FIREFIGHTER FACES HEAT
Service probes online posts
In a case that raises questions about the rights and responsibilities of employees when they’re on social media, Ottawa’s fire department has launched an investigation after comments posted publicly by a firefighter were criticized as homophobic.
The comments by firefighter Graham Carriveau during a Facebook discussion contained crude references to oral sex. In a continuation of a heated online debate, Carriveau also sent a private message to Ottawa rap musician Jesse McDonald, calling him a homophobic slur.
McDonald filed a complaint with the fire department. Carriveau should lose his job, McDonald said.
“I don’t want that guy being a first responder to anybody in the community he’s attacking. I don’t want anybody to call in a fire, let alone an assault, and have him be the guy who shows up.”
Carriveau, in an interview, said it was wrong of him to make the homophobic remark. He lashed out in anger during the online discussion because he felt he was being attacked, he said. “I think it’s awful. I wish it never happened.”
He apologized to McDonald in a private Facebook message.
The Facebook debate was about a comment made by comedian Russell Peters when he hosted the Juno Awards in Ottawa.
Peters observed there were a lot of “young girls” at the show, and said: “This is a felony waiting to happen.”
Peters’ “joke” infuriated Ottawa musician Ian Campeau, whose band A Tribe Called Red opened the show. His daughters were in the audience. “Russell Peters decided to publicly reduce them to a notion that they are a threat to his freedom due his inability to not sexually assault them ... Russell Peters is a dirtbag,” Campeau wrote on Twitter.
The discussion continued on Campeau’s Facebook page, where he posted a Citizen column criticizing Peters.
Firefighter Carriveau commented, saying comedy is meant to break down barriers by laughing at everyone. Anyone who can’t handle that idea can “go live in a cave with your eyes closed and your fingers in your ears,” he said.
McDonald and other commenters disagreed, vehemently, and the tone got nasty.
Carriveau posted that McDonald was a “sensitive moron.”
“Get a life. Just because you’re gay I don’t hate. Does it bother you when people make gay jokes?” wrote Carriveau. “Go suck a d--- neck beard.” Carriveau made a similar remark to another commenter: “Well Neal, I know you want to suck a d--- but that’s not gonna happen.”
Ottawa Fire Services has a social media policy that covers the conduct of firefighters on and off the job, says Deputy Chief Kim Ayotte.
“In general, it says employees have a responsibility to act in an appropriate manner when dealing with people, especially when (employees) are identified as being with the fire service,” Ayotte said.
An employee who breaches the policy can be suspended or fired.
The policy says employees have the right as private citizens to express their opinions, but the personal use of social media can also hurt the reputation of the force, and employees have a responsibility to “avoid any inappropriate communications or behaviour in the presence of our community members at all times — this would include on social media.”
Employees should be respectful and courteous on social media, clarify that their opinions are their own, and “be forthright in identifying yourself,” the policy advises.
The investigation of the complaint against Carriveau is expected to take a week or two. While he won’t comment on the case, Ayotte said any investigation considers the context of a posting and whether the employee was identified as a firefighter or widely known as one.
“As the deputy chief, I’m known across the city, so if I were to make inappropriate comments, then whether I say I’m a firefighter or not, people know who I am, and therefore I will be held accountable for those comments.”
Cases similar to this one — involving social media and the grey area between public and private life online — are popping up more frequently in employment law, said lawyer Karine Dion of Nelligan O’Brien Payne. She said employees should be cautious about posting anything on personal social media accounts that may harm their employer’s reputation.
She cites a couple of examples of employees whose firings were upheld: an elevator repairman who posted a video of himself exposing his genitals while wearing a company T-shirt; and a restaurant server who took a picture of a written complaint by a customer and posted it online with a rude comment.
Many factors come into play, including whether the employee has violated a specific company policy; how many people saw the post and how long it was available online; the type of job, rank and public profile of the employee; and how clearly the post is linked to the employee’s job, she said.
“If you have to think, ‘Should I post this?’ the answer is probably no.”
Carriveau said he did not represent himself as a firefighter in the comments he made using his private Facebook account. In one post during the discussion, he said he was a civilian, in another he said his job should not be part of the conversation. But in other posts he appeared to make reference to his job by saying he hoped his critics never needed his help.
Others in the online debate Tuesday knew Carriveau was a firefighter, though, and part of the discussion was whether he should lose his job.
Carriveau said he had identified himself as a firefighter in his Facebook profile. By Wednesday, his profile simply said he lived in Ottawa. The Facebook thread begun by Carriveau, with the comments that are the subject of the complaint, has been deleted. McDonald made screen shots of the posts.
Several people wrote that Carriveau should be fired for his comments.At one point, McDonald asked if Carriveau would “make it long enough to die from emphysema or it’ll be more like a kind of, crushed under a falling timber situation?” adding later that, “I guess people don’t always appreciate a ‘joke’ when it’s just an ominous remark about a bad thing that someone might really be vulnerable to.”
Both Carriveau and McDonald accused each other of threatening remarks.
Carriveau also sent McDonald a private Facebook message: “You wanna threaten me? Come on Jesse. You’re so vocal on Facebook. You’re a big man. Come on f----t. I’ve got your threat ...”
Carriveau later sent another private message apologizing.
“Can we end this please? I apologize for what I said and this is going way too far. Trust me, I’m not a racist or a homophobe and I definitely do not condone rape.”