This is last week’s news, but I thought I’d better mention it. Back when I hosted the Carnival of the Canucks, I couldn’t find a blogger from Nunavut. Jim Elve writes to point out that Polar Penny lives in Iqaluit, Nunavut. Unfortunately, she recently got fired for blogging about her job:
A Nunavut Tourism marketing officer was fired last month after a local resident complained about a web site she ran in her spare time. Known on the Internet as “Polar Penny,” she was surprised to learn on July 18 that she was being fired because of the online journal, or web log, she had kept since her arrival in Iqaluit in January.
Like some Metafilterites, I can’t help thinking that there’s information missing from this story. As Jim asks, “one anonymous complaint can get you canned?” I hope this wasn’t the case, but maybe she was just a lousy employee and the blogging provided a convenient excuse? Maybe her boss in the Nunavut Tourism office where she worked didn’t like her? Her boss, Maureen Bundgaard (email her here) isn’t commenting on the incident, which is just about the worst thing she can do.
I can’t imagine that this behaviour will encourage people to move north and work for the tourism industry. Regardless, Polar Penny is going to become Pacific Penny. She’s moving to Nanaimo. Which is too bad, because Penny had funny and interesting things to say about the Far North. Still, maybe she’ll come to our conference and talk about her experience.
The bigger lesson here is this: be careful who and what you blog about.
DarrenBarefoot.com 
She was in her six-month probation period, which means that her boss didn’t need to give ANY reason for letting her go, though, so it doesn’t seem likely that it was entirely louse employeeness. On the other hand, the North has such a hard time finding labour that perhaps she moved there because she couldn’t get a job elsewhere, but… I wonder if death-by-blogging has ever been tested in a Canadian court or labour tribunal.