Freedom of press a charter right
Speaking as an immigration lawyer who works to help people from very repressive countries obtain legal status and safety in Canada, I was shocked to see the Niagara regional council display the same authoritarian and fascist behaviour that many of my clients base their refugee claims on in Canada.
I am not sure what is more alarming to me: That the regional council would seek to enlist members of the Niagara Regional Police to bar the entry of an accredited member of the press from a council meeting; or, that these police officers would simply do council’s bidding without bothering to question whether what was being asked of them was legal.
You see, the freedom of the press is a right enshrined in section 2(b) of our Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and it seems to me that Niagara’s elected officials are of the opinion that they can simply ignore such a right on the basis of a mere feeling that they are possibly, maybe, being recorded during an in-camera session. Alarming as this behaviour is, it also raises a host of other questions: Why should we let these regional councillors meet in-camera at all? Is it not another principle of our democracy that all levels of our government should be open and transparent? What is it that regional council has to hide, that not only must they kick members of the press out of the room, but they also feel the need to seize this reporter’s work on nothing more than a hunch that their secrets could possibly spill beyond their closed doors?
I, as someone who grew up and spent his formative years in Niagara, am alarmed. I am alarmed not only because the Niagara regional council thinks it can behave in a manner that ignores our constitution, but also because the regional council apparently has business so secret that it feels the need to intimidate members of the press on the mere suspicion that their secrets might spill beyond their closed-door meetings. Constituents should not tolerate such behaviour from individuals that represent them. We shoul demand that all council meetings be conducted in an open and transparent environment. We should question why the council needs to have closed-door meetings at all. After all, if everything is above board, then they have no reason to hide from public scrutiny or intimidate a member of the press.
Joseph Granton Toronto