Region apologizes to reporter
The chief administrative officer of the Niagara Region issued a public apology for the inconvenience caused to a journalist by seizing his computer and notes during Thursday night’s council meeting.
However, Carmen D’Angelo would not say the Region made a mistake in taking the equipment from St. Catharines Standard reporter Bill Sawchuk, nor could he explain why he thought he had the legal power to make the seizure.
Sawchuk’s equipment was confiscated by regional staff, who answer to D’Angelo, during a closeddoor session of regional council. Regional Clerk Frank Fabiano told Sawchuk that “someone” had accused the reporter of secretly recording the in camera meeting.
Sawchuk was in the lobby of regional headquarters at the time, and his computer was on the media table inside the council chambers. He told Fabiano he was not recording the closed the session of council, but the computer and later his notes were taken anyway.
In a more than 30-minute long interview with The Standard Friday, D’Angelo was asked 17 times what legislation grants the municipality the authority to take a reporter’s notes and devices.
He did not answer the question once.
D’Angelo, who repeatedly called Thursday’s incident “unprecedented” for him, did say that “our focus and full intention was to keep the integrity of the closed session meeting,” and that the intention was to turn the devices over to the police.
“Once we got an assurance, once I heard Bill wasn’t recording, I apologized, we caused him inconvenience and we returned it,” D’Angelo said. “We didn’t say ‘Wah wah wah, we don’t believe you.’ We took that as facts and we returned it. When I see Bill, I’ll apologize. This was unprecedented.”
In fact, Sawchuk’s computer and notes weren’t returned until after midnight Thursday — four hours after they were taken — and after phone calls by a Standard reporter and the newspaper’s lawyer Doug Richardson.
When initially interviewed by the Standard Thursday night, Fabiano told the Standard to talk to the Region’s lawyers about getting the computer back in the morning.
Sawchuk said the only person to apologize to him Thursday was Fabiano, who said he was sorry while in the process of confiscating the computer.
After Sawchuk’s computer was seized, two Niagara Regional Police officers arrived and he was ejected from the building without being permitted to retrieve his notebook.
When asked why Sawchuk was removed from the building, D’Angelo did not provide a reason. He only said that anyone seated at the media table was told to leave and that he was not aware who was recording anything.
The Region drew sharp criticism over the incident Friday on social media and from media rights groups.
A statement by Canadian Journalists for Free Expression condemned the Region’s actions, saying it would take the authority of a court order to seize a reporter’s notes.
“The actions of Niagara Regional Council members and police are an outrageous assault on media rights, and evidence of a disturbing disregard for the role of the press in a democracy,” the statement says. “A reporter’s notes, sources and electronic devices should never be seized or searched except through enforcement of a court order, and only then under most narrow and rigorously scrutinized circumstances.”
Canada dropped to 22nd out of 180 countries in Reporters Without Borders’ 2017 World Press Freedom Index, the statement says.
Duncan Pike, codirector of Canadian Journalists for Free Expression, called it “an absolutely atrocious violation of press freedom.”
“It’s clear that this type of action is designed exclusively to make it harder to do the fundamental job that your reporters are doing,” he said. “If this kind of heavy-handed and completely outrageous assault on basic principles of press freedom is allowed to continue and there’s no consequences for it, it just makes it that much harder for local reporters to do their jobs and for citizens to know what is going on in their own communities.”
The incident happened midway through Thursday night’s council meeting.
Councillors voted to move incamera to discuss code of conduct issues about controversial St. Catharines Councillor Andy Petrowski, who announced he was taking a leave of absence earlier in the day.
Sawchuk left council chambers to wait in the lobby for the open session to resume. His computer and notes were left on the media table where he was seated beside local blogger Preston Haskell.
The computer was not recording the meeting.
Fort Erie regional councillor Sandy Annunziata said he discovered a recording device under a hat after the closed session began.
D’Angelo said at that the point the recorder — which Haskell claimed as his on Facebook and on his blog — and Sawchuk’s computer were seized.
Haskell did not return messages from The Standard Friday, but in a Friday blog post, Haskell said he takes his notes of meetings using a recording device. The device was running while council was in open session when he left to use the bathroom, Haskell wrote on Facebook. When he returned, council had moved to closed session. He denied the device was concealed under a hat.
The livestream recording of the meeting shows that Haskell was not at the media table when council moved into closed session.
D’Angelo told The Standard that Haskell’s recorder was turned over to the police Fri- day.
The Region issued a formal statement Friday afternoon, apologizing “for this inconvenience caused to Mr. Sawchuk.”
“The Region takes this matter very seriously and will be reviewing its policy and protocols in order to prevent further incidents. As part of this review, the Region will be inviting local media to participate in this process.”
The Standard’s editor-in-chief Angus Scott said the apology was welcome but that it is “what I can only describe as a half-hearted apology.”
“Unfortunately, the apology indicates the Region does not seem to recognize the gravity of its actions,” Scott said. “More encouraging is the Region’s offer to work constructively with media to set up protocols to ensure such an incident is never repeated and that a professional approach will be followed in the future. I, and The Standard, would be more than happy to work with Niagara Region in its efforts in this direction and I look forward to hearing more details of what the municipality proposes.”
D’Angelo told The Standard the Region did not copy or examine Sawchuk’s hard drive or notes.
When asked if he understood the outrage of journalists and members of the public over the incident, D’Angelo said he thinks the public is more upset that “recording devices” were found.
“I think that people need to understand that what we found in the closed session was recording devices. And I think the community would be outraged to know when we go in closed session that someone attempted to record it.”
Repeated requests for an interview with Regional Chair Alan Caslin went unanswered Friday.