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City police asking anyone victimized by racist Facebook page to come forward

THUNDER BAY -- City police are calling a racist Facebook page disgusting.
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TBPS executive officer Chris Adams says investigation into racist Facebook page is in preliminary stages. (Jodi Lundmark, tbnewswatch.com)

THUNDER BAY -- City police are calling a racist Facebook page disgusting.

In a news release issued Friday evening, Thunder Bay Police Service officials said they were in the preliminary stages of an investigation into racially charged comments that have been posted on two Facebook pages.

One page in particular has a heavy racist tone to it regarding Aboriginal people, said executive officer Chris Adams Monday afternoon.

“As a community we should be concerned about this. Even if criminal charges don’t result, it’s still important for us to recognize this is not what we want Thunder Bay to be recognized for. We really should be taking a stand against racism,” said Adams, adding the police won’t be releasing the name of the page as they don’t want to encourage anyone to visit the site.

The investigation began after police received a complaint about the public page that showed demeaning photographs and descriptions.

The investigations branch is working on the case and while it is still early in the investigation and criminal charges may not arise out of the investigation, the police are asking anyone who feels they may have been victimized by the page to come forward.

“People don’t realize sometimes whey they are using social media, the damage that can cause … to cause people grief by singling them out because of their race, their religion, their beliefs or their lifestyle, choices they make, that is not right,” said Adams.

“This isn’t what Thunder Bay is. Thunder Bay is always going to have diverse opinions but we’re a diverse culture here and we have to recognize that and we ought to be living civilly together even on social media.”

The page has been shut down by Facebook twice but is back up again.

Although the investigation is still in the preliminary stages, Adams said the police believe they will be able to make contact with the administrator of the Facebook page.

“As with anything even though people think they have anonymity, eventually that anonymity will fad away,” he said.




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