Some of you may recall the attention given to Destination Cape Breton's promotional package of 2015, more specifically, the fact that although the product claimed to represent Cape Breton's diverse cultures, there was no mention of the Mi'kmaw people to be found. It was also rather white and straight, and they did catch some flack for that, but I put a lot of effort into the lack of First Nation content. I work with First Nations communities and knew about the Powwow Trail, the Membertou Heritage Centre, The Wagmatcook Culture and Heritage Centre, Goat Island, among others, and could find no reason for the exclusion of these offerings other than systemic racism. I have also worked with intercultural and tourism projects both in Cuba and in Chile, and I knew about cultural tourism decades ago. I know it is a product that tourists are interested in and felt that systemic racism was keeping the opportunities invisible to decision makers in the field. I spoke my mind.

Some say that some within Destination Cape Breton took it personally. The good news is that they also took some of what came out during the controversy under advisement and actually improved their promotional product. This is the best part of community engagement. I congratulate them.

Still I wonder why they cannot rise above personal grudges, and why they have me banned from participating on their FB page. It is true that I did speak my mind on the first few Youtube Videos that were posted, but I was not rude. I did not swear. I did not break any of Canada's hate language protections. What I had done was speak the unspeakable. It wasn't personal. It was about something that is systemic here. I did take my concerns to radio, TV and the printed press. This is what democracy is all about. This is the fine country we live in.

Why then is the personal result the fact that I cannot Like or Comment on any of their posts? Is this not rather infantile?

Another question you may have: "Why am I bothering with this?". I believe that we are living in a new age of potential transparency and democratic engagement, and that we will all be better off if elected and public officials embrace it. There are those who have figured out that at this moment they must at least have a FB page. That is a good first step. Official Communications lived with the "one to many" model for a very long time; most of our recorded history. So they are going with that model. But now we have the interwebs. We quickly transitioned through several intermediate steps like instantaneous Person to Person (P2P), some of us enjoyed the delights that Many to One bit torrents offered, but even that has evolved. We are now on the frontier of Many to Many, and successful communicators, as well as successful community leaders, will learn to deal with it.

Below are two screen grabs of the top part of the Destination Cape Breton Facebook Page. One is as it is seen by me. The other is as it is seen by another member of the general public.

First we have as I see their page. I can Unlike the page, Share it, or Share their posts, but I cannot comment on a post, comment on another comment, or even Like an individual post. What is the point here? I cannot contact them with this question as the contact button is also unavailable, as is the direct Message button. Hence this public speaking to them. 

Secondly we have the page as seen by another, someone who doesn't even like it. Even so, as any interested viewer of their content would expect, they ARE able to comment and like posts, find out how to contact the page owners via email I presume from the icon, or direct message them with any concerns.

OK Destination Cape Breton, it is time to grow up. You are a publicly funded agency who has blocked an individual for offering constructive criticism. How do I know it was constructive? Your 2016 package is much better.