A judge in Ontario Canada has ruled
that two women were defamed on
social media after
an out of context video where two
individuals were play fighting was
depicted as the mocking the murder
of George Floyd.
Now that out of context video lead
to severe ramifications for
the people involved.
And I want to give you those
details.
So in the spring of 2020,
just five days after the death of
George Floyd in Minnesota had
kicked off massive protests over
police brutality.
Shinya Lavelle posted a video on
Snapchat of her Sister Justine
play fighting with Shinya his
boyfriend as they often did.
Innocent video their play fighting
not a big deal.
But within days a screenshot from
the video that showed the boyfriend
kneeling on Justine's back was used
to ignite a social media firestorm
and all hell broke loose for
the lovely sisters.
Okay.
So, again, it's out of context,
it can be depicted in a way that is
inaccurate and
that's exactly what happened.
And so since it was depicted as
the two of them mocking
the the murder of George Floyd,
they start losing their jobs,
they start getting fired look guys
I'm bringing up the story because
well point number one obviously be
careful of videos you see online.
Make sure you have a longer video
giving you more context.
But secondly look as these debates
about whether or not cancelled
culture exists rages on,
it's always in regard to people in
positions of power.
It's always about people who
are privileged who aren't really
canceled?
They haven't really
lost their jobs.
They're actually making a lot more
money off of claiming they're
victims of canceled culture.
But I don't want that to dismiss
the fact that canceled culture is
very much real for
people who are not public figures.
People who don't have power and
people who do suffer serious
consequences when this kind of
stuff happens when something
is taken out of context to give
individuals the perspective that
the people depicted in the video
are bad or
that they've done something awful.
In this case,
they didn't do anything awful.
Someone decided to take them out of
context and
depict them in a negative light.
And they did in fact get cancelled
they lost their jobs these are
ordinary people who again are not
in any position of power >> And
a judge's rule they were right
there was no question about it.
They didn't have anything to do
with George Floyd by the way
they're Native Americans and so
everybody was calling them
racist they're not.
And just because they're Native
Americans doesn't mean that it was
like an ironic thing to Charlie it
wouldn't matter at all if
they were white or they didn't do
anything wrong >> Right >> Right?
And so look at who does doctored
videos more that's not a close
the right wing project Veritas
my god if you see right
when you're spreading a video from
a protest it is almost in 99% of
the time it is doctored.
It's edited, it's probably
incredibly misleading, right?
But judging too quickly and trying
to cancel people In social media,
in circumstance like
that unfortunately,
our sites does that more.
We're honest, okay?
>> Yeah, look I want to get,
this is how far it went okay?
So should Shania and
Justine were fired from their job
as I mentioned earlier.
One at the Canada Border Services
Agency, one at Boston Pizza, okay?
So these are not like, again,
they're not privileged people with
elite jobs and had other job offers
revoked, including Shania's
his upcoming job as a teacher.
Their home address,
phone numbers and
email addresses were posted online
leading to the family's home being
egged their neighbor's car getting
seriously damaged because it was
parked nearby and harassing phone
calls pouring in causing the family
to vacate the house for a week.
But they went further further.
So Shania's boyfriend was fired
from his construction job.
>> Jesus Christ.
>> There were also unsuccessful
attempts to get Lavallee's' mother,
Colinda, fired from her job
as an educational assistant at
the Ottawa Catholic School Board.
Why she wasn't involved at all, at
all >> This doesn't make any sense
>> No guys, this is toxic stuff.
Just please like give it a beat.
Give people the benefit of
the doubt make sure you know
all the facts and
don't be like I don't know man,
like this desire to like destroy
people's lives and get them fired.
I don't get it.
>> Now look,
I get the rage that when you see
someone doing something actually
racist and it's so frustrating and
the right wing in this country
have been above the law for so
long or this is in Canada.
But it doesn't justify going after
innocent people who didn't do
anything wrong.
So you have, look,
as progressives, you should always
always be seeking, not for
your side to win, or
inventing aside, right?
You should be in favor of justice.
And it's not just to prejudge
not have enough evidence and go and
try to ruin people's lives without
knowing what you're doing.
And that's not just that all and it
doesn't matter what the races are,
it doesn't matter what side
you think you're on.
So we can't keep doing this to
people.
And the right wing tries to get
people fired too and
it doesn't make sense and I've
defended people from when others
were trying to get them fired.
Are their situations when someone
actually did do it and
they're like a police officer and
they're in charge of other people's
lives and they should be fired?
Yes, there are circumstances
like that, but
you've got to have the evidence and
you've got to use the right
judgment without doing this willy
nilly, it's not fair to people.