cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/30385203
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.
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Curious as to what she was saying. Like if it’s along the lines of kill of Jews, then yeah she deserves more than a visit. If she’s saying “fuck israel for the fascist shit they are doing” then yeah those cops shouldn’t have paid any mind to those complaints.
That’s the thing … if it were threats of death or violence, then the police would have said so and formally charged her with something.
Instead, they just go knocking on her door to ask her to stop saying bad things online.
The police have far more serious matters to deal with than to spend an hour or two to go visit someone’s home to ask them to stop saying disagreeable things online about a foreign government.
Exactly, ACAB
You’re making a lot of assumptions. The police don’t do full arrest the first time. It’s an escalation. Even when it comes to hate speech laws. You don’t actually get charged for it unless you’re relentless and people are pissed. You can post hate speech online and get away with it a million times, but a more public figure might get a warning visit or letter
Issue is there is a deliberate effort being made to conflate the two. There are an unfortunate many who genuinely believe that any and all criticism of the state of Israel is onto itself a form of antisemitism. I imagine after the Conservative Party wins the next federal election, such sentiments will only get worse.
Lets fucking hope they don’t win
I don’t know enough details about her particular circumstances to make a comment in that regard.
I would never invite the police into my home absent a warrant. The conversation would be discontinued as soon as they could not charge.
I understand she’s upset but being emotional about it and yelling about it is not helping her long term. IANAL but don’t talk to the cops without sound 3rd party representation.
I agree with her filming, however.
I think the main reason why she invited them into her home is because she is a lawyer and that she told them they were being filmed. She would be one of the few people who would take the risk to invite police into her home to get them to speak on recorded video about why they were at her home. If anything else had happened and they used force or tried to arrest her, she knew full well that she would have a huge case against them in court after the fact.
She knew what she was doing which is why she did what she did. Personally, you are right, I would have never allowed them in or even on my property from the start … because I am not a lawyer and I don’t know what I can or can’t get away with.
This woman is unbelievable and she has all my respect and appreciation. She invited these doorknobs into her home, filmed them acting like complete goons stepping on a citizens rights and now the entire world knows about it. Good for her.
