Police investigating after Rehtaeh Parsons hate page hits Facebook

HALIFAX – Halifax police are investigating after a Facebook page aimed at smearing Rehtaeh Parsons appeared online Sunday.

The page cropped up less than a week after the launch of Nova Scotia’s new Cyber-safety Act.

“I can tell you we got reports late on Sunday that a page had sprung up on the Internet with regard to the Rehtaeh Parsons case,” said Cst. Pierre Bourdages of the Halifax Regional Police.

“We had numerous complaints from the public on this topic. We contacted Facebook which quickly took that page down.”

Sonya Higgins was one of the people who contacted police. She said she doesn’t know who’s behind the page, other than it’s likely an account with a fake name.

“It’s just such an outpouring and spewing of hatred and it’s so unkind that we feel that steps should be taken to prevent this person from having access to the internet period,” she said.

Higgins initially contacted Facebook, which told her after reviewing her report that the page didn’t violate its community standards, and would not be removed.

Police told her the page probably did not fall under the purview of the new cyberbullying laws.

Bourdages said it’s challenging to apply the law because it’s brand new.

“I really don’t have any information as to how the day-to-day files or work of our investigators will be impacted by the cyberbullying act,” he said. “It’s a very new piece of legislation, so more directives will be coming down as the weeks go by.”

He said investigators would “look at every piece of legislation that is available and determine if any criminal charges could be laid.”

Since Sunday, the site has been active and then inaccessible on at least two separate occasions.

“So they are pulling the site down, just long enough to get people calm about it,” said Higgins. “And they’ll probably put it back up again tonight. Who knows? They may not continue. Maybe twice was enough for them to stir the pot.”