Another Country, Another Journalist, Another Jail Cell

A Sri Lankan court has sentenced Tamil journalist J.S. Tissainayagam to 20 years in prison because he "criticized the government's conduct and accused authorities of withholding food and other essential items from Tamil-majority areas as a tool of war."

The government of Sri Lanka claims that although “the constitution guarantees media freedom, but no one has a right to deliberately publish false reports that would lead to communal violence.” All the while Mr Tissainayagam's defence lawyer upholds that the journalist has been a tireless fighter for Human Rights and has been jailed for simply doing his job.

Both Amnesty International and US President Obama seem to agree, as they have both singled out this reporter as an example of journalists being jailed for simply doing their jobs. Amnesty International also states that 14 journalists and media workers have been killed since 2006 and that 11 journalists were forced to flee the country since the end of the 25 year civil war in May of this year.

I don't really know what to add exactly to all this, I mean how many times can one speak of anger and outrage and shock at situations like these? God knows I've written about prisoners of conscience over and over again on this blog and I'm pretty sure that everyone who reads this agrees with me that it is wrong. The good part in all this is that being Canadian, I have never had to worry about being jailed for expressing my opinions and I've never had to watch over my shoulder for fear government assassins were following me around.

So my heart goes out, again, to all those who are jailed for expressing their thoughts, their opinions and all those who fight for the rights of others despite the possibility of losing the very rights they are fighting for.

Google Forced to Reveal Identity of Blogger

A New York court today ordered Google to reveal the identity of a blogger, following a lawsuit brought forth by a Canadian model. The lawsuit claimed that she could not sue the blogger for defamation and damaging comments if she didn't know the identity of the blogger responsible for the damaging posts.

Google issued this statement in regards to the judgment: “We sympathize with anyone who may be the victim of cyberbullying. We also take great care to respect privacy concerns and will only provide information about a user in response to a subpoena or other court order. If content is found by a court to be defamatory, we will of course remove it immediately.”

So this tells me Google is reticent to rat us out; but still in the end, they like us, are subject to the rules of the courts.

If courts start handing out judgments of this kind who's to say that politicians, foreign nations or anybody with a little bit of a reason can't file the same complaint and have my identity revealed?

While this isn't exactly a landmark judgment it certainly sets a dangerous precedent for those of us who use this platform to express our opinions and beliefs that are not always in line with the mainstream. On the other hand, victims of cyberbullying should be allowed to face their bullies and have their day in court.

Either way, this judgment scares me a little.

(quote from the Globe and Mail)

Burma: Justice, Junta Style

The Associated Press reported this morning that Myanmar's opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi will see the length of her house arrest prolonged by 18 months. A time in which she will allowed to have access to state doctors and state media.

The sentence came after an American (who was also on trial) swam across a lake to reach her home and she allowed him to stay there for two days, thus breaching the terms of her house arrest. John Yettaw, the American, was sentenced to 7 years including 4 years of hard labor even though he claims that he swam across the lake because he had a vision from God that Suu Kyi's life was in danger.

The Junta, which imprisons just about everybody and their dog for no particular reasons, decided today to reduce her original sentence of 3 years hard labor to 18 months house arrest, probably due to international pressure. Besides... the arrest keeps her in state custody long enough that she will not be able to run in upcoming "elections" planned for the fall.

The international community is said to be outraged, the UN is outraged and Nobel Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu is down right pissed off... Let's see if this time the international community steps up and throws more than just empty words in front of the cameras, let's see if they can grow a pair and do something concrete to help Myanmar and rid them of this totalitarian regime that is plaguing the already battered people of this country.

More Sham Trials in Iran... (surpise!)

A French lecturer named Clotilde Reiss and staff from the French and British Embassies were charged in court yesterday with "spying and aiding a Western plot to overthrow the system of clerical rule"; according to an article in the Globe and Mail.

It is unclear if Reiss or the others were provided with interpreters while the charges were read and as we know from articles published last week, defendants in these mock trials are not allowed to have defense lawyers present. Many have called these proceedings by Iran's Revolutionary Court to be a sham, a farce and an outrage.

Since the June 12th elections official news sources state that over 20 people were killed in riots in the streets, but other sources from inside the country claimed to have confirmed over 1000 deaths.

In addition it would seems that "collecting news and information and sending pictures of the unrest abroad" is also considered a crime in Iran as these were also part of the charges laid against the defendants.

France and England expressed their outrage as did most of the EU, but it doesn't seem to slow down Iran pounding more victims into the ground with its iron fist. The trials are continuing and media coverage is dwindling, it's important for all of us to keep Iran in the news, not only because of the foreign nationals that are being held, but because the people of Iran believed, when they started reaching across cyberspace, that we would keep this alive as long they kept fighting for their rights. They haven't given up and neither should we.

There's no justice, they're just us....

The trials of protesters and government opposition are underway in Iran. Criticism from around the world hasn't stopped, the #iranelections channel on Twitter is still going strong.

Even those inside Iran's government are calling for a simultaneous trial of those who hit, abused, burned and murdered protesters but apparently the cry from within has yet again fallen on deaf ears as the government has made no moves to bring charges against those at fault.

In today's Globe and Mail Moshen Rezaei, a conservative challenger to the "president" said that trials of those responsible for the attack of protesters and torture or prisoners should go forward, “otherwise, justice will not be realized and it is possible that unrest will not end.”

While former president Mohammad Khatami called the trials a sham and said they would do nothing but “lead to ignorance of the real crimes”. The defendants' lawyers were not allowed to access court files or enter the courtroom. The former president then went on to say “As far as I have learned, what happened in the trial was contrary to the constitution and law, as well as citizens' right.”

So it appears that the Sea of Green, despite its best efforts, is subject to yet another injustice by their government and its choke hold on the population continues. I've said it in previous posts that any court called a Revolutionary court will never give true justice... Iran has yet again proven my point.

I don't know why I'm surprised though, the authorities and the militia have been acting like judge, jury and executioner since June 12th, just as they did to poor Neda who became a worldwide symbol of hope and resistance. Now the authorities are just doing it in nicer clothing and with the protective blanket offered by laws that they seem to invent as they go along.

There will be no justice in Iran, but as long as we keep spreading the news, those who have died and suffered will not be forgotten.

17 Drunk Driving Convictions and Still Driving.

Actually it's 18 drunk driving convictions now and a total of 114 convictions for Roger Walsh, a repeat (and repeat and repeat) offender who has pleaded guilty in Québec court of hit and run causing death, impaired driving causing death and violating a court order from a previous conviction that barred him from drinking.

This is after he was driving (drunk of course) and hit a girl in a wheelchair killing her instantly. The only reason he even stopped his car is because it went off the road, 8 kilometers later.

The prosecution is now seeking a dangerous offender status for Walsh, stating that if he can't respond to therapy and other court imposed sentences than the courts have to protect the public from this reckless and moronic man. (I added in that last part, but you get the point)

I have no problem with the courts labeling him a dangerous offender. My problems lies with the way the courts handled his previous 17 drunk driving convictions. His latest sentence was that he was barred from drinking. Whoopty-doo... Good job boys, I love seeing my tax dollars at work that way. Whatever happened to tough love? Couldn't you stop him from driving or owning a car? Couldn't you slap an ankle bracelet on him? Couldn't you lock him up for a long long time? Oh yeah I forget this is Canada... More so it's Québec.

We're so lenient with our sentences and our jail time that it makes my stomach turn. While this guy is driving on the road and killing handicapped children, the police seems more concerned with giving me a 48 hour notice for my burnt out brake light than making sure idiots like this aren't anywhere near the road.

So to the courts, the police and the politicians and all those bureaucrats behind the scenes: do your job, keep maniacs like this off the road and stop them from killing our children. Then maybe, just maybe I'll fix my brake light, file my income tax and stop threatening to call my lawyer everytime I get pulled over.

Muchacho Enfermo

Quebec NGO Sues the King and Wins...

Not so long ago I used to see these commercials for Burger King Cressandwhiches which advertised "meat and cheese and meat and cheese" that looked oh so tasty in the eyes of this simple carnivore. But it appears that not everyone felt the same about waking up with the King...

A Quebec organization called "The Coalition québécoise sur la problématique du poids" (Quebec Coalition for weight problems) sued BK for targeting children in their advertising. They did this by advertising a free toy with the purchase of a kid's meal. The best part is they won.

Again I am stupefied at the verdict of the court having now sentenced Burger King to pay 12,000$ after a guilty plea by the burger chain. A few things here are worth considering... WTF is 12,000$ to a huge corporation. Second off, who the heck sues a fast food chain for making them and their kids fat?

You don't want your kids to get fat, don't take them to BK, Mickey D's, Wendy's, A & W, Harvey's or any of the burger joints around the province. If your kids grow up craving junk food, don't blame the commercials, blame yourselves. I eat well, I take care of myself mostly because my parents taught me the value of a well balanced meal. When I need a snack I eat an apple, it's far less costly the BK and much better for you.

I think I'm going to sue Danone for making yogurts geared at kids or those people who make string-cheese... Because hey, it's aimed at kids and that's obviously wrong.

Parent's stop blaming everyone and everything except yourselves for the shortcomings of your offspring. It's not TV, it's not video games, it's not fast food and it's not what they pick up at school; as a parent it's your job to make sure that your child has the proper values to cope and deal with this stuff. And that doesn't start by suing Burger King, it starts by giving your kid milk and fruit and talking to them about their day.

Muchacho Enfermo

Court Rules on infamous "Squirrel Feeder"

In my WTF moment of the day as I was reading the Gazette
and I saw that a Westmount (rich borough of Montreal) had issued a man a ticket for feeding a squirrel.

As was his right he fought the ticket in court. He's a musician so of course he wrote a song about it called "SquirrelGate"...

The man was feeding a squirrel.
He got a ticket for feeding said squirrel.
Two years of trial.
The courts upheld the fine.

This is two and half years of taxpayer dollars that went to waste because Westmount security couldn't just give him a warning and let it go. In an attempt to stop this ludicrous trial the city of Westmount offered to drop the charges if the man agreed to be the city's "Don't Feed the Squirrels" spokesperson.

I don't really have a funny or witty conclusion... I think this just speaks for itself. Once again... my tax dollars at work.

Muchacho Enfermo

Our Justice System is Guilty of Failing

Not a day goes by that I don’t open my local paper and read about some crazy person that assaults small children or a crazy murderer or a homeless person getting run over by a truck driver. Not a day goes by that I don’t hear the lenient judgments handed down by Canadian and Quebec Courts to child molesters and murderers...

Let me out this in perspective for you: A pediatrician in Quebec is now being paroled to a halfway house after serving the mandatory 2/3 of his 3 year sentence, he was convicted of what? Drugging and assaulting young boys that went to see him. I’m not exactly sure how many boys he was found guilty of having abused, but even if he assaulted only one, that’s one too many. The parole board and his prison councilors all agree that he probably assaulted more boys than we can ever know and that he shouldn’t be released, but it’s the law... there’s nothing we can do about it.

Or the Case of the Snowdon Attacker, this man lost it one day in the Snowdon Metro Station and attacked a 42 year old woman, putting her in a coma for months and disfiguring her, before attacking two other people and sexually assaulting a woman. He was sentenced to serve his 2 year sentence in the community. The very same community he terrorized.

There are a few things wrong with both of these stories:
1- In the case of the child molesting pediatrician... that whole thing is just wrong. Especially his sentence and his mandatory release. Serving 2 years for assaulting numerous little boys? That somehow doesn’t seem even a little bit like justice to me.
2- In the case of the Snowdon Attacker... 2 years to be served in the community? What the heck is that? Is that consolation for the woman he put in the coma and the other woman he sexually assaulted?

It seems to me that my provincial government, instead of worrying about which language I speak in the privacy of my own home, should be focusing on trying to amend the criminal code to help bring ACTUAL justice to the victims of these crimes.

As Canadians we always say we are champions of Human Rights and Civil Rights, we are great at criticizing other nations for their lacks in that department, we are great at saying that certain countries are to harsh in their prison sentences. We are also great at closing our eyes and pretending everything is fine with our justice system.

Muchacho Enfermo