The families of two people in B.C. who were recently assaulted are questioning the actions of some witnesses who recorded the attacks, then shared them on social media.
Last week in Kelowna, two teenage girls were attacked by another group of teens while waiting for the bus, with one victim telling Global News that she was punched in the face multiple times. The assault was recorded and reportedly shared online.
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Recording an assault or other criminal act and posting it to social media is not a crime, even if it is extremely graphic.
“The only time that you could get into an area that may attract criminal penalties for sharing that type of information is potentially in the case where you’re encouraging the activity that’s depicted in the video,” Vancouver criminal lawyer Kyla Lee told Global News.
Earlier this week, 37-year-old Paul Schmidt was fatally stabbed out front of a Starbucks in Vancouver. He’d gone there with his wife and young daughter.
“Having a social media platform have to play whack-a-mole with a video that might become evidence in a criminal matter every time it shows up, is asking a lot … particularly because lots of them are not based in Canada,” Lee said.