There is a man in Vancouver who happens to be a police officer. He was until this week a respected representative of the RCMP. He is also a respected member of the bdsm community.
Like many of us, he had great photo shoots done displaying consensual kink activities on fetlife. Well, someone leaked his photos to the powers that be. The RCMP began an internal investigation, and the media found out. Now the investigation has determined he has not broken any laws, that he has been involved in consensual activities. However that is not good enough for the apparently “tolerant” Canadian media. His bdsm activities are being described as perverse and abnormal. This man’s career is at this point ruined. His private life is now on display. He is being paraded out as an example of what a bad person does in their private life.
This media witch hunt is enough to make me sick. I never thought I would see such bigotry in Canadian News Media. But thank you society for proving me wrong.
What can we do? Write editorial replies and comments, constructively to the news media in response to these articles. (anonymously) Advocate rights and education for what we do. And present a positive example of who we are to the ignorant world at large. Better yet if you have connections to a news group that can put a better light on this, from a rights and lgbtq perspective please get this moving. I have yet to find a single article defending this poor man.
news articles referencing the situation can be found here:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2012/07/05/bc-rcmp-sex-photos.html
http://www.torontosun.com/2012/07/05/bondage-photos-rock-bc-rcmp
