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Burnaby mayor’s Wikipedia page hit by online troll

Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan’s Wikipedia page has gone to the dogs.
Burnaby wikipedia corrigan
Mayor Derek Corrigan's Wikipedia page has been altered by an online troll about the city's decision to strengthen its breed-specific legislation recently.

Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan’s Wikipedia page has gone to the dogs.

On Corrigan’s Wikipedia post under his usual biography about attending school, being called to the Bar of British Columbia in 1978 and being the city’s mayor since 2002, underneath the emboldened word Controversy is a blurb on the issues around breed-specific legislation.

As previously reported by the Burnaby NOW, the city decided to strengthen its breed-specific legislation, which directly contrasted all the delegations that presented to council calling for the opposite.

Someone wrote a few paragraphs outlining how the city’s decision was “not based on fact.”

“The report not only failed to consider peer-reviewed studies, successful dog legislation from other communities, and the opinions of the local SPCA, but it also presented questionable data,” the altered Wikipedia post states.

The post is written with five references, which would allow it to get through Wikipedia’s filter by meeting the guidelines of how to post.

“Flaws in the city’s study were pointed out by several (debates), both in-person and in print, including an associate professor of mathematics,” the post states. “Burnaby city council disregarded the advice of both the delegates and the general public, who were overwhelmingly opposed to breed-specific legislation.”

The extra post also mention’s how all the Burnaby councillors and mayor are from the same political party.

“His councillors, all members of the same NDP-affiliated Burnaby Citizens’ Association, ended up voting unanimously in favour of the changes proposed in the report, each one in turn coming up with a different reason (not based on fact) and not providing delegates the opportunity to refute,” the post states.

Corrigan is not the only local politician whose online presence has been toyed with.

This past summer, an online troll pretended to be New Westminster’s mayor on reddit.com.

Mayor Wayne Wright’s impersonator set up an Ask Me Anything! session on May 21 under the caption: “Hello. I am Mayor Wayne Wright of New Westminster. Ask me anything!”

Questions started pouring in and a total of 89 comments came out of it. The responses were not from the mayor at all.

“It’s not a concern,” Wright told The Record. “I hope people would look into it and see that it’s not real.”

As of press deadline, Corrigan’s Wikipedia post had not changed.

– With files from The Record