Minister, Ombudsman called upon in Standard matter
St. Catharines MPP Jim Bradley says he’ll speak with Ontario’s Minister of Municipal Affairs Monday personally to discuss what happened to a Standard reporter covering a Niagara Regional council meeting.
Reporter Bill Sawchuk’s laptop and notebook were seized by regional staff Thursday night and Sawchuk was prevented from re-entering council chambers after councillors alleged someone was recording a closed-door meeting.
Sawchuk was not recording the meeting but his items were not returned until four hours later through the intervention of the newspaper’s lawyer.
“It’s a matter of principle that you want to have a media that has access and the freedom to report,” Bradley said in an interview Friday. “From the description of what happened that evening, Bill Sawchuk’s ability to report accurately and comprehensively was impeded by the seizing of his equipment. I’ve not heard of that before.”
Bradley, of the Liberal government, said he talks to the minister whenever matters of interest come up locally.
Welland NDP MPP Cindy Forster, meanwhile, has sent a letter to Ontario’s Office of the Ombudsman and the minister asking for an investigation.
Forster said Friday part of what really troubled her was that before any investigation was done, a reporter’s computers and personal notes were seized without any warrant and without any cause. As well, she said a member of the public, in this case a reporter, was prevented from going back into a public meeting without any reason and without council’s approval.
“How does a senior bureaucrat make that decision, that the public is being denied access to a public meeting that the taxpayers are paying for?”
Forster said she also wants to know why Sawchuk was removed when he wasn’t causing a disturbance.
“I think there were a lot of things that happened last night that could have been done better for transparency and accountability, all those kinds of things we’ve been talking about for the last month.”
Forster’s office received a response to their email to Minister Bill Mauro Friday afternoon, saying he couldn’t comment on a specific incident.
He said if she had questions regarding the procedural bylaw or actions taken by a municipality, she may wish to contact the municipality.
Bradley said the incident is a matter of concern, not just for Sawchuk, but for the significantly large constituency of readers of the paper and other local newspapers.
“People want to know what’s going on. They want to know that reporters at a meeting of that kind are treated appropriately and that’s the only way that we can get our information, unless we’re prepared to go in and sit in all the meetings,” Bradley said.
“That is very valuable for us to have — members of the electronic and print media, first of all present at the meetings and second, being able to report without reservation. Certainly his ability to report was impeded by what was described as happening on Thursday evening.”