❗Let's close the gap: We still need your help to raise $40,000 by April 1. Donate now
Codebreaker

Online lynch mob goes after rioters – IN CANADA!

John Moe Jul 1, 2011

It just seems awfully aggressive for our friends from the North. Then again, it’s about hockey. So after the Vancouver Canucks lost in game 7 of the championship, some of their fans rioted in downtown Vancouver. They set fires, broke stuff, all kinds of idiot behavior.

Or “behaviour”.

Canada.

Websites and Facebook pages have now been set up where people are encouraged to identify and shame the people who were rioting. One of the rioters says he’s been getting lots of calls, some with homophobic slurs, some telling him to kill himself. A 17-year-old water polo player who had been hoping to make the junior national team is accused of being a rioter (his name can’t be officially linked to the riots by the cops) and there’s a big movement to keep him off the team now.

From the Guardian:

The Canadian media has also reported cases of employers Googling job applicants suspected of being involved or sacking those already in their employ, including Connor McIlvenna, a carpenter fired for applauding the rioters on his Facebook page, after posting that “Vancouver needed remodeling anyway.”

There’s a lot happening in the world.  Through it all, Marketplace is here for you. 

You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible. 

Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. For just $5/month, you can help sustain Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.