Video - Windsor man who clubbed fish shamed, 'harassed' online

[agentaqua]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/windsor-man-who-clubbed-fish-shamed-harassed-online-1.2997259

Video - Windsor man who clubbed fish shamed, 'harassed' online

'Was it wrong? Maybe it was,' says man whose act was captured on video

CBC News Posted: Mar 16, 2015 5:42 PM ET| Last Updated: Mar 17, 2015 7:06 AM ET

Edmond Parent, a Windsor, Ont., man who was caught on video illegally clubbing a fish and tossing it back into the water, says online shaming has dogged him since the video was posted online last fall.

Another fisherman captured the act on camera, and then confronted Parent about his decision to club the muskie. The video was posted on YouTube and has garnered more than 300,000 views.

"It had no chance at living, I did the fish a favour by what I did," Parent told CBC's Havard Gould. "Was it wrong? Maybe it was."
■Windsor man fined for failing to minimize harm to fish

"I killed a fish so I deserve to be killed, or I deserve to be harassed?"

Parent has lots of company – in Toronto, a man sparked online furor after he was caught on video responding rudely to a woman who wanted him to move his bag off a seat on a city bus.

Public relations executive Justine Sacco was canned and faced a huge online backlash after making a remark on Twitter, saying: "Going to Africa. Hope I don’t get AIDS. Just kidding. I’m white!"
■Can online shaming be controlled? Should it be?

Parent, who has seen some of the online comments about him, was fined $1,000 earlier this month under the Fisheries Act for failing to release an undersized muskie in a way that would not cause further harm to the fish. He was also banned from fishing for two years.​

The angler who filmed the incident and confronted Parent said he's ready to move on.

"I believe he paid his price," said Mike Cowley, "He was convicted, he apologized. It's time to let it go."

With files from CBC's Havard Gould

 

[shuswap]

Cowley did the right thing by taking the video of the alleged offence at the time because authorities cannot be everywhere to enforce the rules. Although I believe Cowley did intend to shame Parent by putting this on YouTube I also do not believe he purposely went out of his way to ruin Parent’s life by posting it. He underestimated the lasting impact on Parent and knows now that enough is enough now. I think these days, in the heat of the moment, it is very easy to get out the phone, take a video, take it right to social media and have others to view it and make comment about. It’s definitely a double-edge sword because in one respect it can be good and help authorities, but in another respect it can be extremely harmful – potentially leading to violence if parties ever meet up. The real concerning thing is that factual information is not necessarily a prerequisite for public shaming on social media sites like YouTube or Facebook. Who said that the content has to be true? Someone may post a video, but there could be footage edited out in order to make the point that the author wishes to portray or there could be information that cannot be simply captured on video yet is needed for understanding what is going on. These days it does not matter if something may not be true – once it’s out there in the social circles it can take on a life of it’s own and really do some damage to a person’s reputation.

The goal should be to punish Parent appropriately under the law and to have him pay his debt which he has. Anything more is overkill and unnecessary, in my opinion. Some of those comments about Parent are bit over-the-top. I wonder if any of these critics did something wrong and got a second chance. I wonder how many of them had their dirty laundry displayed publically for all to see. Not trying to downplay what Parent did or say that the use of video is not justifiable ever, but at some point it’s time to move on and know that we also could be the target of these public shamings – even if we are not at fault.

I don’t understand Parent’s rationale about releasing this injured, undersized fish. If the fish was indeed mortally wounded, I would have had more respect for him if he would have kept the fish as part of his daily quota, cleaned it and ate it.

 

[agentaqua]

Couldn't agree more Shuswap

 

[Birdsnest]

I agree as well but I might add that any Tom Dick or Harry can get a fishing licence and go fishing so what do you expect. Like I have always believed we should all have to take a substantial course to have the privilege to go fishing like we do to hunt. This lack of education is in part to blame IMHO for such actions by uneducated individuals. I know there is great opposition to the idea of sport fisher education and that things like this will happen regardless but any improvement in angling knowledge is an improvement to fisheries management and work toward keeping the resource the best it can be.

 

[agentaqua]

perhaps surprisingly - this is a topic we all agree on BN