Airdrie single father of six, Norm Nelson, said he’s been bullied online and is having difficulty finding anyone to help him make it stop.
It all started in approximately November 2015 when someone on the Airdrie Dads Facebook group, a closed group with approximately 1,620 members, made a remark, which Nelson said he found offensive. He also said he stuck up for another member of the group and found himself bullied as a result.
Nelson said he decided to leave the group after what he called repeated and consistent harassment.
“It’s been continuous. This just isn’t right. It’s a dads’ group,” he said. “I’ve asked admins (of the Airdrie Dads Facebook Group), ‘please, can you make this stop,’ but I keep getting sent stuff from friends about what they’re saying about me.
“The admins have the power to delete the comment and kick people out of the group, but they won’t do it.”
The Airdrie City View was unable to contact the admins of the Airdrie Dads Facebook group for comment because it is a closed group.
Nelson, who co-owns a home renovation business, said, “I’ve lost jobs because of this. And when your kids come home saying other kids are talking about it, it’s not right.”
Nelson said he has filed two complaints with Airdrie RCMP, however, both times he’s been told there is nothing they can do under the Canadian Criminal Code or the City of Airdrie’s anti-bullying provisions of the Public Behaviour Bylaw. Nelson said he also sought the assistance of Mayor Peter Brown.
“I’ve received no result whatsoever. The mayor said, ‘take it to the police,’ and the police said ‘there’s not much we can do about it, sorry.’”
Airdrie RCMP Media Liaison Constable Francine Hennelly said RCMP has a requirement to prove authorship of anything considered harassment. In the case of online bullying, this can be very difficult to do.
“Specific persons have to be identified and a profile name would not suffice as identity. To pursue charges, police have to produce evidence as to the person entering the data,” she said.
Hennelly said RCMP recommended Nelson leave the Facebook group, which he has done.
All of which leads Nelson to wonder about its effectiveness.
“The bylaw hasn’t served me. I think the bylaw needs to be changed. It needs to be more specific,” he said.
The anti-bullying provisions of the Public Behaviour Bylaw were approved by City council in September 2013. Since coming into effect, no one has been charged under the bylaw.
Brown said the bylaw was initially approved to “educate the public and to say in Airdrie we don’t tolerate bullying, it’s not a behaviour that we want to see. When we implemented the bylaw, there had to be some crunch behind it, some umph.”
He said he was not able to comment on Nelson’s case specifically, however, “if we have bylaws in place that are not enforceable, they’re not working, then we need to re-evaluate. In terms of the bylaw’s effectiveness, obviously, we haven’t charged anyone.
“From a personal perspective, if it’s not going to be a tool that’s going to directly impact the people who are doing these things then we need to re-look at it. I believe we’re revisiting it in the first part of this year.”
