‘Disability Filibuster’ Zoom-bombed with disturbing sounds, images

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Another virtual event has been Zoom-bombed with disturbing sounds and images — the second time in less than a week.

A number of people from across Canada gathered virtually Monday night for the Disability Filibuster, aimed at stopping Bill C-7. However, the gathering was interrupted by pornographic sounds and Nazi imagery.

Quin Lawrence, one of the community organizers, said the interruptions happened moments after the event began at 4 p.m. PST.

“Sounds of a sexual nature started playing over top of people speaking. That was kind of our first clue that something was very off,” they told NEWS 1130. “And it escalated from there actually into someone sharing their screens and yelling into their microphones. And it turned into just a bunch of people doing this.”

Lawrence said they left the meeting about five minutes after the event began. Before they exited, they say they saw a swastika on the screen.

Organizers quickly ended the call and created a new meeting, but that was also marred by graphic content “immediately upon going back up.”

This follows a similar experience over the weekend, in which a women’s event in Richmond was Zoom-bombed with pornographic images, among other things.

While it’s unclear if the two are linked, Lawrence notes they knew there was a chance that creeps could infiltrate their Monday event.

Lawrence has a caution for others who want to use an online platform for virtual gatherings.

“Throughout the pandemic, since people have been using Zoom more, it’s kind of become public knowledge that Zoom is very hackable and this is kind of a concern for public events — especially events of, like, a political nature,” they explained.

According to Lawrence, some precautions — such as sharing the link only with attendees by email — were taken ahead of the event with the possibility of a hack in mind. However, they admit none of the core organizers are “very technical people.”

“It is, indeed, very distressing,” they said. “For a bunch of marginalized people talking about something so vulnerable and fighting something politically, to suddenly be exposed to graphic content like that — it’s quite a lot to deal with.”

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Lawrence says it’s a complicated situation when it comes to trying to report what happened to police.

“As marginalized people, we have negative experiences reporting things to police. Also, some of us have been Zoom-bombed before and when these kinds of things are reported to police, the police say that it’s a Zoom problem and they don’t get involved,” they explained.

After trying to regroup following Monday’s meeting, Lawrence tells NEWS 1130 it doesn’t appear organizers will be taking legal action. Instead, they plan on looking at how to increase security protocols and will consider possibly changing platforms.

The online event was one meeting of many aimed at stopping legislation that would expand Canada’s medical assistance in dying laws.

Bill C-7 seeks to amend the law to comply with a Quebec court ruling last fall, which found it was unconstitutional to allow only those whose natural death is “reasonably foreseeable” to be able to get medical help to end their suffering.

You can find out more about the Disability Filibuster online.

-With files from Tarnjit Parmar and Vanessa Doban

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