Iqaluit Facebook swap-and-sell page attracts bootleggers, drug traffickers

This Facebook posting went up for a while on the Iqaluit Swap and Sell page on Sunday, March 4. It breaks the law in several ways, and Facebook doesn’t accept postings for the sale of alcohol or drugs.

This past Sunday evening, if you were looking at the Iqaluit Swap and Sell #2 page on Facebook, you would have seen a posting offering “mikkis [mickeys] and weed” for sale.

The seller, who identified himself as Jayson Brown, said he had “top quality medical marijuana and mikkis available at low affordable price.”

Brown’s posting broke the law in several ways.

First, it’s still against the law in Canada to sell marijuana, and to obtain medical marijuana you need a special prescription that can only be filled at certain places.

Then, in Iqaluit, it’s not legal to purchase the kinds of alcohol shown in the posting’s photo unless you bring it into the city with a special permit or for your own consumption—and then only in quantities allowed by the Nunavut Liquor Act.

Facebook’s commerce policy also forbids the sale of alcoholic beverages, and posts may not promote the sale of illegal, prescription or recreational drugs, including marijuana and marijuana products.

However, it’s not the first time such postings have gone to Facebook: in early February another posting on the same swap-and-sell page offered vodka and marijuana for sale as well.

“We encourage people to communicate this to us and provide any copies of posts and other things which are obviously illegal to our attention,” said Nunavut RCMP spokesperson Henry Coman, when asked about such Facebook postings.

“We are not on Facebook scanning for this on a regular basis so when it comes in, it assists us with identifying people who are trafficking street drugs or illegal booze.”

Coman said Facebook is “a challenging platform“ for the RCMP, because it’s not always easy to get information about the actual people behind the profile, and fake profiles and names are the standard.

“However, we keep this information to assist us with investigations and do follow up where we are able,” he said.

Those who responded under the most recent posting on Sunday night were not impressed with the seller reaching out on a page to sell weed and booze where you’re more likely to find seal-skin mittens for sale.

At the same time, some in Nunavut continue to have trouble selling legitimate products, like fur, on Facebook.

A woman from Cambridge Bay had a wolverine skin up for auction in January but received a response that said “Rejected: There are issues with your product. It looks like you’re trying to sell an item that doesn’t meet our policies. Common items we don’t allow people to sell include animals, guns or illegal products.”

In January, after many postings for seal skin products were rejected, a spokesperson for Facebook told Nunatsiaq News that Facebook had reviewed its commerce policy, which does not allow the sale of animals, living or dead—and animal parts, including pelts, and determined that items like mitts, jewelry, boots and jackets are allowed within the policy.

If a seller’s items on Marketplace are flagged and removed when they feel that they shouldn’t be, the seller can appeal through Facebook’s Marketplace Item Appeal Centre.