Caylan Ford releases documentary about her cancel culture story

Ford was regarded as the Alberta UCP’s star candidate in the 2019 election, recruited by former premier Jason Kenney to run in Calgary-Mountain View. 

READ MORE: EXCLUSIVE: How a Conservative candidate worked with the NDP to bring down star UCP candidate

Political operative Karim Jivraj destroyed her candidacy by planting false stories about her in Press Progress. Edited parts of private philosophical conversations involving her were given to Press Progress, with media saying she was a white supremacist or white nationalist. 

She ended up resigning her candidacy to avoid becoming a distraction to the UCP’s campaign. 

Ford said she could not find work afterwards because she was a reputation liability. She added she was the main breadwinner for her family, so this was a challenging position to be in. 

While she did not have a job, she had a background in documentary film making. A few years prior, she had won a few awards for documentary film making. 

She had a few friends in the industry to collaborate with and was able to secure some funding. When the Mob Came was set to be a 20-minute short film, but it ballooned into a full-length movie available on Vimeo. 

Most of the shooting was done in 2019 and 2020. She said producing it was a little horrifying, “because it’s really uncomfortable turning the lens on myself.” 

She was terrified of bearing her soul, but the way she reconciled that was understanding it was necessary to redeem her suffering. This project was about trying to make meaning out a devastating experience. 

Ford said she released When the Mob Came during the Alberta election because she knew the NDP’s tactics would not change. It seemed like a good time to remind people not to be too gullible when faced with those tactics. 

While Jivraj faced legal consequences for his conduct, she said she's far away from obtaining full justice. Her legal battles have cost her more than $100,000. 

Ford was granted a restraining order towards Jivraj in February. 

READ MORE: Caylan Ford wins restraining order against Karim Jivraj

“Ultimately, I am satisfied on the evidence that Mr. Jivraj embarked on a campaign to cause emotional and financial harm to Ms. Ford by damaging her reputation,” said Court of King’s Bench of Alberta Justice Robert A. Graesser. 

She alleged he defamed and harassed her since 2019. This caused her severe emotional anxiety and financial loss.

Ford went on to say the reception among people who watched it has been positive. She said there is catharsis in having her story on the record publicly and knowing people can find value in it. 

If people believe cancel culture does not exist or assume it is consequence culture, she said When the Mob Came is for them. 

“If you’ve ever participated in a sort of online public shaming — and you might not even known that you were because it was such a trivial act to like or retweet something or make a flippant comment — this I hope will put a human face on that and shows what happens to that person on the other end of the screen,” she said. 

“And if you’re someone who’s terrified of cancel culture, I hope this film would give you courage and see that being cancelled, devastating as it may be, is actually not the worst thing.”