{"id":1282,"date":"2016-07-12T02:21:04","date_gmt":"2016-07-12T06:21:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/?p=1282"},"modified":"2016-07-12T02:21:04","modified_gmt":"2016-07-12T06:21:04","slug":"regina-v-radical-press-legal-update-25","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/?p=1282","title":{"rendered":"Regina v Radical Press Legal Update #25"},"content":{"rendered":"

Regina v Radical Press Legal Update #25<\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n
July 11, 2016<\/span> by admin<\/a><\/span><\/span> Leave a Comment<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n
\n

\"NEWERESTLegalUpdateLogo-700\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Regina v Radical Press Legal Update # 25<\/strong>
\n\u00a0July 11th, 2016<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"RPEdNew400-copy-3<\/a><\/p>\n

Dear Free Speech Defenders and Radical Press Supporters,<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s been close to a year since I last posted a Legal Update back on August 8th, 2015. That was prior to the actual trial which began on October 26th, 2015 and concluded fourteen days later on November 12th, 2015.<\/p>\n

The outcome of the trial, as many will know, resulted in\u00a0a Guilty charge on Count 1 and a Not Guilty charge on Count 2. What was perplexing for everyone who heard the results (including myself) was that BOTH Counts 1 and 2 \u00a0were the same charge, <\/em><\/strong>that is,\u00a0both were a\u00a0Sec. 319(2) Criminal Code of Canada <\/em>offence\u00a0<\/em>which reads:<\/p>\n

\u201c(2) Every one who, by communicating statements, other than in private conversation, wilfully promotes hatred against any identifiable group is guilty of<\/p>\n

(a) an indictable offence and is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years; or<\/p>\n

(b) an offence punishable on summary conviction.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Immediately following the trial a date was set for December 7th, 2015 in order to fix a date for theCharter<\/em> application hearing to be heard. The Charter<\/em> issue had already began back in the spring of 2015 but was postponed pending the outcome of the trial. Had I been victorious and found Not Guilty on both counts there would not have been grounds to file the challenge to the legislation.\u00a0That date came and went and Crown and Defence were unable to agree upon a date for the hearing. It was put over to January 25th, 2016. On the January date issues came up about Defence calling Expert Witnesses and so it was rescheduled to March 29th, 2016 to fix a date. March 29th came and went and more delays required the setting a new date of April 4th. The 4th of April came and went and another date of May 2nd was chosen. On May 2nd the computers in the courtroom malfunctioned causing further delays and a new date of June 6th was set. On June 6th Defence counsel\u2019s computer went down and a new date of July 11th, 2016 was set. After \u00a0eight months and seven attempts to fix a date the deed was finally accomplished on the 11th of July!<\/p>\n

As it now stands the Charter<\/em> application will be heard in Quesnel Supreme Court beginningOctober 3rd, 2016<\/strong> and run (possibly) for the full week to October 7th, 2016.<\/p>\n

As stated previously, I, as the Applicant will be raising\u00a0the following issues; ones that are included in my Memorandum of Argument<\/em><\/strong><\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Section 319(2) of the\u00a0Criminal Code<\/em>\u00a0constitutes an infringement of Section 2(b) of the\u00a0Charter of Rights and Freedoms.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2022 The Crown bears the onus of justifying the infringement of\u00a0Charter<\/em>\u00a0rights on a case-by-case basis.<\/p>\n

\u2022 The present case is distinguishable from\u00a0Keegstra<\/em><\/strong><\/a>\u00a0on its facts.<\/p>\n

\u2022 The infringement of Section 2(b) of the\u00a0Charter<\/em>\u00a0is not reasonably justified by Section 1 in the circumstances of this case, and specifically:\u00a0The \u201cpressing and substantial objective\u201d of legislation must be defined narrowly for the purpose of a Section 1 analysis.<\/p>\n

\u2022 The use of Section 319(2) in this case is not rationally connected to the pressing and substantial objective of preventing harms associated with hate propaganda.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Criminal prosecution by indictment is not a minimal impairment of the Applicant\u2019s\u00a0Charter<\/em>\u00a0rights.<\/p>\n

\u2022 The infringement of the Applicant\u2019s\u00a0Charter<\/em>\u00a0rights is disproportionate to any possible salutary effect that Section 319(2) could have in the circumstances of this case.<\/p>\n

\u2022 The appropriate remedy is to read into the law a constitutional exemption, to the effect that Section 319(2) is not a reasonable limit on Section 2(b) in circumstances where the allegedly hateful material is legal to possess and lawfully available from other sources.<\/p>\n

The bottom line is that\u00a0Section 319(2) of the\u00a0Criminal Code<\/em>\u00a0constitutes an infringement of Section 2(b) of the\u00a0Charter of Rights and Freedoms\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>which states:<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone has the following fundamental freedoms: \u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

(b) freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication \u2026\u201d<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The\u00a0Order <\/strong>that I intend to\u00a0pursue\u00a0<\/b>is based upon\u00a0Section 52(1) of the\u00a0Constitution Act<\/em>,\u00a01982<\/em>\u00a0reads as follows:<\/p>\n

\u201c52. (1) The Constitution of Canada is the supreme law of Canada, and any law that is inconsistent with the provisions of the Constitution is, to the extent of the inconsistency, of no force or effect.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Citing\u00a0R. v. Sharpe<\/em>\u00a0in support of Section 52(1) I will be\u00a0respectfully requesting an order that would read as follows:<\/p>\n

A declaration that Section 319(2) of the\u00a0Criminal Code<\/em>\u00a0constitutes an infringement of Section 2(b) of the\u00a0Charter<\/em>, as already established in\u00a0R. v. Keegstra<\/em>.<\/p>\n

A declaration, pursuant to Section 52(1) of the\u00a0Constitution Act, 1982<\/em>, that Section 319(2) of the\u00a0Criminal Code<\/em>\u00a0is not reasonably justified by Section 1 of the\u00a0Charter<\/em>\u00a0in circumstances where the allegedly hateful material is legal to possess and lawfully available from other sources.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Crown of course will be arguing that\u00a0the applicant\u2019s (my) argument is entirely without merit.<\/p>\n

Now that the date has been set there is still the responsibility on my part to cover a number of financial costs related to the hiring of Expert Witnesses and also travel expenses and accommodations for legal assistants who I will be bringing to Quesnel for the week of the Charter<\/em>hearing. These and many other miscellaneous costs that are part of this ongoing process must be raised over the next two months in order accomplish our goals. Any help that people can offer will be gratefully accepted and put to good use.<\/p>\n

Donations can be made online via my GoGetFunding site located at\u00a0http:\/\/gogetfunding.com\/canadian-publisher-faces-jail-for-political-writings\/<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>or else by sending cash, cheques or Money Orders to the following postal address. Please make sure that any cheques or Money Orders are made out to \u2013 Arthur Topham \u2013 and sent to:<\/p>\n

Arthur Topham<\/strong><\/div>\n
4633 Barkerville Highway<\/strong><\/div>\n
Quesnel, B.C.<\/strong><\/div>\n
V2J 6T8<\/strong><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Thank You All for your ongoing help throughout this long process!<\/em><\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Regina v Radical Press Legal Update #25 July 11, 2016 by admin Leave a Comment Regina v Radical Press Legal Update # 25 \u00a0July 11th, 2016 Dear Free Speech Defenders and Radical Press Supporters, It\u2019s been close to a year … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[12,39,18,638,11],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1282"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1282"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1282\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1283,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1282\/revisions\/1283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}