By Michael Gorman

THE VANGUARD

NovaNewsNow.com

Tourism ads for the province of Nova Scotia were featured on a Vancouver-based chat website that features racist, homophobic and misogynistic discussions, The Vanguard has learned.

The province's ad campaign was featured on the website since May 14. Tina Thibeau of the province's Department of Tourism, Culture and Heritage, said the ads were removed from the website as soon as media calls alerted them of the nature of the website.

"This was what we call an online media buy with Google," she said. "We bought ad space with Google for about $60,000 and what we tell them is we want to do some online media buys with our logo and we want you to use search terms like travel and tourism."

One of the websites Google secured ad space with following these directions was discovervancouver.com. At first glance the website looks to advertise events and happenings in the Vancouver area. However a closer look shows that there is more to the website than its splash page suggests.

The main feature of the website is a chat forum and topics in the forum have nothing to do with travel or tourism. Many of the topics are racist, homophobic, misogynistic, sexually graphic and anti-immigrant in nature. Thibeau said the department had no idea one of their ads was on such a site. Although they do some monitoring of their online advertising, she said this has raised the issue that further thought needs to go into the monitoring program.

"Nor we or Google were aware of it," she said. "This has taught us a lesson that we have to further enhance those checks and balances to really delve into the site."

The province paid $174 for the ad. Other major names advertising on the website include General Motors and Telus.

The Vanguard, like other media outlets in the province, was notified about the province's ad by an e-mail from Steven Baird of Street Smart Kidz, a B.C.-based non-profit group dedicated to providing parents and their children with information on how to keep kids safe. They mail information booklets free of charge across the country. To date they have mailed more than 12,000 booklets.

Baird said he discovered the website — and subsequent ad for Nova Scotia — when a Google reference referring to Street Smart Kidz as a charity scam brought him to the website.

"I was shocked and outraged," he said when asked about seeing the Nova Scotia ad on the website. "I'm a believer that there's no politician in the world stupid enough to advertise on a site like that. I believe that. But I also think that a minister in the government has a responsibility to know where your dollars are being spent. And if you don't know where those dollars are being spent then you don't deserve to have a cabinet position."

Baird said he has pleaded with the website for some time to remove his group's web address from the discussion forum but to no avail. The group is now involved in a court case because Baird contacted other advertisers of the website to alert them of its content. He fears the legal costs will force his group to shut down. Beyond that, the damage has already been done because of the Google reference.

"We've had 14 parents so far who have complained to us that their kids have gone into that site looking for our tip of the week," he said.

The references to Street Smart Kidz, as well as many of the other posts, seem to violate the website's own rules, which call for no foul language, not listing people's URLs and no sexually explicit content.

"Obviously I'm an idiot, or else they're not following their own rules," said Baird.