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Canadian Official Escorted From House For Others' Facebook Comments

Posted by Unknown on from the computers-are-hard-ok dept.

New submitter zayyd writes "The CBC reports that publicly-elected Gerry Rogers, member of the Provincial Government for Newfoundland and Labrador, 'has been removed from the house of assembly for refusing to apologize for comments made by other users on a Facebook group of which she had been added to as a member.' Rogers was unwillingly added to a Facebook Group which included comments of death threats aimed at Premier Kathy Dunderdale from other users. From the article: 'Dunderdale said her government understands how Facebook groups work, and she said it is up to every MHA to monitor the comments posted on Facebook groups to which they belong.' Facebook's policies for Groups are somewhat clear, even if they don't actually answer the question of 'Can I prevent people from adding me to a new group?'"

40 of 205 comments (clear)

  1. Oh Canada... by DoofusOfDeath · · Score: 5, Funny

    You just seem more insane year after year. I wonder if there will be a day when Canadians gripe that they're on the verge of moving to the U.S.

    1. Re:Oh Canada... by ADRA · · Score: 2

      Trust me, for every one stupid thing Canadians do, there are like 100,000 stupid thing that Floridians do. Exaggeration, Ad Hominem, blah blah this entire article means nothing.

      --
      Bye!
    2. Re:Oh Canada... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      And for each stupid Floridian thing, Quebec does 20 more. Check Bill 14 and any American reading it would assume Hitler just got elected. Remember, before he put his batshit insane plan into execution he "only" did somewhat offensive things. After reading Bill 14 you'll figure why not just put the English into camps, may as well...

    3. Re:Oh Canada... by ebno-10db · · Score: 3, Funny

      The whole problem with overdone nationalism is that everybody wants to claim his country is worse than the other guy's.

    4. Re:Oh Canada... by Nocturnal+Deviant · · Score: 2, Insightful

      This guy is the stereotypical Canadian. They are closer to americophobes than americophiles, and the ironic thing there is absolutely no difference between Americans and Canadians besides the geographical location, yet when i lived there for 2 and a half years, the amount of times I heard Americans called stupid was exhorbitant.

      The media makes us Americans look stupid, and they lap it up just like...well pretty much every other country.

      --
      -Noc
    5. Re:Oh Canada... by Vanderhoth · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I think we get more American politics up here than Canadian. Harper makes sure no one talks to the press here so there's never anything to report unless it's something good concerning the conservatives or bad concerning the opposition. The liberals just elected a new head on Monday, the first I heard about it was from a conservative attack ad Monday night, and there's still two years until the next federal election.

      They sure don't waste anytime.

    6. Re:Oh Canada... by Dixie_Flatline · · Score: 4, Insightful

      There are plenty of things different between Canadians and Americans, and I'm not just talking about toques and hockey.

      There are plenty of ways that we're the same, too, but I don't get into arguments with my Canadian friends about restricting firearms. There's a lot less discussion of whether or not abortion is something that should be left up to a woman or who should pay for healthcare. The set of 'Canadian values' is different, it's just not so different that when you see the average American talk to the average Canadian that these things come out.

      Americans almost certainly don't deserve the vitriol that they occasionally get from Canadians (except for your dickbag border guards--what's WITH those guys?) and when push comes to shove, we're there. On 9/11, diverted planes landed at Canadian airports, and Canadians drove out to offer accommodations for the passengers that were stuck there. I was still in University, and basically every class had an announcement that we should go give blood. And we did.

      I'm pretty sure Canadians don't think Americans are any dumber than AMERICANS do. We just have the benefit of distance.

    7. Re:Oh Canada... by realityimpaired · · Score: 3, Insightful

      To be fair, it's Newfoundland. They're kind of like our version of Alabama. Sheep be very nervous on the rock...

      While I agree that our politicians need to pull their heads out of their asses on a whole host of issues, and that our current federal government has, in 8 years, very successfully destroyed the reputation that we spent 100 years building, we're hardly the only nation that's doing stupid shit with Facebook. And actually, a lot of what little privacy you actually have on Facebook is a result of our legislators...

    8. Re:Oh Canada... by computererds · · Score: 2

      I love these statements. Are these "happen to know" sources you can quote? Are those sources from anywhere other than Fox News opinion shows? (Remember, "news" is only on from 9a to 4p.)

      Being at a prestigious medical university hospital close to the boarder in the US, I know of a LOT of Canadians that have come here for elective or cosmetic surgery, but never anything life threatening or physically painful.

    9. Re:Oh Canada... by kenboldt · · Score: 2

      You know what, you are right, every single son in all of history has clearly been simply a carbon copy of their father.

    10. Re:Oh Canada... by realityimpaired · · Score: 4, Informative

      No, I am not exaggerating. True, it's not always that bad. But in some cases it is.

      Years ago it was. If you need something for a life-threatening condition, you'll have it fairly quickly. Even if it's not a life-threatening condition, you'll still have it fairly quickly these days.

      I've had a handful of surgeries in my life, and have never needed to wait more than 4 months for it, without leaving the country. And that 4 month wait was because there's only one surgeon in the country who's licensed to perform that particular procedure (there's only 4 in the US who could do it, too, so don't start telling me that it'd have been faster in the US: it wouldn't). The reason some people have longer waitlists than that is that they want a specific doctor, or are not willing to travel beyond a specific hospital (even if there's another hospital in the same greater metropolitan area that does the same surgery). If you don't ask if there's another surgeon available with a shorter waitlist, you might think the timeline that they tell you is actually real.

      On rare occasions a minor surgery may be bumped because of a life threatening situation coming up (happened for my knee surgery), but I was put on a cancellation list and had the surgery a week later. The cancellation list is, itself, another part of the reason that some people think they can't get surgery: I had 1 day of notice for the knee surgery the 2nd time around... the hospital called me at 4pm on a Wednesday, and said "can you be here tomorrow at 8am?". If folks aren't willing to adjust their schedules like that, then they can leave with the perception that they can't get treatment, even though the treatment is available to them, they're just not willing to work with the system.

      In rural cases, it can be a bit worse, but there's still plenty of hospitals available if you're willing to travel a couple of hours. We have some *extremely* rural areas where you're 6 hours by helicopter away from the nearest hospital, but most of the population isn't anywhere near that distant.

    11. Re:Oh Canada... by qzzpjs · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I agree that media might play into our Canadian perceptions of the U.S. in that we have the benefit of getting news from non-US sources. Granted they're mainly Canadian, but they're not so tied to Democrat or Republican parties so they are less biased in either direction and give use fuller coverage.

      We can see how people are unaware of facts on either side of debates because the news they watch is biased and never gives opposing view points or opposing facts. We can see how religion is trying to push itself into your government, laws, and education even though your constitution specifically tried to separate it. We see how you screw the poor in your country by denying minimum wages for people who end up having to work 20 hours a day just to survive. And we can see the stupidity of how much money America wastes on things like the military given that no other 15 countries in the world could possibly be a threat! And we see how you're constantly involving yourself in other countries politics in order to push your interests which causes them to dislike you.

      And now, your U.S. Senate just passed a bill preventing the signing of a NATO international gun control treaty because it could prevent U.S. citizens from selling weapons to your own enemies! The only other countries that didn't sign were Iran, N Korea, and Syria which makes you just as bad as them. How can we NOT consider that stupid??

      I'm not saying we don't have our own issues and have the same problems seeing them in our media, but it's usually internal to our country and doesn't affect the entire world.

    12. Re:Oh Canada... by AllenABQ · · Score: 2

      Just because some Canadians come to the US for healthcare doesn't mean they are footing the exorbitant costs that come with the US medical system out of their own pockets. There are provisions to cover treatment if there are shortages or delays in being able to get the same care in Canada and a qualifying US provider can offer it. This is especially true of near-the-border communities that are closer to more comprehensive US health-care facilities.

      So go back to your friends and get some specific data points. How many of them had non-elective procedures done in the US, and of those how many were covered by Canadian health insurance?

    13. Re:Oh Canada... by ilsaloving · · Score: 2

      Our fair country Canada
      Is north of the USA
      Our Maritimes are lovely
      And our prairies give us hay
      You might think you Yankees
      Are better than us Canucks
      But we don't need no microchips
      Inside our hockey pucks

      We know that you've got disneyworld
      and you keep it very clean
      we dont have Bob Dole
      and we can drink when were 19
      we may watch your TV shows for hours and hours and hours
      We'll give you Alan Thicke
      But Shania Twain is ours

      We're proud to be Canadian
      We're awfully nice to strangers, our manners be our curse
      It's cool in many ways to be Canadian
      We won't say that we're better, it's just that we're less worse

      Your beer is not too tasty
      and your weather can't be beat
      We all fly south in the winter time
      to escape the snow and sleet
      We're pleased to say that
      we've enjoyed all your southern charms
      but we get sun burnt
      when we exercise the right to bear our arms

      We're proud to be Canadian
      We're awfully nice to strangers, our manners be our curse
      It's cool in many ways to be Canadian
      We won't say that we're better, it's just that we're less worse

      Alanis Morissette
      she is our latest pride and joy
      She used to sing about High school dances
      and chasing after boys
      But now she is fed up
      and about as angry as can be
      she's got one hand in her pocket
      and the other's on guard for thee

      We're proud to be Canadian(proud to be canadian)
      We're awfully nice to strangers,
      our manners be our curse (we're just too darned nice)
      It's cool in many ways to be Canadian
      We won't say that we're better (no), it's just that we're less worse (pick it up, pick it up)

      We're proud to be Canadian (we're proud to be Canadian)
      We're awfully nice to strangers, our manners be our curse(can i get the door for u ma'am)
      It's cool in many ways to be Canadian(its cool cause it's cold up here)
      We won't say that we're better (noooo), it's just that we're less worse

      we wont say that we're better, its just that we're less worse

    14. Re:Oh Canada... by Capt.DrumkenBum · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I am a proud Canadian. I am not proud of my youngest sister. She is a total bitch and should pay her debts. This debt is as a result of her choices.
      But any system where someone can suffer a relatively minor injury, (Broken ribs, and a punctured lung.) and be financially crippled by it for the next 10 years is seriously fucked up! Yet American people somehow continue to defend this system. The Canadian system is not perfect, but it mostly works and doesn't bankrupt people.

      --
      If I were God, wouldn't I protect my churches from acts of me?
    15. Re:Oh Canada... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      If you don't like being called stupid maybe you should stop electing people like Bush.

      I hate to break the difference to you but there's quite a bit of difference between Canadians and Americans. Canadians, for example, know that torture is wrong. Americans also know that torture is wrong -- the difference is that, faced with that information, Canadian's won't torture while Americans will re-define torture so that they can get away with it legally.

      It isn't just the media that's making you look stupid, it's you. For fuck's sake, you can't even decide whether or not a multiracial prom in Georgia is a good idea. You embarrass yourselves on the world stage regularly and yet you still demand and expect to be revered like gods. You're not. You're barely even human.

    16. Re:Oh Canada... by vux984 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Actually, free movement and all, if I were in my 20's living in Canada, I'd move to the US,

      Not as easy to get a green card as you'd think. I know a couples who have transferred south husband was in embedded programming and the wife (a professional radiologist in Canada was unable to get a green card to work at all, never mind in her field, in the states for several years) -- they didn't expect it would be that tough. The pay raise and lower taxes didn't account for much since she couldn't work, his employer at least offered health care though, which was at least good.

      because I would bet that I would not likely need medical care.

      And that bet on medical care isn't all that great. A family member broke his leg skiing a few weeks ago, that'd be enough to royally screw him over stateside. Between surgery, a couple custom carbon fiber casts, physio, and going on 4+ months of not being able to work... yeah.

      You can bet you won't need medical care, but that's a bet you can lose. A broken leg is pretty minor and the cost is in the 10s of thousands... what if it had been a spinal injury instead?

      What happens if you lose the bet?

      THEN when I started to get older and sicker, move back to Canada for all the free healthcare I never had to pay for.

      Yep, that's sounds like planned abuse of the system to me.

      And now, you know why Socialism doesn't work unless everyone is forced into it.

      Canada should simply deny you re-entry to the country unless you are paid-up with respect to your accumulated share of health care costs. Citizenship isn't free. If you'd like to visit get a VISA and if you stay longer than that we'll deport you back where you came from.

      Honestly I think that's the direction things will eventually take, and there are already rumblings in that direction as people absolutely are out looking to abuse the system in unsustainable ways.

      And that is not freedom.

      Forcing socialized medicine is no more or less free then forcing socialized public works like police, fire, roads, pollution controls, parks, schools.

      I personally think the type of "freedom" you seem to long for is not as good as its cracked up to be. There's a few places in Africa and South America that should be free enough for you though... none of them places I'd want to live.

    17. Re:Oh Canada... by mdw2 · · Score: 2

      It's because Americans all think of themselves as rich people who just aren't rich yet, and they sure as shit don't want to spend their when-i'm-rich money on taxes going to poor people.

      --
      This sig intentionally left blank.
  2. And we're glad of it. by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 3, Funny

    "Well!" think half the other MPs, "Thank god I don't even know how to use a computer."

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    (-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
  3. Article Not Clear by ZombieBraintrust · · Score: 2

    Was she removed from the building? Or was she removed from her job? She is an elected official, was a trail needed to remove her? Or can the majority party remove any member with enough votes?

    1. Re:Article Not Clear by Tridus · · Score: 4, Informative

      Building. It's a common form of enforcement of House rules.

      --
      -- "So they told me that using the download page to download something was not something they anticipated." - Bill Gates
  4. Facebook knows by c · · Score: 4, Insightful

    No doubt there's something in her Facebook activity history indicating whether she joined herself or was added by someone else. That should be all the proof she needs.

    --
    Log in or piss off.
    1. Re:Facebook knows by Derekloffin · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Even if she is lying and did join herself (something I seriously doubt), this is NOT the way it should be handled. This is the equivalent of guilty until proven innocent for someone else's crime. It is disgraceful. Oh, and gives me yet another reason to never join facebook.

    2. Re:Facebook knows by coldfarnorth · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Or seek elected office in Canada?

      --
      Lets start refering to The War Against Terror by it's initials. . .
  5. That doesn't seem like a good system by PhamNguyen · · Score: 5, Insightful

    She was removed for "contempt", for refusing to apologize. This seems like a misuse of that kind of procedure. Contempt should be for, for example, swearing at another politician in the chambers. Being able to remove elected politicians on such a slim pretext is very dangerous to democracy.

  6. Proper form of apology by Attila+Dimedici · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The proper form that the apology should have taken is this, "I am sorry that anyone was offended because someone added me to a Facebook Group that included tasteless comments, comments that may constitute illegal threats of violence, made by someone else. I do not condone such language."

    --
    The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
    1. Re:Proper form of apology by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      I absolutely never ever apologize for something I did not do or for something that is not my fault.

      But then again, I am not Canadian.

  7. guilty by association... by schlachter · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I guess if they want to burn you in politics, they will find a way...no matter how ass backwards.

    --
    My God can beat up your God. Just kidding...don't take offense. I know there's no God.
  8. The obvious solution: by LihTox · · Score: 5, Funny

    Add Kathy Dunderdale and her allies to as many unseemly Facebook groups as possible.

    1. Re:The obvious solution: by pla · · Score: 4, Funny

      Add Kathy Dunderdale and her allies to as many unseemly Facebook groups as possible.

      Already starting, this should get amusing fast.

      Ms. Dunderdale, you've made it clear that "it is up to every MHA to monitor the comments posted on Facebook groups to which they belong" - So why haven't you denounced your fellow members of such hate groups as "Mothers Against Sober Driving", "Nazi Party of Canada", and "The Vatican" yet?

    2. Re:The obvious solution: by Darinbob · · Score: 2

      I'm not a facebook user. Can you really add someone to any group you want without their permission, and yet you are simultaneously require permission to friend someone? Who would create such a broken system?

    3. Re:The obvious solution: by michelcolman · · Score: 2

      A hate group that deliberately confuses people? Sounds like the Vatican allright.

  9. In Canada by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Apologizing is serious business.

    1. Re:In Canada by ArcadeMan · · Score: 4, Funny

      And we apologize for that, too.

      --
      Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
  10. Meanwhlie, nobody in Canada cares by Tridus · · Score: 5, Informative

    Speaking as a Canadian... yawn. This is not getting much attention in Canada. It's just a couple of parties in a provincial legislature finding something new to bicker about. The same sort of thing happened last week in New Brunswick over who called someone a "witch" first, so they could determine who had to retract it (they had to go back to video of the session to answer that one). This one just happens to involve Facebook, and so it's sexy to some media.

    What happened is entirely routine. Someone was involved in something that goes against the decorum of the legislature, someone else complained. They wouldn't apologize, so they were tossed out of the building for the day. They leave the FB group and the whole thing goes away. Almost nobody outside the legislature gives a damn, except to point out that it's not a terribly professional or productive environment if this is taking up significant time.

    If the same thing had happened only not involving Facebook, the story would not be posted here. Politics is absurd on either side of the border, only people outside Canada don't see the local variety of "absurd" very often. Today you get to.

    --
    -- "So they told me that using the download page to download something was not something they anticipated." - Bill Gates
  11. And yet.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ..nobody had been removed for the outright lies and slander of the various political attack ads that have been running in Canada. Apparently you can only be removed for something you didn't do or say.

  12. Queue Passive Aggressive FB Apology... by DarthVain · · Score: 4, Funny

    "I'm sorry that Kathy Dunderdale, the Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador, does not understand how basic technology such as social media works. I am also sorry that her office makes knee jerk decisions based on bad information and do not take the time to validate facts before making unwarranted demands. I am sorry that Newfoundland and Labrador has such an inept government, though I am pleased that they were able to solve all the other pressing issues and problems before proceeding on this most important issue."

  13. Re:Justice Minister Darin King by AJWM · · Score: 2

    And here I thought we had a monopoly on stupid politicians here in the States.

    Alas, "stupid politician" is a redundancy the world over.

    --
    -- Alastair
  14. Oh, Dunderdale... by Runefox · · Score: 3, Informative

    Living in Newfoundland myself, I've been hearing non-stop about her exploits as premier lately. It seems she's bat-shit crazy - That is, moreso than the rest of us. Among some of the other things she's tried to do have been to seal public spending records to make it impossible to see what the province is doing with its money, slashing education budgets, aggressive politics, compulsive lying and just generally being a slimeball.

    Her predecessor (from the same political party - the provincial equivalent to the Conservative party) fought tooth and nail against the Harper government, even going so far as to recommend voting against him, but she regularly rolls out the red carpet and kisses ass whenever the prime minister and his cronies are around. It's obvious that like most of our premiers, she only wants to get in good with the federal government so that she can move up to a position there, and really has no other concerns than that. Her tactics are almost identical to the Harper government, to boot.

    Sad thing is, this keeps happening because people here vote based on their voting history, not their actual ideals or which party would do the best job.

    --
    Screw the rules, I have green hair!
  15. Re:Please don't do this. by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 2

    I am very glad at least you took me seriously. There are folk out there who might mistake my posting as a thinly veiled suggestion to add Dunderdale to all kinds of facebook groups. But your posting shows that I was seen to be very serious. Thanks buddy

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    sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact