Ministry mistaken for dating service
OTTAWA • Some Facebook users have been mistaking Canada’s Status of Women ministry for a dating service offering Canadian wives, according to the government.
Comments to the agency’s posts that propose marriage are regularly deleted by staff. Spokeswomen Léonie Roux told the Post generic examples of such responses include, but are not limited to, “Looking for wife in Canada” and “I want a wife, I want to give you a call.”
Part of the trouble is the account username, “Women in Canada.” While this accurately reflects the agency’s area of focus, Roux said, it causes some users to make false assumptions. “Many of these comments originate from users located outside of Canada,” she said.
Comments from a post this week about a conference on gender-based analysis included, “Happy women in Canada. I’d love to have a date with one,” “I want found women live in Canada,” “i love canada women” and “best countary canada. best womans.”
These foreign bachelors probably aren’t looking at the account in very much detail. A current cover photo asks for requests for proposals on the topic of “support for women’s economic security,” and the “about” page explains, “Women in Canada is a federal government organization that promotes the participation of women in the social, political and economic life of the country.”
Online news site iPolitics first reported Thursday that Status of Women deletes posts that fall under two main categories: “1. spam, or 2. misunderstanding the purpose of the account (i.e. dating).”
The information came from a government response to a written question tabled in parliament. It showed other reasons for deleting social media posts or user comments ranged from the embarrassing to the politically problematic.
In one case, the response said, a Canadian museum consortium deleted some of its own posts mentioning a hashtag that some accounts were using to promote pornography. In another case, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission deleted what it decided was an insensitive “Happy Bastille Day” post not long after a terrorist attack at a Bastille Day celebration in Nice.
HAPPY WOMEN IN CANADA. I’D LOVE TO HAVE A DATE WITH ONE.