THE man accused of posting a racist comment to an online article that RCMP are investigating as a possible hate crime is denying it was he who posted it.
Reached by phone Saturday, Jan. 31, Howard Boake, a Terrace resident, said he believes his Facebook account has been hacked multiple times and that he didn’t post the comment which first appeared Jan. 27 nor any of the other comments previously posted by the same account.
“Somebody hacked my Facebook account somehow or another,” he said. “That’d be pretty stupid for me to do that under my own name, wouldn’t it?”
Boake also confirmed he’s been in contact with Terrace RCMP officers and said he doesn’t know who could have hacked into his account and posted comments.
“I don’t know who it is, or why,” Boake said. “It’s certainly giving me a bad name, unfortunately. But I did not do it, I swear to that, I did not put that on Facebook.”
Boake has been on the receiving end of multiple online threats since a screenshot of the post, which makes racist comments about First Nations, went viral, and he added that he is scared. “I don’t know what to do about it,” he said.
Terrace RCMP began last week investigating the comment that is being called “a hate crime” by many who have read it.
The comment appeared briefly through a posting by a Facebook user called Howie Boake to an online Terrace Standard article Jan. 27 before it was removed by blocking software.
Before the comment was blocked, however, a screenshot of the comment was captured and that image has been shared widely on social media.