Home » Posts tagged 'charter challenge'

Tag Archives: charter challenge

Olduvai
Click on image to purchase

Olduvai III: Catacylsm
Click on image to purchase

Post categories

Post Archives by Category

Five Questions for Media Rights Defender Taking C-51 to Court

July 30, 2015

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?

On June 18, Bill C-51 received royal assent, making the widely criticized and controversial Anti-Terrorism Act a law. Last week, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association and Canadian Journalists for Free Expression announced plans to launch a Charter challenge against specific sections of the bill, which both organizations filed with the Ontario Superior Court on July 21. A concurrently launched crowdfunding campaign to help pay for legal fees raised well over the organizations’ goal of $25,000 within three days.

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.

 

 

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Olduvai IV: Courage
Click on image to read excerpts

Olduvai II: Exodus
Click on image to purchase

Click on image to purchase @ FriesenPress