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Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan has ordered a crackdown on the growing number of racist and misogynist comments on the Canadian Forces’ official Facebook page.

Though the Forces have a team of dedicated social media staffers, the comments have become so toxic at times that one member of the public observed the “comment section around here reads like a Sons of Odin chat room,” a reference to a far-right, anti-immigration group.

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In January, the Canadian Forces tried to reason with readers of the Facebook page, posting a plea to those commenting not to make death threats or remarks that are hateful, sexist, racist or homophobic. But the request itself prompted racist and other inappropriate comments aimed at Sajjan.

News media organizations such as Postmedia deal with similar issues of inappropriate comments, with varying degrees of success, on their website sites and Facebook pages. However, the military employs four full-time members of staff to monitor and moderate social media activity during working hours, while a fifth does so during off-hours and on the weekend. Department of National Defence spokeswoman Ashley Lemire explained that the Facebook page is actively monitored. “But sometimes we miss posts,” she acknowledged. Indeed, the official page is peppered with a wide range of inappropriate comments, some which are months old.