Ever criticize a politician in writing? How about a backroom political operator? A CEO? Or even a company's shoddy products? Canada stands alone in the Western democratic world in that it still allows public persons and corporations to use libel law to silence their fair critics. The result is often libel chill, as the CBC piece that ran last night on The National, featuring among others myself and Kate Holloway, details.
Worse, our courts are still unclear how to apply libel law to the Internet.
As I've written about before, (see here) I'm being sued by Green Party of Canada creditor and former campaign manager Wayne Crookes over links and articles other people wrote which I had the misfortune of reposting in a Yahoo Group forum. During the Green Party of Canada's 2006 internal election I kept a wiki which had a link to a candidate's web page, which had on it somewhere a link to a wiki which had on it somewhere some content Crookes objects too (I still don't know what!). For this, he is also suing me, though, to date, he's not sued the candidate.
If Wayne Crookes (the plaintiff) gets his way, entire sites could be forced offline simply for linking to another site which somewhere on it has content someone claims is libelous.
Crookes is also using Wikipedia and (ironically) the OpenPolitics.ca wiki. For a great piece about the OpenPolitics case, see fellow ProgBlogger Chris Tindal's excellent The Silliness of Suing a Wiki which is a piece explaining why suing a wiki is ridiculous.
Crookes responded by suing that author as well. Read it and see if you can figure out what is libelous.
Done? According to Crookes, nothing written in that piece is libelous -- except it has some links he doesn't want published.
And now, for linking to it, he can sue me (again!) as well. And if you link to this post, you can now get sued.
Or so he argues.
What these lawsuits place at risk is nothing less than net democracy in Canada. By insisting that political writings no more unusual than what we all read daily on blogs, forums and wikis are to be considered libelous, and by succeeding in getting defendants to remove material (and in one case removing an entire blog over one post and some comments) without even a court order or finding, and for claiming that hyperlinks — even over multiple jumps — are to be considered as disseminating alleged libel, Crookes' lawsuits are attacking the very roots of our online community. There are issues here which our courts have yet to decide on, and unless we can fund and fight these lawsuits, the courts may rule his way, establishing a precedent which may not only chill the Canadian Internet, but freeze it.
What we want is for political writing to be specially protected from such lawsuits, as it is in countries like New Zealand, Australia and the UK. We want right-of-reply recognized as a remedy to defamation. We want the reverse-onus provision (guilty until proven innocent!) with regards to libel eliminated. And we want to see penalties applied to those who try to use libel law to silence dissent, such as the anti-SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) provision in use in California, which allows judges to dismiss qualifying cases early in the litigation process.
We want to be able to publicly question those in power without chill without fear.
Political writings should not be held merely on par with other expressions. Political writings are what have granted us our very freedoms, and will continue to preserve them as long as they flourish. Unprecedented in history, citizens can now publish their political opinions and inquiries online. We can now be freer than ever before; however, Canada's libel laws can and likely will make these most important expressions a liability to the corporations hosting the material, and our political opinions subject to coercion from the powerful. We need to change these laws, or lie down and be the peasants they say we are.
So Donate!
To defend ourselves, we badly need money. Over at LibelChill.ca you can donate to our defense fund through Paypal. Please give generously. Libel lawsuits are very expensive and as we are fighting several at once, we are looking at an initial price tag of up to $100,000. If you value your online expression, you need to donate!
If you run a blog, there are promotional banners you can place on your blog here. (Feel free to design something better -- just let me know.) The CBC video is available on YouTube here.
We need your help. And you need us to help establish and preserve your online rights.
I leave you with the words of an American defendant, David Weekly, CEO of PBwiki.com:
I don't think there's a realistic option for companies to actively monitor the content that they host. My company of six people publishes over two million unique pages of user-provided information. A rather simpler solution for ISPs, if this trial goes the wrong way, would be to simply firewall Canada to prevent Canadians from accessing websites with consumer media. That's the only option our company could afford to undertake. (We're also being sued by Crookes.) It'd be like the Great Firewall of China, but in reverse.
If you don't know my private email, and want to contact me, either leave a message below (and if you don't want the message posted, tell me), or reach me at libelchillinfo (AT) gmail.com.
-- Posted By Mark Francis to Section 15 at 8/17/2007 10:45:00 AM
I am leaving the Green Party and joining up with the Liberals.
There are many reasons for me to do this, but at the top of the list is to support former senior Green Party of Canada member Kate Holloway's efforts to become the Liberal MPP for Trinity-Spadina.
This does not mean that I am throwing away my green views. I am, instead, going to where they are most likely to quickly be put to good use.
Just after Dion's green scarves painted the Liberal leadership convention, Kate resigned from the Green Party of Canada's governing council, and left the Party. She called me up and asked me to follow her.
As Kate can be, she was very persuasive.
Dion had just won the leadership of the Liberals and there was hope that the Grits just might actually go green. Liberals have a history of pragmatically adopting policy to stay alive, and the public pressure to green our economy was (and still is) clearly growing. Adopting green policy would also further distinguish the Liberals from the green-regressive Conservatives. And although the GPC is doing better, it is still a generation away from forming a government, if ever. With so many issues looming large (energy shortages, ongoing environmental degradation from pollutants, the assault on biological diversity, the secret North American Union discussions, global warming causing climate change…) and the time to deal with these issues growing shorter every day, party loyalty arguably should take a backseat to green movement priorities.
I took a day to think about it.
The next day I told Kate I was concerned that she would just be gobbled up. I said that even if she was right, the green movement still needed a political organ through which to criticize the other parties, and to educate and advocate. If I could justify leaving, then so could the whole GPC, and then where would this much-needed movement be?
Kate had been fighting for a long time within the party to reform it. The GPC is a grassroots-based party, with constitutional requirements for participatory democracy and social justice, but it had very much strayed from these important principles, becoming an opaque, membership-disrespecting, highly centralized and autocratic body. Kate was at the center of the fight to bring the party back on course, and was viciously smeared by senior party members for it. With the election of Elizabeth May, which we had fought so hard for, and the injection of some new blood onto council, there was renewed hope that the party would remember its roots, and brings its members back into the fold.
I wasn't ready to leave yet. I stayed on, working in the Green Party of Ontario (GPO) as a voting member of its governing body, pushing for party growth and election preparedness. In the GPC, I sat and watched, looking for improvement.
Kate went on to build relationships within the federal and provincial Liberal parties. With her appointment by the Premier to run in Trinity-Spadina, I would say that she's been successful.
In the next few days, look for part 2: I fought for the Green Party, but all I got was this stupid lawsuit.
-- Posted By Mark Francis to Section 15 at 8/16/2007 01:01:00 PM
Kate and I are good friends. I have lots to write about, but for now, just read the press release.
August 10, 2007
For immediate release
Environmentalist, activist Kate Holloway Liberal candidate in Trinity-Spadina
Former high-profile Green Party of Canada member appointed by Premier
TRINITY-SPADINA – Ontario Liberals today announced that high-profile environmental activist and former Green Party of Canada executive member Kate Holloway will be the party's candidate in the Toronto riding of Trinity-Spadina.
Holloway has been appointed as candidate by Premier Dalton McGuinty.
"Kate Holloway has two very strong passions – the community and conservation. She believes in action, she has compiled an impressive list of achievements and already serves as a role model. I'm proud to have her as part of our Liberal team," said Premier McGuinty.
The addition of Holloway to the McGuinty Liberal team has received immediate applause.
"Today's announcement represents a huge environment coup for Premier Dalton McGuinty. To be able to recruit such a high calibre environmental candidate shows he means business in further developing his strong green team going into this fall's election. Dalton McGuinty and his Liberals, now including Kate Holloway, are where the action is for environmental protection in Ontario," said Deb Shulte, Co-Chair, Friends of Boyd Park.
"Kate has a rare combination of qualities. She is passionate about the environment, wise in the ways of business, and politically astute," said Chris Lowry, Executive Director of Green Enterprise Toronto.
"Kate understands the issues of sustainability and the urgent need for a greener agenda; she will be an energetic and effective Member," said Michael De Pencier, publisher of Toronto Life.
"Kate Holloway is very well known in the community as a strong and effective proponent for progress on environmental issues," said David Donnelly a prominent environmental lawyer and activist. "From action on renewable energy to climate change, she's been a leader. She's a green diva."
Holloway has founded, managed and directed several Toronto environmental startups and non-profit associations. She sits on the Steering Committee of Green Enterprise Toronto, a network helping independent businesses and consumers become greener and buy locally and is a founding member of the Women's Environmental Alliance.
She was also a high-profile member of Green Party of Canada, where she served on the national executive, co-founded the Green Party Women's Caucus and ran as a federal candidate.
"As a conservationist and advocate for strong, sustainable communities I've been impressed with progress made by the McGuinty Liberals, reducing our reliance on fossil fuels, investing in public transit, becoming a leader in clean energy such as wind power and offering incentives to help Ontarians go green – not to mention support for our schools, hospitals and neighbourhoods. I want to make sure that progress continues," said Holloway.
"We all know where the province was four years ago – the environmentwas under attack, our cities were facing neglect, public health and education were on a downward slope. We can't afford to go back to that. We need to keep moving forward," she said.
-30-
For more information, contact:
Ben Chin (416) 358-6291
-- Posted By Mark Francis to Section 15 at 8/10/2007 05:23:00 AM
I've finally left both the federal Green Party and the Green Party of Ontario and have joined the federal and Ontario Liberal parties.