Blogs 'n bans

The Gomery Inquiry is considering contempt-of-court charges against an "all-news Canadian website" for linking to an American blog post allegedly containing details of damning testimony covered by a publication ban:

An American website has breached the publication ban protecting a Montreal ad exec's explosive and damning testimony at the AdScam inquiry. The U.S. blogger raised the ire of the Gomery commission this weekend by publishing extracts from testimony given in secret by Jean Brault last Thursday.

The American blog, being promoted by an all-news Canadian website, boasts that "Canada's Corruption Scandal Breaks Wide Open" and promises more to come. The owner of the Canadian website refused to comment yesterday.

AdScam inquiry spokesman Francois Perreault expressed shock at the publication ban breach, and said commission co-counsel Bernard Roy and Justice John Gomery will decide today whether to charge the Canadian website owner with contempt of court.

"We never thought someone would violate the publication ban," Perreault said yesterday. "Maybe we were more confident than we should have been."

Gomery slapped a ban on Brault's testimony last week to ensure the Montreal ad exec would be able to find an unbiased jury for his fraud trial set for next month.
[...]
Sun Media lawyer Alan Shanoff said publishing the name of the blog, Canadian news site or even providing the Internet address could lead to a contempt charge.

I posted the link myself Sunday morning, but I've since removed it after speaking to another lawyer. I'm busy enough without having to worry about a disciplinary hearing, and I certainly don't want to get my firm in trouble. But there are few words which can describe my frustration and disgust right now.

Our pal Warren Kinsella certainly had a change of heart about the Gomery Inquiry, didn't he? He's spent the last few months doing everything he can to undermine its credibility (as recently as Saturday, he was calling it "a civil inquiry that is itself replete with massive overspending, lack of controls, lack of self-control, and a total inability to lay charges - and will only issue a report that will be ultimately tainted by a finding of bias by the Federal Court") but now he's tut-tutting conservative troglodytes who allegedly breached the inquiry's publication ban. But I'm sure it has nothing to do with damning allegations about the government he served, no sir.

Update: the blogger who shall not be named was interviewed by Jane Taber for today's Globe and Mail.

Update II: Colby Cosh, who should've been a lawyer, has more.

Posted by damian at April 4, 2005 09:09 AM