Jackson Garrett has commented on YouTube videos and Instagram posts before, but he says he’s never shared anything so heartfelt as what he wrote on the interactive map for Canada’s proposed high-speed rail project.
The 18-year-old lives in Chaffey’s Lock, Ont., roughly 125 kilometres southwest of downtown Ottawa. It’s right in the centre of the potential southern corridor being studied by Alto, the Crown corporation behind the rail network.
Garrett’s post described how his dad built the home he grew up in, planting a garden for fresh vegetables in summer and chopping firewood to keep them warm in winter.
The home also means they’re close to “Papa,” his childhood nickname for a grandmother who’s just a few steps away.
“My grandma lives up the hill from us,” his comment reads in part. “If that rail is to be put here it will disrupt how we help her … and will take away the place I have grown up in for my entire life.”
Alto has been charged with laying roughly 1,000 kilometres of track with seven stops between Toronto and Quebec City.
The plan will require expropriating properties and cutting off some rural roads, like the one Garrett and his family use to access their home.
Garrett said he put a lot of thought into what he wrote, hoping anyone who read it might be swayed.
But about an hour after posting, he received an email saying moderators had removed his comment because it “potentially contained inappropriate personal information.”
“It makes me want to, like, go and scream and holler,” Garrett said. “But I know that even if you do that, they won’t listen.”
He said he hasn’t been given any further explanation about why his feedback was taken down — and he’s not alone.
Senior told her comment could be intended to ‘harass’
Cicily Brewer said all three of the comments she made on Alto’s map were also removed.
The 84-year-old lives in Toronto, but has property near Portland, Ont., and in the Laurentians region of Quebec.
The grandmother of five shared the emails she received with CBC, all of which provide the same reasoning from moderators with a company called Bang the Table:
“The response failed to respect other users and was potentially intended to harass or insult,” they read.
Brewer said she’s still at a loss as to how that’s possible.
“It was the most gentle, soft, supportive of the agricultural business [commentary] that you could ever imagine, and it was not intended to harass or insult anybody,” she said. “I’m just not that type of person.”
‘Human error’ blamed, review underway
CBC has seen Brewer and Garrett’s comments, and after reaching out to Alto, the corporation said it had been working with a third-party moderator to ensure “an impartial and fair review” of each post.
“In these two instances, the moderator has reviewed and confirmed they were removed due to human error and have since been reinstated,” wrote spokesperson Crystal Jongeward in a statement.
Two people who posted their concerns on Alto’s interactive map saw their online comments disappear. The Crown corporation says their feedback has been restored. Dan Taekema reports.
The corporation received about 18,000 comments. Of those, 118 were removed, she added.
Jongeward said based on the two cases highlighted by CBC, the moderator is now carrying out a full review of its decisions and will reinstate any “identified as incorrectly removed.”
That work is expected to wrap up by the end of the week, according to Jongeward.
Both Brewer and Garrett said they’re happy to have their thoughts back on the map, but the experience has shaken their faith in Alto’s commitment to really hearing what people have to say.
Brewer pointed out only one of her posts, the one she pinned near Portland, Ont., appears to have been added again.
It stresses the fragility of Canada’s food security, arguing “we should be protecting and strengthening our agricultural capacity — not placing additional pressures on it.”
Rather than building high-speed rail, investments should be made in the existing Via Rail corridor, she wrote, adding “No Alto HSR!”
Brewer said she was already skeptical of the project, but seeing her comments come down has left her with “serious doubts about [Alto’s] honesty in this consultation process.”
Still waiting to hear back
The Crown corporation wrapped up three months of open houses, virtual sessions and online commenting at the end of April, stating those consultations allowed them to speak with more than 10,000 people in Ontario and Quebec.
A total of 24,142 questionnaires were reportedly filled out and will be used to “help us find the right balance to design a project that reduces impacts on communities while delivering lasting benefits across the entire corridor,” said Alto CEO Martin Imbleau in a media release.
Alto plans to publish a report about what it learned sometime in June.
As for Garrett, he said he’s still waiting to hear from Alto or Bang the Table about why his comment was initially removed.
The whole experience has left the teen feeling frustrated rather than heard.
“They said, we’ll get back to you shortly,” said Garrett. “I’m still waiting for that shortly to come.”
