Fence holds up, rights not quite so sturdy
Ah, civil liberties. So long fought for, so quickly dispensed
with. Throughout the week, J-Source worked hard to keep up with reports of police actions
against journalists during the G20/8 Summit. The roughed-up and handcuffed
included a CTV
field producer, the National Post’s
photographers, and reporters for the Guardian
and Real News.
The Guardian’s Jesse Rosenfield describes his experiences in a podcast. “Free
speech appears to have fared poorly,” observes a Canadian Journalists for Free
Expression media
statement. All it takes, apparently, are a few broken windows and some
torched police cars – something that doesn’t stack up to a good old-fashioned
hockey riot, as this
Globe and Mail column noted. Meanwhile world leaders responded with another
helping of the recipe that feeds public protest – a pledge
to deepen public service cuts and expand free trade while saving banks from
taxation. Perhaps they’ll need
a higher fence for the next round.
Update: The first link of this article is to an Adam Radwanski column on new police powers under the Public Works Protection Act. Subsequent reports reveal the police had overstated their powers under the Act, someting Mr. Radwanski addresses in his next column. There’s more info in this related news story.
Ah, civil liberties. So long fought for, so quickly dispensed
with. Throughout the week, J-Source worked hard to keep up with reports of police actions
against journalists during the G20/8 Summit. The roughed-up and handcuffed
included a CTV
field producer, the National Post’s
photographers, and reporters for the Guardian
and Real News.
The Guardian’s Jesse Rosenfield describes his experiences in a podcast. “Free
speech appears to have fared poorly,” observes a Canadian Journalists for Free
Expression media
statement. All it takes, apparently, are a few broken windows and some
torched police cars – something that doesn’t stack up to a good old-fashioned
hockey riot, as this
Globe and Mail column noted. Meanwhile world leaders responded with another
helping of the recipe that feeds public protest – a pledge
to deepen public service cuts and expand free trade while saving banks from
taxation. Perhaps they’ll need
a higher fence for the next round.
Update: The first link of this article is to an Adam Radwanski column on new police powers under the Public Works Protection Act. Subsequent reports reveal the police had overstated their powers under the Act, someting Mr. Radwanski addresses in his next column. There’s more info in this related news story.
Patricia W. Elliott is a magazine journalist and assistant professor at the School of Journalism, University of Regina. You can visit her at patriciaelliott.ca.