If I were a libel lawyer suing CBC on behalf of the Freedom Convoy, a recent social media post would become exhibit “A” for my client’s case. It underscores an accusation that CBC and its mostly unfounded criticisms of the Convoy were based not on objective, journalistic research but rather “malice” which can be a nearly automatic win for the plaintiff — in this case the Convoy. It is a quirk of Canadian libel/slander law and was born of English Common Law on which our system is based. I know this firsthand because I lost a case on a “malice” argument thirty years ago in a trial so upsetting that many of us on the team fell into deep depressions following the highly contested verdict.
The CBC post was on Bluesky Social — the progressive alternative to X and I wonder if perhaps he believed no one on “the other side” would know about it. The person responsible for it is a CBC radio host in Vancouver.
Note: In my day, CBC was considered one of the guardians of the English language. In the bio for Quinn, you will notice the CBC writer mistakenly breaks the word “weekday” in two. Awful.
And Quinn wasn’t the only one….for a few days last week, leading up to Flag Day, multiple accounts across social media echoed his sentiment that people with whom they disagree must forfeit their patriotism.
This from a foul-mouthed troll who responded to my concern about Quinn’s post:
Note: “JFC” is another vulgarity Ms. Campbell seems to rely on. I won’t translate.
And this from the Trump Derangement Syndrome crew who are booing American athletes in support of our failing prime minister.
I have said many times that this country was broken, perhaps permanently, the day the police truncheons landed on the flesh of peaceful protestors in Ottawa. The anniversary of the Emergencies Act invocation was Friday, Valentine’s Day and it felt paramount to hear from Tamara Lich, whose case along with Chris Barber’s is scheduled to be decided in a few weeks. This is a moment in our history when a number of events have us questioning what Canada even stands for.
The behaviour of people like Quinn, who think they are being oh-so-clever by denouncing working class protestors is all the more egregious given that they are preaching their apostasy from a privileged perch funded by taxpayers.
Back to malice and journalism. What Quinn’s post reveals is that some CBC employees; I would hazard a guest we could say most, didn’t give the Convoy a fair shake because they held the protestors in low esteem. And it was through this low esteem that they framed their coverage. That is classic legal malice and it was purposely created by the Liberal government.
The earliest denigrations of protestors came from the Prime Minister himself and his posse of elites who’d bought into the vaccine cult and feared this uprising of critically thinking ordinary people not bound by managerial class sophistry and culture. It’s fair to say CBC employees are part of this tribe and that their malice was in part, driven by the prime minister’s comments. This is the playbook now. A circle of smears and deceptions against anything even remotely perceived as populist. I would love to see a skilled lawyer take up this cause.
I am booked with Sam Cooper for this week as many of you have been requesting.
Stay critical.
#truthovertribe
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