- cross-posted to:
- ontario
- canadapolitics
- cross-posted to:
- ontario
- canadapolitics
BACKGROUND
Joanna Berry is a Canadian immigration and refugee lawyer in Ontario, Canada. On October 2, two Niagara Police Officers, one of them a sergeant detective, paid her a visit to her home. They told her they were there on behalf of the Ottawa Police Department because of her “personal social media.” They begin to tell her that “10 lawyers who are of the Jewish faith” have filed a complaint with the police about her social media. As you can tell from the video, Joanna Berry, is outraged by the visit and clearly distraught. I reached out to the Niagara Regional Police for comment but they did not respond to my inquiry. I spoke with Joanna Berry also and she gave OTL Media permission to publish the video. She told us that she wants Canadians to see it and for the video to be a warning.
“This is very Orwellian”
On The Line Media is run by Samira Mohyeddin, a multi-award-winning journalist, documentary maker, and producer at CBC Radio One’s The Current.
For everyone’s information, I support our Liberal government and I do support any of our current governments (even if I disagree with them politically) because I still believe in the rule of law everywhere. I don’t subscribe to wild conspiracy theories about any democratically elected government.
However, I still hold that we should always be ready to question and hold our government, police and those in power accountable for everything they say, do or on how they direct those under them.
The actions of these police is a step too far in intimidating someone with personal views. As she explained, those who disagree with her views should speak to their company, talk to the social media company or speak to other authorities … you don’t go straight to the police to ask them to intimidate a political opponent.
We have to stand up to this level of bullying and intimidation. This isn’t Canada. This isn’t what I support. This isn’t our government and this is not representative of our country.
I personally found the part where they tell her to not contact certain people. Which people? It’s never mentioned in the video. Is she just not supposed to say anything on social media again? How is that a reasonable response?
Now, if she was being blocked and creating new accounts to harass people, that would be more reasonable. Or if she was actually convicted of a crime. But until then, the police should just have to learn the difficult fact of life that people may not agree without any laws being broken.
It’s pretty clear from what they’re saying that it was her comments targeting people that were the problem, not posts about Israel. She doesn’t even deny it, she’s just pissed off they complained to the police that she was harassing them.
The single biggest reason I don’t think anything she did was actionable is that the likely people who are complaining are lawyers. If they thought they had a clear case, they would have sent a C&D or filed a harassment suit, especially with Canada’s less stringent requirements. If she was contacting individuals, they can block her. It seems pretty clear none of these things happened, or the police would have been more forceful. So at best we’re wasting police resources, at worst having the government engage in intimidation when no crimes were committed.
I stopped believing in the rule of law as an actual reality in Canada or anything more than an ideal in June 2010.
Was that the kettling incident? G20 in Toronto. The only time I’ve seen a police car set on fire in Canada. And the first use of tear gas in the City of Toronto.
Allegedly, “black bloc” troublemakers, started the property destruction. Whether this was done with tacit approval by police is an open question. Needless to say, police responses to protests on the days of the sunmit were found to be lacking.
Oh, btw, still, fuck John Baird and definitely fuck Tony Clement. My introduction to fuckery in Canada’s politics came from watching these two refuse to answer questions in Parliament for months. The one person I saw trying to hold these two Harper cabinet ministers to account was good ol’ Charlie Angus.
That said, fuckery is now status quo and Charlie Angus has said he’ll not seek re-election.
Vancouver playoff riots didn’t police cars get burnt then.
Was that G7/8 kettling?
So let me get this straight.
This is claiming that the Liberal government got ahold of the Ottawa police (not the RCMP, and ran by an independent politician, not a Liberal) to go to Niagara (almost 6 hours drive away) to talk to this person about their social media posts. And only this person seems to know anything about it, no other news channel, Liberal or Conservative.
And it’s been already three days and still only they are mentioning about it…
I never said that the government or any government had a hand in doing or directing any of this.
I don’t know who or why this was done … the disturbing part of this story is that it happened and it should be investigated further. Police shouldn’t be used by any government/institution/group/individual to intimidate political/cultural/religious rivals.
The additional disturbing part of this is that yes you are right … there doesn’t seem to be any media coverage about this … even though advocates have made a media release about it themselves …
https://www.justpeaceadvocates.ca/canadian-arab-federation-statement-from-coalition-of-canadian-organizations-in-solidarity-with-palestine/
As I also mentioned, the story and video were also released by Samira Mohyeddin, a multi-award-winning journalist, documentary maker, and producer at CBC Radio One’s The Current.
I don’t think someone with a career like Mohyeddin would put her reputation on the line just to release a video that wasn’t credible. She released it on her own media platform ‘On The Line Media’ but she is still a recognized and acclaimed journalist.
This is a highly disturbing story because it happened and it is also deeply disturbing that it is also being completely ignored.
You are correct … we should keep asking questions about this to verify everything … but it should also be equally disturbing that no one wants to touch this story or even acknowledge it.
For the first part, you pretty much did imply it was a government thing in your post I replied to.
As for someone like Mohyeddin release a video like that with her credit on the line, sure she would. People have done this in the past for the right amount. Think doctors that promote cigarettes, petrol backed scientists that deny harms, Bernie Madoff (before he started the Ponzi scheme), Rudy Giuliani was a large and respected lawyer at one point that in the 80s took on the Five Families mafias in New York. I could keep this list going. And conspiracy theories are big business right now, some people would put their reputation on the line for a huge payout.
This feels less real (as no one of either side of politics has even attempted to touch on this) and more like Alex Jones level of reporting.
Now, yes, I could be wrong, but it just doesn’t pass the feel test for me. More clickbaity and with trigger words to get even more attention.