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From: Thohahente Kim Weaver

Date: Tue, 07 Jun 2016 10:49:22 -0400


To: "cbc.ca" <info@lists.cbc.ca>, <alex.johnston@cbc.ca>, Jennifer McGuire
<jennifer.mcGuire@cbc.ca>, "brodie.fenlon@cbc.ca" <brodie.fenlon@cbc.ca>
Conversation: Changes coming to commenting on CBC.ca
Subject: Re: Changes coming to commenting on CBC.ca
She:kon
I have received your email update on the changes to be implemented on your online
properties. I offer the following points on your new plan based on my intimate
knowledge of systemic institutional racism, bigotry, white supremacy, IT systems and
processes, organized racist groups within Canada, and the methods and means racists
use to ensure the marginalized stay marginalized.
I have read all the materials you have posted on the changes. The summation of what
this means to Indigenous peoples is: nothing changes.
Simply put and backed by my research and evidence from other online news entities,
forcing real names to be used does not work with the racist community. They will pick
names that look real like Mohammed Singh and do their posts under that name.
Sometimes they will sign up using social media like a Facebook account. The account
will be there and may have a picture or two and a comment or two but most do not use
these Facebook pages. They often have a Facebook page under the legitimate name
because the organized racist groups use secret Facebook groups to organize and
strategize to get their message out and to suppress Indigenous voices. This is not
paranoia. I am a member of a group who have monitored online hate since 2006. We
know our field of interest.
Anyone can get an email account. In fact your can have dozens of email accounts. Many
of your email account users already use this trick. The entity known as InReality has at
least 2 other personas including Censored Cavalia. Another user Scott Duncan
(chosen to inflame because it is based on Duncan Campbell Scott, the racist politician)
has used several email address to create many personas including stealing my name on 4
occasions.
Understanding the above, it is clear that your email verification will not work. How will
you know that Fred Dickinson is real if it is a Hotmail account and is acknowledged from
that account. The simple answer: you dont. The racist will use this entity until you ban
them. This hardly ever happens because your moderators do not understand covert
racism or racism at all. I have thousands of posts documented from every news outlet
comment board.
The argument about the flag and the up or down post options do not work for
Indigenous Peoples. You really should ask why. I will tell you. We represent only 3 to
4% of the population within the corporate state of Canada. Significant numbers of that
percentage dont have Internet access or they do not read comment sections because

every mainstream media outlet allows both overt and covert racist posts every day. Our
group has documented it. Why would an already marginalized person seek additional
emotional and mental anguish by reading comments that further marginalize and
demean them? Simple answer: they dont.
The number of Indigenous Peoples who regularly use your comment boards is under a
dozen. There are in fact several people who regularly proclaim Indigeneity yet they are
unknown to any community and when pressed reveal they are just posing. This is
another cause of harm to our peoples and communities. When it comes to up-voting or
down-voting or flagging, the math says Indigenous voices will always be stifled.
Especially considering the organized nature of many of the racist communities online
where organized flagging and down-voting is a reality.
As a Facebook friend put it if there are 100 people in the room, and only 3 of them are
'Indians'...whose narrative is going to be heard? And whose will be silenced?
Your moderators are ineffective in recognizing, detecting, and acting upon expressions of
racist ideology. We have audited their performance. At one time it was so bad that we
could tell when shift changes occurred because the disabling patterns would change.
Today it is less capricious however racist comments, bigotry and outright willful
misinformation are propagated through your boards. Your moderators seldom catch
these.
Another issue is your reporting and editing standards have not changed. We have
developed a name for the kind of reporting/editing mainstream media does. We call is
Racist T-Ball. The imbalance of the articles that is derived from a purely settler biased
world view, is simply fodder for the racist community to build upon and spin into their
narrative. Until mainstream media begins to accept and understand the Treaty
Relationship and understands the an Indigenous worldview you will continue to
perpetuate and fertilize the growth of racist ideology.
The announcement posted by Alex Johnston yesterday was offensive and full of white
privilege. It is quite clear that if she heard any Indigenous voices she didnt listen.
The challenges we face are not to be underestimated especially with a community the
size of ours but well continue to strive to create a healthy space that reflects a diversity
of voices, encourages a shared understanding of our stories, and celebrates both our
differences and common values.
The CBC has never been a healthy space that reflects a diversity of voices for
Indigenous Peoples. Claiming this discredits our experience and marginalizes us because
we are not part of your healthy space. It is decidedly unhealthy. To claim this high
ground is dismissive of us as a group. You have a group of people in your community
who metaphorically spay paint verbal swastikas and offer bounties for red skin scalps.
There is no shared understanding. There is only a concerted effort to complete the state
sponsored genocide. There is no celebration of our differences either. This is white
privilege spoken by a white woman and from management team that is white. The
privilege is claiming something is universally so while conveniently not acknowledging
that it applies to white Canadians only.

While by and large, the submissions made to our sites respect the guidelines weve put
in place, we believe a fresh start will help correct some of the more troubling behaviours
we occasionally see.
This is more white privilege. You are giving yourself a get out of jail for free pass
when the truth for Indigenous Peoples is the issues were never occasional. They were
always. Calling the daily racist onslaught troubling behaviours is like Residential
Schools were a mere "sad chapter". as one of my Facebook friends noted. Such hubris
and disregard for the marginalized.
It is disappointing to see that several times a week a story on Indigenous People is
published with comments open. Your strategy on how Indigenous stories will be
handled is not clear. You have not addressed the issue. Your policing of your own policy
is ineffective.
I look forward to your comments
:nen ki' whi

Thohahente Kim Weaver


Turtle Clan

On 2016-06-06, 11:39 AM, "cbc.ca" <info@lists.cbc.ca> wrote:

Changes coming to commenting on CBC.ca


La version francaise suit. This email has been sent to all registered members of cbc.ca who use a
social media address to sign-in to our platform.
Wed like to share some important news about a move first announced in March
<http://link.upkne.com/c/443/02e85ff352e7b6bc340395df436743c74fb861ab73cd9bae2161c23e1
0e89a2123f1f694ea285081> and that we hope will have a positive effect on the conversations
happening in our online spaces. Starting next week, all CBC.ca community members will be
asked to use their real names when contributing to our sites.
Were starting over fresh, asking everyone who signs-in with an email address to create a new
account. For community members like you who sign in to our platform through a social media
account, you wont need to create a new account, but there are other things you need to know.
How itll work
Starting on June 13 at 10 a.m. ET, we will only accept comments for publication if theyre signed
by a name that looks real. Your name will be moderated, just as your comments are.
If you use a pseudonym now, youll need to change your name directly within the social media

site you use to log on. Heres your fair warning: if you change your name in this way, all the
past comments you made on our site will now be linked to your new name. If thats not something
youre comfortable with, you can create an entirely new account for commenting on cbc.ca, using
your email address.
A fresh start and a work in progress
This is just another step as we continue to evolve our digital communities; we welcome your
constructive thoughts, ideas and feedback. Most importantly, we hope youll help lead and shape
our new community. You can read more on how were building a better community on our blog
<http://link.upkne.com/c/443/02e85ff352e7b6bc340395df436743c74fb861ab73cd9baebd53d8738
27e0b8c23f1f694ea285081> and please check out the FAQs for more details
<http://link.upkne.com/c/443/02e85ff352e7b6bc340395df436743c74fb861ab73cd9bae4397f8144
7749b7123f1f694ea285081> .
Finally, we recognize that some of you wont be pleased with our move to real names, but were
hoping that the majority of you will see the value in promoting transparency within our online
communities.
Welcome to your new cbc.ca community (starting June 13).
Alex Johnston
Vice-President, Strategy and Public Affairs
and the CBC.ca Community Team

***
Ce courriel a t envoy tous les membres enregistrs de CBC.ca qui utilisent un compte de
mdia social pour se connecter notre plateforme.
Nous aimerions vous faire part dune annonce importante propos dune mesure annonce en
mars
<http://link.upkne.com/c/443/02e85ff352e7b6bc340395df436743c74fb861ab73cd9bae2161c23e1
0e89a2123f1f694ea285081> et que nous esprons aura un effet positif sur les conversations qui
se droulent dans nos espaces en ligne. compter de la semaine prochaine, tous les
membres de la communaut de CBC.ca qui veulent publier des commentaires sur nos
sites devront utiliser leur vrai nom.
Pour ce faire, nous prenons un nouveau dpart en demandant tous ceux qui ouvrent une
session sur nos sites avec leur adresse lectronique de crer un nouveau compte. Pour les
membres de la communaut qui, comme vous, accdent notre plateforme par lintermdiaire de
leur compte dun mdia social, vous navez pas crer un nouveau compte. Toutefois, il y a
certaines choses que vous devez savoir
Comment procder
compter du 13 juin 10 h HE, nous accepterons de publier uniquement les commentaires qui
seront signs par un nom vraisemblable. Votre nom ainsi que vos commentaires seront soumis
lattention dun modrateur.
Si vous utilisez actuellement un pseudonyme, vous devrez changer directement votre nom sur le
site du mdia social que vous utilisez pour ouvrir une session. Considrez ce qui suit comme
un avertissement officiel : si vous changez votre nom de cette faon, tous les anciens
commentaires que vous avez publis sur notre site seront dornavant relis votre nom. Si vous
ne souhaitez pas que cela se produise, vous pouvez crer un tout nouveau compte avec votre
adresse lectronique pour publier des commentaires sur cbc.ca.
Un nouveau dpart et des travaux en cours
Ce nest quun autre tape dans notre volont de faire voluer nos communauts numriques.
Nous vous invitons nous faire part de vos rflexions, ides et opinions constructives. Plus
important encore, nous comptons sur votre aide pour faire progresser et faonner notre nouvelle
communaut. Pour en savoir plus, lisez ce blogue sur la manire dont nous btirons une
meilleure communaut
<http://link.upkne.com/c/443/02e85ff352e7b6bc340395df436743c74fb861ab73cd9baebd53d8738
27e0b8c23f1f694ea285081> et consultez la FAQ pour plus de dtails
<http://link.upkne.com/c/443/02e85ff352e7b6bc340395df436743c74fb861ab73cd9bae4397f8144
7749b7123f1f694ea285081> (en anglais seulement).
Enfin, nous sommes conscients que certains dentre vous ne seront pas d'accord avec notre
dcision dexiger lutilisation de vrais noms, mais nous esprons toutefois que la majorit dentre
vous ralisera limportance de promouvoir la transparence sur nos communauts en ligne.
Bienvenue dans votre nouvelle communaut CBC.ca (ds le 13 juin).
Alex Johnston
Vice-prsidente, Affaires publiques et Stratgie dentreprise
et lquipe de la communaut de CBC.ca

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