In June, Mr. LeBlanc went to Saint John, New Brunswick, to report on a protest against a meeting of chamber of commerce and board of trade members from Atlantic Canada and New England. Protestors stormed the meeting. Mr. LeBlanc was among those arrested.
Officers from the Saint John police testified they are regular readers of Mr. LeBlancs blog as part of their effort to gather intelligence on protests. William J. McCarroll, the provincial court judge who heard Mr. LeBlancs case, wrote in his decision that 'Mr. LeBlanc is a blogger'. I'm sure that many, if not the majority of Saint Johners, are not familiar with this word.
After reviewing videotape from a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation crew at the scene, sometimes in slow motion, the judge found that it contradicted testimony of the arresting officer, Sergeant John Parks.
Members of the so called mainstream media were taking photographs and filming in the same area without interference from the police, the judge wrote in a 20-page decision. I believe its fair to say that the defendant was doing nothing wrong at the time he was approached by Sergeant Parks and placed under arrest. He was simply plying his trade, gathering photographs and information for his blog alongside other reporters.
The judge also said that the police had no right to delete about 200 photos stored on Mr. LeBlancs camera.
Mr. LeBlanc said he had considered improving his skills by studying journalism at a local university. That is, until its journalism department accepted a donation of 1 million Canadian dollars from the Irvings. Do you think I could study in a classroom listening to an Irving employee? he asked.
http://nytimes.com/2006/11/27/business/media/27blog.html
[Proofreader's note: this article was edited for spelling and typos on November 29, 2006]
Note: http://oldmaison.blogsp...
http://nytimes.com/2006...
A Blogger Who Is A Court-Approved Journalist
Posted on Monday, November 27 at 16:11 by julianortegaContributed By
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The charge against me that the judge I stood before gave me a criminal record for.
Mr. Le Blanc was fortunate to draw a judge who had his head screwed on straight.
In my case I and a friend were no closer than twenty feet at any time to the police who were beating a friend. We were pleading with the jack-boot thugs to ease up.
I now have no respect for the law or any of those who use it as their personal weapon.
That by the way includes those who make false accusations that have destroyed others
If any thing M. Leblanc should have his tuition paid by the state.
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Diogenes said:
"I am Diogenes the Dog. I nuzzle the kind, bark at the greedy and bite scoundrels."
<br />
However, people should continue checking out his blog at <a href="http://www.oldmaison.blogspot.com">www.oldmaison.blogspot.com</a> because another person is to go to trial in Fredericton in January for essentially the same thing. At a protest in Fredericton for immigrants rights, a guy was apart from the group and taking photos. Police arrested him, and deleted his pictures. <br />
<br />
This has been going on for quite some time, the difference is that Charles has a blog and is fairly well known in this small province. Police of course don't like being photographed, particularly when doing their job. This seems to be a scare tactic to keep people from showing up. <br />
<br />
A sudden thought I had that perhaps people here could help with would be a 'lobby group', but one whose only purpose is to go to demonstrations and video and photograph them. They could even have special hats or armbands. Not only would this keep police in line, but protesters too. Many of these protests are increasingly ignored by the media, in fact a special section could be set up at Vive to get 'the scooop'. <br />
<br />
Some people who want to keep an eye on cops as well as people who want to keep an eye on protestors would make great volunteers. Most people do not like to 'protest' unless they have to, this would get people who aren't necessarily political to show up. Something to think about.
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"I think it's important to always carry enough technology to restart civilization, should it be necessary." Mark Tilden
I would expect the Irvings to be quite irritated over this ruling. I would also expect that the CBC News Director that made the decision to cover this important news will suffer from the Irving's wrath. I only wish CBC and (la SRC) did more of that as our State public broadcaster. I certainly would not expect our commercial broadcasters to do this.
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"We are all in this together somehow, some more than others somehow"
I too agree your proposal is an excellent one
Before sleep overtook me last night I was working on something for the forum section. The direction I m heading in is a peoples law school.
For some time now I have been advocating alternatives to the established traditional way of things.
It is high time for fresh traditions to be initiated to counter the established, and corrupt existing order. One must ask themselves. Several soul seeking questions
Let us begin with what to me is the obvious one-
“Who is being served?”
We have it drilled into our heads that society at large is the beneficiary of the established order when in fact that is a lie! It is a only a partial truth, if such an animal exists. In the example of this thread it is the Irving’s or the wealthy who reap any benefits of the existing system.
Any benefit(s) the larger part of society may receive are only table scraps by comparison and that does not constitute a equitable and Just society.
What I propose is not unheard of.
Although I am not a gambling man I would bet that I am not the only person to be silenced or bent to the bough of the law.
Obstructing an officer in the line of duty is another one of those devices used by the state to quell dissent. When the police, who must be familiar with law in order to enforce it, begin to look for charges that will serve their needs rather than those of the greater numbers of us who rightly claim citizenship then my friends we are living in a Police State.
To claim otherwise is to support those who would enslave you!
Obstructing justice, or Obstructing an office in the line of duty is a blanket charge much like the charges within the Mental Health Act.
The idea of a lobby group “whose only purpose is to go to demonstrations and video and photograph them.” is a good beginning and falls far short of what will be required to establish a just and equitable society.
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Diogenes said:
"I am Diogenes the Dog. I nuzzle the kind, bark at the greedy and bite scoundrels."
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Diogenes said:
"I am Diogenes the Dog. I nuzzle the kind, bark at the greedy and bite scoundrels."
However as the above poster has shown, and as is frequently pointed out at his blog, this is VERY serious stuff. As said, it isn't just charles, another 'activist' in Fredericton is facing the same charge.
In New Brunswick we are going to start up such a group. Basically anybody I can find with a video camera or digital camera will be invited to protests and we'll come up with a website and some means of identification. Sort of like many church groups do at protests and other events such as at Burnt Church. We are going to try to get protestors to contact us before the protest, and we'll contact the media to see if they are planning to videotape of photograph it, if not, then we'll get a 'team' out there. New Brunswick is notoriously tough to get people involved in stuff like this, but we'll try at the churches and anywhere else.
dissecting stories the way you did ... to get at the real story.
marcarc: that's another beautiful piece of work. What a great idea to
focus your protest energies on the filmed record ... good luck!
That is the most heartening news I’ve heard for for a long time
Although I do not live in your province I offer you whatever assistance I can. I see what you are proposing as one of the most important steps we as free men and women of a democratic society can initiate.
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Diogenes said:
"I am Diogenes the Dog. I nuzzle the kind, bark at the greedy and bite scoundrels."
As you must be aware, the corporate owned media won't always be unbiased and honest with their reporting. Even the CBC has been compromised on certain issues. My suggestion is that an observation team be sent to all protests no matter if the corporate media plan to show up or not.
<br />
<a href="http://www.vivelecanada.ca/article.php/20061120000337727">http://www.vivelecanada.ca/article.php/20061120000337727</a><p>---<br>"And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music." Friedrich Nietzsche<br />
An independant view to MSM will serve as counter spin
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Diogenes said:
"I am Diogenes the Dog. I nuzzle the kind, bark at the greedy and bite scoundrels."
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"We are all in this together somehow, some more than others somehow"