Five Questions for Media Rights Defender Taking C-51 to Court
Tom Henheffer and allies raised $25,000 to support their Charter challenge. So, what’s next?
We spoke with CJFE executive director Tom Henheffer about the challenge’s next steps.
J-Source: When did the discussions to get this Charter challenge underway start?
Tom Henheffer: Basically since C-51 was proposed legislation, we’ve been fighting it. In the form of protests, our social media campaign, a petition and largely being an education resource through our website. That’s a core of what we do in terms of advocacy, in terms of trying to educate the public. We did all of those things.
When it became law, we tried to figure out the best way to continue fighting it. The CCLA actually approached us and asked us to join them on the Charter challenge.
Has the CJFE ever launched a challenge like this before?
This is our first Charter challenge — certainly the first one since I joined — but we have intervened in other cases before. We’ve gone to court against the Ontario Provincial Police to decide whether or not they can impersonate journalists at protests. We intervened at the Mike Duffy trial. We intervened in the Omar Khadr case, although I believe he was released on bail before that case concluded. And we’re intervening currently on a case of media access to prisoners. It’s about a specific prisoner, but has larger implications.
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