Tag Archives: media law

Canadian Media Law Harms Victims

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I recently watched this documentary by the CBC’s The Fifth Estate. It was called “The Unmaking of Jian Ghomeshi” which is essentially diving into the whole sex assault scandal story and how people are accusing the CBC of covering it up.

A big point I got out of watching this is how Canadian media law in a way aids in the process of making sure that alleged victims are never heard. There is a part where it interviews a person named Jesse Brown who is a media critic and runs a site called Canada Land. According to this video, the victims went up to him about the whole story and he tried to investigate into it.

Some of the key responses Brown claims was that if he even thought of publishing the story or even ask further questions he would be sued. Even though the story involves a matter of public interest it’s like the law is being used in a way as a weapon to stop people from even investigating the issue.

I am no lawyer and so maybe “legally” a person can sue you all they want in these cases where it will be without success. However, I don’t think anyone would argue that the time and cost of going to court is intimidating to many to the point where it makes more sense to keep quiet. To me, that is fundamentally wrong when people are using it as a way to stop others from uncovering the truth as opposed to using it as a way to protect someone. Pretty much the same reason why I can’t fully share my experience.

It makes me believe that Canadian media law is extremely outdated to the point where it is no longer serving its original intent. In my opinion, there has to be a better categorization between allowing people to get their story out there without fear versus one making up accusations that can clearly be proven as false in a malicious way.

Example, to me if a girl screams out on the street that a certain person raped her then I would think it’s in the community’s best interest to take the allegation seriously and to investigate into it. Basically, everyone can work together to discover the truth.

If the guy can prove that the story is clearly false due to records of her being at a certain place at X time where she insists in ignoring it and continues to accuse him then that is a different story. Like there, that is what I would think media law was intended to protect.

The parts in this documentary about the alleged victims using twitter to partially expose the story in a way shows there is a need to give people the ability to tell their story without the fear that people with more money or power can simply silence them. I understand the flip side of the coin where if these people are simply lying then morally it is wrong to enable them to keep doing so. Like in this example though, how can you even start to investigate it if the media law works against them from doing so? These things need more ways to encourage public participation to discover the truth I think as opposed to lawyers using these kinds of laws as a weapon to stop it.

Victims of Ecowest Renovations Story And Media Law

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I saw on the news today about a story in regards to a company formerly known as Ecowest Renovations. From what I heard from Global News BC the company had filed for bankruptcy which left a lot of customers with incomplete work. Ultimately, making them lose a lot of money. Apparently since then the owner of the company named Sean Camp has opened up a new company called Truridge Exteriors.

Now a lot of people have banded together it seems in the form of social media in an attempt to share their experiences about the company. From what I see there are two Facebook groups called Eco west victims which you can visit at https://www.facebook.com/ecowestvictims and Truridge Exteriors – The Truth which you can see at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Truridge-Exteriors-The-Truth/280447445485375

The part that stuck out to me was how in the report it states that apparently at least two people that are part of the group, named Mitch Selman and Amanda Dougan, are being threatened with lawsuits if they don’t take the page down. In the news report though it seemed like they were staying firm regardless of these threats.

I don’t know all the details of course, but it was inspiring to hear that other people try to use social media in these scenarios as well. The legal system is one reason that holds me back from fully being able to tell my story for example which in many ways is silly. Although, my scenario is a little different where because it went through a court case I can share all of the documents and what was said in court. However, to my knowledge I am still gagged from discussing about the inner workings which is a pain.

Like for this story, as an outsider I would be highly interested in hearing the facts in an openly public manner. None of this potential intimidation by lawyers or the cost of the court system that can potentially stop people from uncovering the truth. Kudos to you guys for trying to get your story out there and hopefully one way or another all the facts will be thrown out for the public to make an informed and factual decision on the matter.