Indian community in Happy Valley-Goose Bay on edge after online hate

Members of Happy Valley-Goose Bay's Indian community are worried after ahateful postand xenophobic comments recently filled a community Facebook page.

A member of theFacebook group, which allows anonymous posts,shared a picture of a man in a car and accusedhim of trying to lure children. The post spurred xenophobic comments accusing people from other countries of threatening the town. However, members of the South Asian community say the picture shows a youth-care worker supervising a child in his care.

Pargat Singh, who owns theDairy Queen restaurant in the community,joined a few dozen people who came to town hall Monday in the hopes of speaking to Mayor George Andrews about the issue.

Singh sayshis family is nervous about being out in the open because of the comments.

"We are worried about the image," said Singh."The people are trying to make us look bad.

"We got the same blood inside and I think we should respect each and every one. We are not the bad people."

Singh says he has done a lot in thecommunity, including running his business and buying homes, to make it his home. He said he wanted to speak to the mayorto make him aware of the hatred.

"If we continuously get that kind of hate from the community where we're living, because there's a lot of foreign workers working in the businesses,nobody will stay here," said Singh.

New messaging needed, says mayor

Andrews says he is saddenedby the comments made online but he's not surprised, asnegative commentary is common on social media.

"When I see comments like, you know, that some people should go back to their countryand things like that, it upsets me," said Andrews.

He said he spoke withthe Association forNew Canadians and the town's Indian community to discuss messaging or programming that the city can use todiscourage negative comments.

"There's always the few folks that make commentary like that, that look bad on our community," he said. "I think we can work together collectively to try and curb that."

Andrews said it's not a new issue for the town'scouncil, as they have dealt with the ugly side of social media before. He said he hascontacted theadministrators of some Facebook groups to make changes to what kinds of posts are allowed.

The problem, he says, comes from people being allowed to make anonymous comments.

"With the ability to anonymously post, nobody has to be held accountable," he said.

Andrews saidthe town council can work toward creating a more accepting environment but they can't control what people post online.

However, Andrews said, he is going to bring the issue to the town's protective services committee and then hopefully draft a statement with the council.

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