Canadian Official Escorted From House For Others' Facebook Comments 205
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?'"
Facebook knows (Score:5, 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.
That doesn't seem like a good system (Score:5, Insightful)
Proper form of apology (Score:5, Insightful)
guilty by association... (Score:4, Insightful)
I guess if they want to burn you in politics, they will find a way...no matter how ass backwards.
Re:Facebook knows (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Facebook knows (Score:5, Insightful)
Or seek elected office in Canada?
Re:Oh Canada... (Score:3, 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.
Re:Oh Canada... (Score:5, Insightful)
They sure don't waste anytime.
Re:Oh Canada... (Score:5, 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.
Re:Oh Canada... (Score:4, 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...
Re:Oh Canada... (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.
Re:Oh Canada... (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.
Re:Oh Canada... (Score:4, 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.