In an interesting development, the Vancouver Sun reports that the Union Bay Improvement District, near Courtenay, on Vancouver Island, and with a operating surplus of $208,000 has spent $118,000 in legal fees to sue a local blogger for the following:
* A caricature that portrayed the board's chairman as Barney Fife, the bumbling deputy sheriff in the sleepy southern town of Mayberry, from the early 1960s television comedy The Andy Griffith Show
* Comments about whether the romantic relationship between a trustee on the improvement district board and an executive from a development company (the couple eventually wed) that was negotiating with the district created a conflict of interest.
* Accusations that board members put themselves in an apparent conflict of interest by publicly supporting a developer's plans while serving on the board that was negotiating arrangements essential to the developer obtaining zoning approval.
* The gadfly's mocking of an email from the board, which told the blogger she was being treated as respectfully as any other landowner, but to which had inadvertently been appended a note to other trustees that included a derogatory comment about the blogger's intelligence
It'll be interesting to follow the Court's ruling on this lawsuit and what effect it'll have on local bloggers', like myself and others, throughout BC
See the story here
3 comments:
*whistles* Interesting!
Idiots. Have they never seen a political cartoon in the newspaper? Do they think that public figures are immune to derogatory comments? In North Korea, sure. Here, no.
And they used public money to protect their own political reputations (unsuccessfully I would think).
Petty munis and their ego trips .. the Mayoress of Rawdon Qc wanting to limit municipal discussion to the council chamber only .. got a judge to warrant an Anton Pillar search and seizure of my hard drive. Present were 2 cops 2 techs and a bailiff. This invasion of privacy stemmed from comments made on the Rawdon Forum by a group of disgruntled citizens. She had a judge order the website closed down.. and the town and the Mayroalty sued me for 360 000$ there were 12 writers in all and the town of Rawdon Qc spent 567 000$ trying to sink 12 citizens.
She got turfed in the election and so did all of her councillors except for one. Three appeal judges voted 3-0 that the citizenry have a right to criticize their governement and that 22 paragraphs from a digested 240 page document did not warrant such an action .. seems like it's another test case here .. you have my support Steve Solo Rawdon Qc http://www.thesuburbannews.ca/content/en/3697
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