feel incredibly uncomfortable when they do."
Beattie said this was "due primarily to our broken immigration system," adding, "as it turns out, some cultures are just willing to scare the hos."
The caption beneath his video read, "Not all cultures value making women feel safe. Not all cultures are compatible."
The clip quickly went viral, and has since amassed 1.7 million views, 129,000 likes, and over 6,000 comments. Many of those who left a note agreed with Beattie, though others suggested his comments were racist in nature.
In a follow-up video the next day, he addressed those accusations, reiterating that it's not about race, it's about culture.
In her piece, St. Denis cited a researcher who claimed Beattie's TikTok videos were part of an ecosystem of content that could be seen as promoting hate against Indians, and zeroed in on his ties with the BC Conservatives. Absent, however, was any comment on the matter from Beattie himself.
St. Denis told the Western Standard that she had "tried really hard" to contact him, and that the focus of the story eventually shifted.
"Initially I actually wanted to do the story just about the idea of being a political influencer, and I was hoping he would talk to me about that," she said. "Of course we would have put the stuff about people being really offended about this video in the story, but I think it would be a different kind of story."
Beattie confirmed to the Western Standard that St. Denis had contacted him, but said he chose not to respond.
"The Tyee has a history of targeting Conservatives and framing them in a negative light," he explained. "I don't respect them and didn't feel that they'd represent my statements fairly."
Beattie added that since the story went out, he has been the subject of both praise and condemnation.
"I've received death threats and threats of violence," he lamented. "However, I've also received lots of support from friends, family and strangers. Since I put out those videos and again since the article was released I've had hundreds of women thank me for speaking out and touching on something that worries them."
When asked whether there was anything he'd do differently if he could go back and change the video in question, Beattie said yes.
"I would have been way more specific and extrapolated on my argument more," he explained. "My mistake wasn’t the desire to discuss the reality of cultural clashes in Canada. My mistake was being too vague and giving room for people to assume what I was saying."
Beattie said cultural values are "fair" to discuss, noting that in Canada, "one of those values is that women deserve to feel safe and respected when they go out."
"My decision to talk about this came after countless conversations with women who've told me they feel uncomfortable in social settings because some men — often from different cultural backgrounds — have made them feel unsafe," he concluded.