Social Media:

The Generation

Gap

Judge Christine Harapiak Provincial Court of Manitoba

1981

August 1982

Talk to Strangers!

• Independence • Integrity • Diligence • Equality • Impartiality

Poll QuestionHas anyone ever uploaded images of you to the Internet?

1. Yes 2. No

someone else uploads intimate photos of you onto a website

ACJ Lori Douglas

nude photos of Douglas were taken by her husband, Lawyer Jack King, and uploaded to a website - Chapman was directed to it

Lawyer Jack King

Client Alex Chapman

“A live issue in the CJC inquiry into Justice Douglas is whether or not she disclosed the existence of the photographs as part of her

application to join the judiciary.”

Sossin & Bacal supra

canary in a coal mine• "The ...judicial investigation

into the conduct of Justice Lori Douglas represents...a particular kind of canary in a particular kind of coal mine.

• Soon, it will be hard to imagine a judicial appointee who does not bring significant social media baggage of one kind or another."Sossin & Bacal, "Judicial Ethics in a Digital Age" (2013) 46:3 UBC L Rev 629 at 622-23

#icanneverbeajudge

What's in your

digital baggage?

–

"Over time...this unfamiliarity with digital baggage will disappear. We think it will be only

in the most egregious cases that a judicial nominee's digital baggage will be disqualifying

(for example, where it contains evidence of unlawful activity). There is no reason to think

that the judicial oath will be any less significant as a rite of passage with a candidate's digital baggage than with other roles they have taken

on in the past..."

Sossin & Bacal supra

Poll QuestionHave you ever mistakenly posted on someone's

Facebook wall instead of sending a private message?

1. Yes 2. No

you post on a Facebook wall thinking you are sending a private message

Inadvertently posted criticism of fellow judges on prosecutor's Facebook page

Justice Dianne Nichol

–Professor Karen Eltis, University of Ottawa "Does Avoiding Judicial Isolation Outweigh the Risks Related to 'Professional Death by Facebook?'"

2014 Laws636, online: http:/www.mdpi.com/2075-471X/3/4/636

“Restricted judicial use of social media...appears to be the burgeoning direction of most jurisdictions as views on the point crystallize.

In this vein, mandatory social media training can assist in further fleshing out the content of such proportional or least restrictive restrictions, with particular emphasis on the indelible nature of ESM, the illusory perception of anonymity that tends to embolden unnecessarily and the risk of third-party use of replicated posts.".”

Poll QuestionDid you use social media prior to becoming a judge?

1. Yes 2. No

you tweet unflattering things, not thinking you may run for

office one day

2015

Federal election - videos surface of candidate making

crank calls - pretending to be

disabled in one call

Dropped as candidate

Manitoba provincial election -misogynistic tweets by candidate

Candidate Resigns

Star candidate's homophobic

and misogynistic tweets/rap

lyrics surface - no resignation

Candidate wins

The Use of Social Media by Canadian Judicial Officers

• Canadian Centre for Court Technology

• Published May 2015

Context - social media usage

• Forum Research Poll for 2015

• Facebook 59% • Instagram 16% • Linked In 30% • Twitter 25%

Judges?Visit in personal capacity

more than once a day to rarely

contribute in

personal capacity

visit in professional

capacity

contribute in a professional

capacity

Sossin and Bacal - key content for guidelines should include

• Definition of Social Media • Freedom to participate subject to precautions • Duty to understand any SM used • Be aware of court's SM policies and

practices • Be accountable for conduct on SM • Be aware of conflict issues on SM • Understand "personal" activity will reflect on

judiciary

Plug into the work wide web but remember your safety hat!

–Professor Jeffrey Rosen "The End of Forgetting"

NY Times July 21st, 2010

"In the meantime as all of us stumble over the challenges of living in a world without forgetting

we need to learn new forms of empathy, new ways of defining ourselves without reference to

what others say about us, and new ways of forgiving one another for the digital trails that

will follow us forever."