If you’re wondering why the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) is trending on X right now, it’s not because of any crucial tax or benefit changes that you need to know about, but rather a since-deleted post on the platform that received a deluge of backlash almost immediately.
As the government arm’s social media team fielded the usual questions and complaints from citizens facing lengthy wait times when trying to call in and deal with their CRA-related affairs, one staffer decided to take the tone of the agency’s X account in a different direction on Friday morning.
That direction was, for whatever reason, minon memes — yes, the viral yellow cartoon characters of Despicable Me fame — that, though surely well-intentioned, did not go over well whatsoever.
Looks like the CRA deleted their mental tweet👇🏻 https://t.co/06wbqJrO7B pic.twitter.com/7SSRuswAlu
— Hon. BGirl🍎STILL not a Bot🚨#TrudeauMustGo🍎 (@bgirl3_0) July 4, 2024
Along with a line of minion speak and the hashtags #CdnTax and #DespicableMe4, the post included a gif of a minion jumping up and down.
A follow-up post explained “Oops, the minions were at it again! What they meant was: The kids wearing you out? At least applying for the #CanadaChildBenefit is easy — AND you can do it one-handed on your phone.”
While the strategy was admittedly a clever way into a discussion about the benefit mentioned, frustrated residents accustomed to having to wait on hold for hours and have a general hassle of a time whenever they deal with the CRA were unimpressed.
“I was wondering where the heck my tax refund is, but clearly, they’re very busy,” one person wrote.
“The intern posting these likely drains over 100,000 a year of your tax dollars. Let that sink in,” said another.
Others wondered if the federal government was getting paid to promote the new installment of the film franchise.
Lol, they deleted it.
— Doug Subaru (@ElGibby3) July 4, 2024
Though the agency made the prudent decision to delete the post fairly quickly, the criticism continues to pour in, with a few sharing screengrabs of the post to ensure that the agency and whoever made the innocent bad call never lives it down.