Canada Post mail carrier disciplined for refusing to deliver Epoch Times

Canada Post mail carrier disciplined for refusing to deliver Epoch Times

Mail carrier says he took a stand and faced discipline for refusing to deliver copies of the publication

Author of the article:Alec Salloum

Publishing date:Jan 19, 2021 

REGINA, SASK : January 19, 2021  -- Ramiro Sepulveda, a Canada Post mail carrier, delivers mail to a mailbox on Broad Street in Regina, Saskatchewan on Jan. 19, 2021.

BRANDON HARDER/ Regina Leader-Post

Ramiro Sepulveda faced discipline for refusing to deliver copies of The Epoch Times on his route in Regina. He's pictured here on Jan. 19, 2021. PHOTO BY BRANDON HARDER /Regina Leader-Post

Ramiro Sepulveda faced discipline for refusing to deliver what he felt were “damaging” and harmful flyers along his route as a Canada Post letter carrier.

Copies of The Epoch Times started to show up at Canada Post distribution centres in the city last year.

“I saw the headlines and I thought, wow, that’s ridiculous,” he said.

The Epoch Times, a right-wing publication, has backed Donald Trump through his presidency and promoted theories around the coronavirus which have been disputed and rejected. The publication is affiliated with the Falun Gong religious movement, which has been banned in China, and frequently publishes articles critical of the Chinese government.

On Jan. 5 copies of The Epoch Times — which looks like a newspaper or broadsheet but is classified as a flyer by Canada Post — came across Sepulveda’s work station.

“I saw this thing, I read it and thought it was trash,” he said. Many of Sepulveda’s colleagues are refugees, many are Chinese, and many felt uncomfortable delivering the flyers.

“I took a stand. I let those things sit in my cart,” he said. He went straight to a manager and told them he would not deliver the flyers.

The next day when he came to work, he was suspended for three days without pay. The role of misinformation whipping people into a frenzy wasn’t lost on Sepulveda, considering that the storming of the Capitol building in Washington D.C. occurred the same day he was suspended.

“It struck me, this is damaging. This can cause a lot of hate, this can cause and incite a lot of anger. Especially with people who are already pissed off that they’re locked up in their houses,” said Sepulveda.

As an example of its anti-Chinese government stance, The Epoch Times refers to the COVID-19 virus as the CCP Virus (for Chinese Communist Party). In 2019 Facebook banned The Epoch Times from advertising on its platform, though it still has multiple pages on Facebook and a massive presence on social media.

REGINA, SASK : January 19, 2021  -- Ramiro Sepulveda, a Canada Post mail carrier, walks along his route on Broad Street in Regina, Saskatchewan on Jan. 19, 2021.

Ramiro Sepulveda, a Canada Post mail carrier, walks along his route on Broad Street in Regina, Saskatchewan on Jan. 19, 2021. PHOTO BY BRANDON HARDER /Regina Leader-Post

Alec Couros, a professor of information and communication technologies, said the format of The Epoch Times could be deceptive to some readers or some people who find it in their mailbox.

“It’s going for a more traditional approach,” he said. “You’ll get more people that are used to taking up a paper, a particular demographic.”

Couros says the presence of the paper in grocery stores, pharmacies and convenience stores alongside publications like the Regina Leader-Post or the Globe and Mail gives it more legitimacy. “It feels more concrete, it’s actually published instead of someone spouting out something on their blog,” he said.

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Growing up in Regina, the child of Chilean immigrants, Sepulveda said, “I’ve been dealing with this s–t for 40 years.”

Couros said while he commends Sepulveda for sticking to his convictions, he wonders where the company and the union will stand on the issue. “The mail carrier is meant to be neutral, in the same way the internet is meant to be neutral,” said Couros.

In an emailed statement from Canada Post a spokesperson said the company is “obligated to deliver any mail that is properly prepared and paid for, unless it is considered non-mailable matter.”

When it comes to the content of flyers, there is also court precedent outlining what Canada Post’s role is, saying it “is not to act as the censor of mail or to determine the extent of freedom of expression in Canada.”

William Johnson, president of the Regina Canadian Union of Postal Workers local, contends the company should take a more hands-on approach with this content.

“I think as a Crown corporation they do have a moral responsibility to actually look at this stuff and determine if it is peddling in hate and racism and those sorts of things,” said Williams.

When it comes to discipline, he said the union will stand by its members who refuse to deliver the publication but said he hopes the company will opt to examine the material instead.

“The publication affects a bunch of our letter carriers,” said Johnson. “This is not a publication that we as a Crown corporation should be giving out to Canadians.”

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Since refusing to deliver the flyers, Sepulveda said he’s received a torrent of hate mail online. “Go back to your own country, we don’t want you here, shut up and do your job, trying to make up insults in Spanish — you name it,” he said.

“I don’t want other people to deal with this, especially people who can’t defend themselves,” he said.

“This stuff can cause damage.”