Refugees in B.C.: resettlement issue puts strain on Facebook friendships

Sarah Daniels is down a fewFacebook friends after sharing her thoughts all weekonCanada's effortsto bring25,000Syrian refugees into the country.

"Does anyone actually think that refugees admitted into Canada won't be fully vetted?" asked theVancouver-based television personality turned real estate agentin one of her Facebookposts.

• Browse all CBC's B.C. refugee stories

"Closing the doors on these families, in my mind, is no different from the doors slamming shut on Jewish refugees in the 1930's," she went on to say.

That post elicited 99 comments. Whilethemajority of people agreed with her,a vocaldozen remainedvehementlyconcerned with the speed of therefugeescreening process, while others wrote Canada could be letting in "a whole lot of" terrorists.

Daniels ended up culling people fromposting on her Facebook page.

"They're more than welcome to not like what I sayand they're more than welcome to say that in a well-thought out way but when there becomes name-calling and racism ... I'm going to toss you," saidDanielsin an interview with CBC.

Why we'unfriend'

Daniels's experienceon Facebook this week isn't a surprise to some.

In 2011, Dr. Christopher Sibona at the University of Colorado, Denverstudied the reasons why people on Facebook "unfriend" one another.

"The second most common onewas polarizing posts, sopoliticsand religion," said the information systems researcher. "TheSyrian refugee crisis combines both of those pretty well."

Thenumber one reason was frequent, unimportant posts.

Sibona says online conversations oftenerupt intoheated debates because there are novisual cues to respond to.

"If you're online you can think about it ...and you can getangrierand things can sort of spiral to be more confrontational than they would be in a face-to-face conversation," he said.

He's been told byresearch subjects that given the chance to rebuild their network of Facebook friends, they would be far more discerningin who they accept as friends.

However, Dr. Michael Xenos warns against limiting Facebook friends to onlythose you agree with.

"Whether online or offline, people benefit from being exposed to political views that are different from their own," said theUniversity of Wisconsin-Madisoncommunicationprofessor.

"A diversity of viewpoints in one's feed is one of the things that makes Facebook an interesting place."

Cutting ties

With more than5,000 friends on Facebook and another 1,000 who "follow" her, Danielsadmits she doesn't know most of these so-called friends butshe does welcome arange of opinions.

It wasn't just Danielswho took steps to block people from her page, others did the same to her.

"I'm so excited!! People areunfriendingme," postedDanielson Wednesday.

Despite being polarizing, Daniels stillwants to be heard.

She says the photo of ayoung AlanKurdi,washed up on the shores of Greece haunts her.

"That image seemed to make people understand that this could happen to them,and then Paris happened," shesaid.

"I do understand there is a great deal of fear associated with that but that doesn't mean that the people who were so desperately in need of our help twomonths ago are all suddenly members of ISIS."

When strong values, like the ones Daniels holds, bump up against each other, researches saythey're bound to create disagreements bothon-and offline.

Sibona does offer advice though:"If you wanted to avoid beingunfriendedthen I would definitely say avoid politics and religion, but if you want to talk about something that is deeply held, then you're going to talk about things that are important to your life."