A woman in British Columbia has become a viral sensation after a video was posted yesterday showing her throw a tantrum after missing a ferry. The incident occurred on New Year’s day, when she attempted to board a ferry bound for Vancouver Island. The woman became outraged, to the point that her tantrum became over the top, when she was told that she was too late to board the ferry, despite the fact that the ferry had not left the dock yet. A bystander started to record the situation, unaware that it would escalate to such an intense level. Some may find the video funny, others shared concern about the woman’s mental health, and still others raise the question about the ethical nature of recording and sharing such a video.
The video was shared yesterday on Spotted In Victoria , a Facebook page dedicated to strange things that are seen in Victoria, and has already reached over 800,000 people. According to CBC news , the Facebook page owners are Austin Singhera and Pavitar Sidhu, a pair of university students. Neither expected their page to draw so much attention to the woman’s tantrum, nor have they seen a person raise such a spectacle before. Singhera stated that the woman missed the ferry by only three minutes, so being upset is expected. However, her tantrum took her anger overboard.
“She may have been going to a party. We’re not sure. This was on New Year’s Eve, so she was maybe coming back to Victoria for a party or a get-together or something, but she’d missed it by three minutes.”
Videos of people showing their anger in the form of a tantrum, doing bad things, or just trying to be funny are all too common on the internet. However, the video of the woman that missed the ferry has some wondering if there is a privacy violation if a stranger records and uploads a video.
Although British Columbia law states that individuals have a right to privacy, defamation lawyer Daniel Reid feels there really would not be a case, according to CTV News Vancouver .
“Chances are, if someone was to start a lawsuit and say you invaded my privacy, the defence is you don’t really have a reasonable expectation of privacy when you’re in a ferry terminal.
“Where it gets difficult is, the courts haven’t really figured out what happens when that gets loaded up on to YouTube or another website.”
[Photo Courtesy: The Daily Mail U.K. ]