It wasn’t the thought police knocking on Natasha’s door.
It was actually an Ontario Provincial Police officer.
If George Orwell had written his famous Nineteen Eighty-Four novel in 2024, perhaps he could have set his dystopian landscape in Wasaga Beach.
Natasha, a TikTok contributor who goes by name Natty Lynn online, could be the protagonist instead of Winston Smith.
“Somebody called in about somebody posting things on TikTok about East Indians defecating on the beach,” she recalled the very polite cop telling her after she answered the door.
He was not there for a domestic assault or a burglary or missing child or medical emergency.
No, the OPP were there to talk to a prole about a social media post.
Natasha did post a series of videos warning people taking their children to the beaches at Wasaga that she alleged some people were using tents to conceal going to the bathroom and later burying the human waste in the sand.
But the reference to immigrants, not locals, being behind this got some backs up — including Wasaga Beach Mayor Brian Smith.
“The Town of Wasaga Beach takes all resident and visitor feedback seriously,” Smith said in a statement posted to the town’s website last month.
“However, we reject the premise of complaints that lack evidence and promote misinformation … The Town of Wasaga Beach is proud to be home to the world’s longest freshwater beach — one of the cleanest, safest, and most beautiful beaches in the world” and “the town has received no evidence — from residents, visitors or the Ontario government — to verify that any undesirable, unsanitary behaviour has occurred on the beach areas that make up Wasaga Beach Provincial Park.”
TikTok shut down the videos and Natty Lynn’s account, which had tens of thousands of views after some expressed concerns online of discrimination at play. It’s something the mom, who says she is of aboriginal heritage and has a child of Indian heritage, vehemently denies.
What seemed unusual was police coming to her house to address the claim. Appropriate response or a boundary overstep? Big Brother was not just at the door but inside a woman’s home, not to lay charges but to offer advice on what to say and not say when posting to public platforms.
“I was told to change the way I say things,” said Natasha. “I felt like they were trying to intimidate me.”
Never in a million years, said the single mother of small children, did she ever think she would end up crossing the Ministry of Truth to a point where they would dispatch the OPP.
“I was shocked,” she told the Toronto Sun.
It’s not unprecedented in Ontario. But it is still shocking to see.
As Winston Smith was afraid to write his thoughts in his diary for fear of reprisal, Natasha ran into the authorities for her video diary.
“I feel like that was the warning,” she said.
The OPP have not yet responded to a request for comment.
But in a separate video, recorded by Natasha, the OPP officer, who said “I personally have not had any calls from this kind of behaviour on the beach” and “I am not here to lecture you, not here to condemn you” and suggested when it comes to people on the beach “don’t confront them, whoever is doing it … white black or any colour.”
The officer added “maybe don’t note a particular race” and if people see anything like that “maybe encourage people to call bylaw.”
For her part, Natasha made it clear to the officer she meant no harm and was merely trying to protect families from any potential sanitary concerns.
“I wasn’t being racist,” she is heard telling the officer. “My daughter is Indian; my baby father is Indian.”
The bigger issue is whether or not there is any credence to people going to the bathroom on the beach and whether this was a matter requiring police to attend her home and offer suggestions on online conduct.
The officer, who said he hadn’t seen her TikTok postings, was certainly professional, respectful, kind and understanding. Seems like a good guy. Natasha also noted that. But should this have been a police matter is the question. There is no easy answer and different, valid perspectives.
My opinion is if there is no threat to anyone and no hate crime directed toward an individual, the police have more urgent calls to attend to. I felt for this officer who was doing his best because he should not be asked to mediate something like this. Police are not social media babysitters. I felt the same way in 2022 when a woman I wrote about was visited by an OPP officer on her farm after social media postings talking about an upcoming COVID-19 pandemic lockdown protest.
In that case, it had a pre-crime feel to it — effectively a warning to say Big Brother is watching and censoring.
Natasha tells the Toronto Sun while she’s received some threats and has not been sleeping at night, things are starting to brighten with people thanking her for raising an important health and safety issue and that TikTok has already taken her out of social media jail and restored her account.
As Orwell wrote of Winston Smith, “he had won the victory over himself.”
The best thing the mayor, OPP and Natasha can do is bury this whole chapter in the sand and head to that amazing beach with lessons learned and no hard feelings.