Region should have used common sense, says Forster
Unprecedented.
That’s how Regional Chair Alan Caslin and his chief administrative officer Carmen D’Angelo described the events that led to the unlawful seizure of a Standard reporter’s computer and notes last week.
When a digital recorder belonging to local blogger Preston Haskell was found recording a closed- door meeting of council, chaos ensued. In an interview with the Standard Friday, D’Angelo said council had no protocols to deal with a device recording a closed meeting of council.
In an interview Monday, Caslin said as a result of poor protocols mistakes were made, including the confiscation of reporter Bill Sawchuk’s equipment.
However, it is not the first time council has discovered an in- camera meeting was being recorded.
But the last time it happened, the response of council and staff did not draw sharp condemnation from press freedom organizations and the public.
Welland MPP Cindy Forster said when she was on regional council nine years ago, councillors discovered a closed- door meeting was being filmed.
“At that time, Cogeco filmed and broadcast the meetings,” said Forster. “During one meeting we went in- camera and the Cogeco cameraman accidentally left his camera running.”
When councillors realized the camera was filming, the meeting was stopped, Forster said. The camera operator was brought into the chamber and asked to turn the camera off.
“He was also asked to delete the recording of the closed meeting, which he did,” she said.
“And that was it.”
The difference between last Thursday’s incident and the Cogeco camera operator is that some councillors are claiming Haskell was trying to record the meeting secretly.
Haskell denies the allegation. Nevertheless, Forster said council should have used common sense, rather than unlawfully seizing the equipment of a journalist.
Sawchuk, who left his computer and notes on the media table while he waited outside chambers until the open session of council resumed, was not recording the meeting.
Although he told regional clerk Frank Fabiano that he had done nothing wrong and that the Region could not take his equipment, the computer was confiscated. Sawchuk was then ejected from the building without explanation.
Forster filed a complaint with the provincial ombudsman about the incident, which was called an attack on the freedom of the press by media rights organizations and condemned by the Standard’s editorin- chief Angus Scott.
The ombudsman’s office has moved into a full- scale an investigation of the incident. glafleche@ postmedia. com twitter. com/ grantrants