The Internet is a wonderful thing -- a great way to disseminate misinformation around the world in a millisecond. Nowhere is this more amply demonstrated than on YouTube, where things are seldom what they seem. ["Skim milk masquerades as cream..." I know that one. Ed.] Here is what the YouTube caption describes as a "woman plucking and eating a live bird" on the Montréal Métro (subway).
To set the record straight... Yes, it is a woman. She has bravely come forward and identified herself as Christina David, an Inuk -- "Eskimo" is not longer PC -- and former resident of Nunavik, in the far reaches of the Great White North. And yes, she is plucking a large bird -- a goose her aunt brought her from home. But that's as far as it goes.
The goose had already been killed. And Ms David did not eat it on the subway train. She was just making good use of her time while taking the bird home to be cooked. On Facebook she explained: "I couldn't wait. I only had one this year it's not like we get to eat our country food everyday it's very very rare that we can eat like we usually do up North. But I didn't care. I was just...enjoying [it] and on top of it I couldn't wait to go home so I can put it on the big pan with onions and mushrooms."
After the YouTube video went viral, Ms David had her collar felt by the local gendarmes, and was made to appear in provincial court on Thursday last. But she stood by her actions. "I will never ever forget anything. I will always be a real Inuk for ever 'til I'm gone," she wrote on FB.
Walt says good for her, and shame on people who take and post cellphone vids which, through malice or (more likely) ignorance, they totally misrepresent. To whoever took this one, Walt says, mind your own business!
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