Lenore Zann, actress turned Nova Scotia MLA, launches cyberbullying investigation after teen tweets nude image of her from The L Word
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Andrew Vaughan / The Canadian PressMs. Zann and Nova Scotia Justice Minister Ross Landry, left, tour flooded areas in Truro, N.S. on Monday, Sept. 10, 2012 |
Only a few months after voting to enact Canada’s first anti-cyberbullying act, actress-turned-Nova Scotia MLA Lenore Zann has employed the new law to launch an investigation against a teenaged constituent she alleges was cyberbullying her on Twitter.
Ms. Zann’s complaint, made earlier this month to the province’s newly opened CyberSCAN investigation unit, concerned 17-year-old high school student Nick Scissons who, on November 29, tweeted a nude image of Ms. Zann pulled from her 2008 performance on the Showtime drama series The L Word.
The scene in question takes place in the public shower of a women’s prison, and depicts a fully nude Ms. Zann intimidating a fellow inmate with a shiv.
Upon seeing the image, which was sent with the message “what happened to the old Lenore?” Ms. Zann tweeted back demanding its removal.
When Mr. Scissons ignored the request and was instead “rude and obnoxious and bullying” said Ms. Zann, she tweeted “Perhaps youve missed the new Federal legislation … Distribution of this image falls under the Criminal code. It has been reported.”
In truth, federal cyber-bullying legislation, introduced in November, is yet to be enacted. But Ms. Zann did contact both police and Nova Scotia CyberSCAN investigators.
“I did what we tell other women and youth to do, which is to call the police, call the CyberSCAN unit, and make a report. It doesn’t matter what age you are, you’re allowed to do it,” she said, adding that once she had explained the episode by phone to a Truro police officer, the officer replied “yes, that’s right, you’re being cyberbullied.”
Ms. Zann’s complaint, made earlier this month to the province’s newly opened CyberSCAN investigation unit, concerned 17-year-old high school student Nick Scissons who, on November 29, tweeted a nude image of Ms. Zann pulled from her 2008 performance on the Showtime drama series The L Word.
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FacebookNova Scotia MLA Lenore Zann has employed a new law to launch an investigation against a teenaged constituent she alleges was cyberbullying her on Twitter |
When Mr. Scissons ignored the request and was instead “rude and obnoxious and bullying” said Ms. Zann, she tweeted “Perhaps youve missed the new Federal legislation … Distribution of this image falls under the Criminal code. It has been reported.”
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Ms. Zann's exchange about the incident on Twitter |
“I did what we tell other women and youth to do, which is to call the police, call the CyberSCAN unit, and make a report. It doesn’t matter what age you are, you’re allowed to do it,” she said, adding that once she had explained the episode by phone to a Truro police officer, the officer replied “yes, that’s right, you’re being cyberbullied.”
In the meantime, she said, she tracked down the boy’s father and school principal to compel them to have the photos taken down. The original photo was removed, but Ms. Zann alleges she continued to receive abuse from the boy and his friends.
“The kid Tweeted back at me ‘hey @LenoreZann, why the f— did you call my father?” … then he wrote ‘you’re a C—T,’ then he wrote ‘answer me,” said Ms. Zann. “Now, that all sounds kind of intimidating to me.”As of Friday, Scissons’ Twitter account was set to private.
Ray McLennan, a Truro-based parrot sanctuary operator and frequent Twitterer, joined the exchange on December 3 by tweeting links to the nude images of Ms. Zann and calling them “pornographic.”
He said the next day he was contacted by CyberSCAN investigators warning of legal action unless the tweet was delete
“I was told that if I didn’t remove the offending tweets, as they referred to them, they would pursue charges,” he told the National Post. Under Nova Scotia law, those charges could possibly have resulted in penalties as high as $5,000 or six months in prison.
“I didn’t think politicians could be bullied,” added Mr. McLennan.
Nova Scotia investigators refused to comment on the case, citing privacy rules, but a spokesman with the province’s Department of Justice told the National Post “the Cyber-Safety Act is meant to protect all Nova Scotians, regardless of age, profession or background.”
Ms. Zann asserts that her position as both the boy’s and Mr. McLennan’s provincial representative does not alter the fact that cyberbullying took place.
“This has nothing to do with me being in politics … it has to do with me being a human being, a woman, living my life in the world,” she said.
Under the Cyber Safety Act, cyberbullying is defined as the repeated use of technology to cause “fear, intimidation, humiliation, distress or other damage or harm to another person’s health, emotional well-being, self-esteem or reputation.”
Nova Scotia’s Cyber Safety Act came into force in August, and was introduced in response to the April death of 17-year-old Cole Harbour, NS resident Rehtaeh Parsons.
At the time the teen committed suicide, her parents said she had endured years of relentless bullying all stemming from a sexual assault that had occurred two years earlier.
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An image from a 2008 episode of the Showtime drama The L Word in which Lenore Zann confronts another woman with a shiv in the shower. Zann has filed a cyberbullying complaint after a nude image of her from the sequence was tweeted. |
He said the next day he was contacted by CyberSCAN investigators warning of legal action unless the tweet was delete
“I was told that if I didn’t remove the offending tweets, as they referred to them, they would pursue charges,” he told the National Post. Under Nova Scotia law, those charges could possibly have resulted in penalties as high as $5,000 or six months in prison.
“I didn’t think politicians could be bullied,” added Mr. McLennan.
Nova Scotia investigators refused to comment on the case, citing privacy rules, but a spokesman with the province’s Department of Justice told the National Post “the Cyber-Safety Act is meant to protect all Nova Scotians, regardless of age, profession or background.”
“This has nothing to do with me being in politics … it has to do with me being a human being, a woman, living my life in the world,” she said.
Under the Cyber Safety Act, cyberbullying is defined as the repeated use of technology to cause “fear, intimidation, humiliation, distress or other damage or harm to another person’s health, emotional well-being, self-esteem or reputation.”
Nova Scotia’s Cyber Safety Act came into force in August, and was introduced in response to the April death of 17-year-old Cole Harbour, NS resident Rehtaeh Parsons.
At the time the teen committed suicide, her parents said she had endured years of relentless bullying all stemming from a sexual assault that had occurred two years earlier.
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Lenore Zann has been MLA for Truro-Bible Hill since 2009. |
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| in Cold Sweat (1994) |
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