A Liberal MP posted his photo with a Palestinian official. A critical comment was removed
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Zuberi represents the Pierrefonds-Dollard riding on the Island of Montreal. Ron Goldman, one of the riding's constituents, says he left a 'critical but civil' comment on Zuberi's post and that his comment was removed shortly after being posted.
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A post shared by Sameer Zuberi 🇨🇦 (@sameerzuberi.mp)
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A screenshot of the comment shows Goldman accusing Mansour of 'back[ing] a regime that educates children to hate and hides rockets in schools.' Goldman describes the ambassador as 'a propagandist in a suit' and calls Zuberi's meeting with Mansour an act of 'moral surrender.' The comment was not visible on Zuberi's Instagram post one day later, suggesting the MP or his staff may have hidden or deleted it. It is also possible that the comment was hidden by Instagram's content filtering algorithms.
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Zuberi's original post was made on a verified public account that he uses to share information about his political activities. The alleged removal of Goldman's comment raises questions about the line between appropriate content moderation and censorship by a public official.
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Frustrated by the removal of his comment, Goldman says that he reported his experience to the Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner. 'We're supposed to live in a democracy where all viewpoints are heard and discussed and debated. That's what really pissed me off … Whether it's on the left or the right, politicians should not be allowed to censor their constituents.'
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The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms protects freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression. Section 32 states that the obligations expressed in the Charter apply to Parliament, the Government of Canada and all provincial governments.
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Whether Section 32 extends to the online behaviour of individual Parliament members is 'a bit of a grey area,' according to Marty Moore, a lawyer at the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms.
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