The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
A slew of racist comments has prompted one of northern Manitoba's largest publications to take down its Facebook page. The Thompson Citizen newspaper announced the decision last week in a lengthy editorial. 'We won't mince words here. We're leaving because for some time commenters have been posting virulently racist anti-aboriginal comments on our page,' read the editorial, 'and tagging photos in a similar way, including our profile photo of the Thompson Citizen building this morning. It ends here. 'This newspaper is not going to stand by and let anti-aboriginal racists and haters spew their evil on a vehicle we're facilitating them using. 'We can't control Facebook to any real extent, nor can we control what commenters think and say. Nor should we. But we can control where we have an online presence and where we don't. 'Newspapers, needless to say, are about free speech and the exchange of ideas in a democracy, often hotly contested ones, so leaving Facebook is not an easy decision. But it is the right one.' The Citizen had nearly 2,900 Facebook 'friends' at the time of its decision. The newspaper created the page in 2010. The Citizen, which is owned by the same company as The Reminder, said it did not take the decision lightly, but some readers mistakenly thought the newspaper was able to control what went on the page 'to a degree that is not possible.' 'Alas, racism never sleeps,' read the editorial. 'Sadly, we don't expect that to change by our leaving Facebook, but we're not going to be a party to it on social media.'
