🚀 go-pugleaf

kadie@cs.uiuc.edu (Carl M Kadie) writes:

> You have persuaded me that Canadian democracy is healthy, but not that
> Canadian freedom of expression and freedom to read are healthy. I see
> these freedoms as individual rights and am very leery of even majority
> attempts to limit them.

      From you, Carl, we have learned to expect a more measured
      response. You must by now know what the facts are, and the
      difference in our systems that make your concern unnecessary.

      If this had been a total ban, it would have been safely ignored.
      The conditions for a secret trial in Canada are so stringent
      that even serious national security cases get tried in public. I
      can tell you from personal experience that this is not the case
      in the US. I was an expert witness in a secret trial in your
      country and, if I remember the judge's warnings correctly (it
      was a very long time ago), merely admitting to having taken part
      in such a trial could land me in jail for twenty years. I would
      understand your concern if this situation had come up in the US.

      There is nothing in the ban that prevents a reporter from
      declaring the trial a travesty of justice if, in fact, it was.
      Our judiciary operates very much in public - always, and
      publication bans (like the names of young offenders) are kept to
      a minimum. On the other hand, if he uses proscribed material to
      do it, and can't wait until the Teale jury is selected, he'd
      better be right.

      It seems to me that the only injury here is to the tendons on
      all those jerking knees.

        Cheers,
                Marc

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        I'm Huguenot, Acadien, Quebecois, Irish and Micmac. My people
        have been abused and cheated by just about everybody. Does
        this give me the moral high ground?

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