A man in St. John’s, N.L., could be barred from ever travelling to the United States after the Secret Service flagged a Facebook comment he doesn’t remember making against President Donald Trump.
Alex O’Driscoll said he found a business card from an RCMP investigator taped to his front door on Oct. 30. He called the officer, who told him a comment from a long-deleted Facebook account had landed him in the crosshairs of Trump’s personal guard.
“As he’s telling me this I’m laughing, I’m going, ‘This can’t be real, this has to be a joke,’” said O’Driscoll.
“I’m not a threat,” he said. “Zero, zilch, zip.”
O’Driscoll said he met the RCMP investigator for a 10-minute interview on Nov. 2. During the meeting, he was told that according to the Secret Service, he had commented on a post asking what Canadians would do if Trump tried to take over their country.
O’Driscoll said the officer told him he had commented “shoot him [Trump] on sight” — words he doesn’t remember writing, but doesn’t deny. He said he can’t verify the comment, having deleted his Facebook account about a year and a half ago.
“I asked for the proof, they said they didn’t have it,” said O’Driscoll, who doesn’t own a gun. “I’m not gonna ruin my life for Donald Trump, it’s not gonna happen.”
O’Driscoll, a dog groomer, said the RCMP officer told him at the end of the interview that he clearly wasn’t a threat to the U.S. president.
“They said basically, ‘You’re not a threat, you shouldn’t be worried.’ They also did say I may possibly be banned from entering the U.S. forever because of this,” said O’Driscoll, who added he was not too bothered by the idea of a ban from travelling to the States. “Even when [Trump]’s gone, I’m just not interested.”
Radio-Canada asked the Secret Service, which protects a number of high-profile American political leaders, to specify how many times social media comments regarding Trump have been referred to Canadian police for investigation. The federal agency did not reply.
The RCMP declined to say how times the Secret Service has requested it investigate online comments against the U.S. president. It was not able to say how many of those investigations, if any, resulted in charges.
“The RCMP takes all threats against public officials seriously,” wrote national spokesperson Camille Boily-Lavoie.
O’Driscoll said he understood why the RCMP were obligated to investigate and that he believes his story is a cautionary tale.
“I just thought it was an interesting story, but also a warning to be careful what you say on there because they are watching,” he said.
