Naughty Santa letters halt Canada Post delivery
Source: MSN/Sympatico news
Canada Post has halted the delivery of letters from Santa Claus in Ottawa after a number of families received naughty responses from the North Pole.
CTV.ca News Staff
Bad, bad Santa. Canada Post is red faced and has cancelled the 'Letters to Santa' program in the Ottawa area after some rather naughty writings were sent to children.
Delivery of Santa's letters was suspended for two days on Thursday in the country's capital and Canada Post is "implementing new measures in the volunteer response process to guard against repetition of such incidents," a statement read.
The handwritten notes from Canada Post's Santa letter program, written in response to children's letters sent to a special HOH OHO postal code, contain curse words and descriptions of lewd acts. They were delivered to at least 10 families in the Ottawa area, the corporation said.
"This is a very serious matter for Canada Post and one we are taking very, very seriously. We are shocked and heart-broken that this much-loved quarter-of-a-century old program has experienced an incident of this kind," Moya Greene, President and CEO of Canada Post, said in a statement on Thursday.
Rosalyn DaCosta was one parent who found vulgarities in a letter to her children.
"I couldn't believe it, I stood there with my mouth open not even believing what I saw," Da Costa told CTV Ottawa.
"That's the one last thing you've got in the world to believe in. There are so many bad things in the world now, and now Santa's bad? It's just not fair."
Canada Post handles more than 1 million letters to Santa each year. More than 11,000 current and retired employees volunteer to help Santa reply to each and every letter received.
Canada Post spokesperson Cindy Daoust says this was the first instance of "sickening" language in the program's 26-year history.
"I have volunteers at the post office that are devastated over this and we just don't want this to happen to another child," Daoust told CTV Newsnet on Friday.
An Ottawa police investigation was "going very, very well," she said.
"They are making great strides in narrowing down the potential volunteers that could have been involved in handling the letters. I'm actually very encouraged this morning with the results," she said.
Daoust explained that volunteers, approximately 250 in the Ottawa area, respond to letters on their own time and are not required to answer letters while at a Canada Post location.
"Many of them do it during their lunch hour or during breaks at work. Because it is done on volunteer time, many of them do take them home to reply to at night," she said.
Federal criminal penalties, including fines or imprisonment, exist for fraudulent use and tampering with mail.
The letters are being processed for fingerprints and volunteers are being appointed to read every letter before it's mailed out.
"When we identify who is responsible for this, they will be turned over to the Ottawa police and they will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law," Daoust said.
"If indeed it turns out to be a Canada Post employee that was involved, they will face severe disciplinary action on our end up to and including possible termination."
She assured that every letter sent to Santa Claus will be responded to before Christmas.
Canada Post is advising all parents to open letters from Santa before giving them to their children. Should a family receive a letter that contains inappropriate wording, Canada Post advises parents to keep the letter and envelope and contact Canada Post at 613-734-4258 or 613-734-8119.
Sick and horrible!! 
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