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How’s this for weird?

A Toronto parking officer whose Twitter account has made him a minor celebrity claims Montreal mayor Denis Coderre used political influence to muzzle him on social media.

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Kyle Ashley would frequently take to his @TPS_ParkingPal account to tweet pictures of cars parked in bicycle lanes and advocate for safer roads. He uses a bicycle on the job and his posts are frequently retweeted by Montreal cycling activists. Apparently, some of these activists have also been flooding Coderre’s timeline with Ashley’s tweets in hopes that the incumbent does more to make the roads safer in Montreal.

Last month, Ashley’s bosses demanded he hand over the @TPS_ParkingPal account so they could review the “appropriateness” of his tweets. He told the Toronto Star that his managers referred to “numerous” complaints including one from the office of Coderre.

Rather than hand over the popular account, Ashley deactivated it.