Is it OK to taunt another member about having cancer?Nothing to do this Saturday night, so I decided to research that question. I looked into a handful of possibilities:
- Does it violate the Criminal Code of Canada under the Hate Crimes section (found in sections 318, 319 and 320)?
- Does it violate the Canadian Human Rights Act relating to descrimination of identifiable groups based on disability (found in section 3)?
- Is it captured by the proposed changes to the Criminal Code in Bill C-13 to make cyber bullying a punishable offense?
- Does it support an action for defamation under Common Law?
- Does it violate the Stockhouse Terms of Service?
- Does it show lack of decency based on my personal opinion?
Criminal Code of Canada:
This prohibits inciting violence against an identifiable group based on, among others, disability (section 318(4)). So if it doesn't incite violence, then it is not a hate crime. That's good, because the penalty is 2-14 years. I forgot to get the link for you. It will be similar to the CHRA link.
Canadian Human Rights Act:
Wikipedia says that the CHRA forbids the posting of hateful or contemptuous messages on the internet. Except when I read the CHRA, I could not find where it says that. I'm not a lawyer, so maybe I didn't look in the right place. But a search of the document for the words "internet" and "post" came up empty. Section 3(1) does say that the prohibited grounds for discrimination includes disability. However, most of the CHRA seems to deal with discrimination in providing services and employment, so it doesn't apply here. The CHRA is a 52 page document (containing english and french side-by-side) and is found at:
laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/PDF/H-6.pdf
Bill C-13 to amend the Criminal Code for Cyber Bullying:
I found in the transcript of the debate in Parliament some discussion about internet postings which are unpleasant and bullying. But I could not find anything in the proposed changes to the law which would deal with that issue. Bullying seems to be given a narrow meaning under the proposed legislation. It doesn't seem to cover Stockhouse kinds of posts. Further, it is complaint-driven, meaning you must file a complaint with the police, or they won't initiate an investigation. You can read all the changes, including others which affect your on-line privacy, at:
www.parl.gc.ca/LegisInfo/BillDetails.aspx?billId=6301394&Language=E&Mode=1
Defamation Civil Action This does not seem to apply. It would have to be un-true and it would have to cause measurable financial damage to their reputation. Since both parties are anonymous posters, I don't see how you can damage the reputation of an anonymous person.
Stockhouse Terms of Service:
I clicked on the link in the Stockhouse home page which says "Terms", but it took me back to the home page. However, I have my browser setup to block unauthorized redirects to other sites. Maybe the link works, just not for me. I also looked in the Stockhouse on-line help knowledgebase. I searched for relevant key words and found nothing.
Rube's personal test of fairness:
I am disheartened if we resort to taunting people about an illness. I thought we left that sort of thing behind when we graduated from public school.
Conclusion: For this particular situation, the only thing being violated seems to be Rube's sense of fairness. But I did see that the rules for on-line behaviour are in a state of change as the various laws try to catch up to the technology.