Blogging comes of age in Charles LeBlanc Criminal Libel case

Found this video on Charles LeBlanc's 'alternate site'.

The recently arrested Fredericton blogger has a new site up after police shut down his Blogger.com blog, seized his computer, and charged him with Criminal Liable against a Fredericton Police Officer.

Since I'm big on bike issues I thought I'd use this nice interview Charles LeBlanc did with an unidetified Fredericton man to show you Charles LeBlanc is a good citizen blogger, not a stupid man and someone who undrstand what the rule of law is supposed to represent. The inidentified interviewee in the video (it looks like) was mistakenly identified by a couple of Constables as a wanted individual.

Acording to the man interviewed, both police officers, with no words directions or orders, tackled, battered, cuffed the man and held him in the back of the cruiser.

When they realize the mis-identification - instead of admitting their mistake, and apologizing to the Frederictonian, they try to justify their actions with the appropriate fraudulent paper work - releasing the man and issuing him with a traffic ticket - for riding his bike on the sidewalk. An action he says he took after while riding his bike on the road, the police used their vehicle as a weapon to intimidate him - rather than communicating to him what they wanted to talk to him about.

Give it time - it gets real good.



More about Charles LeBlanc's arrest in this video (made by him).





The CBC Fredericton has a good piece up that lays it all out pretty concisely I think,  "Controversial blogger charged with libel".

This video embedded is from the same CBC article - http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/story/2012/01/20/nb-blogger-arrest-640.html




Interesting, at the end of the CBC video the section of the criminal code police are charging LeBlanc under has been ruled unconstitutional in three other provinces. So is this an order from the Province to Police to charge someone with this so Provicial Lawyers can get a day in supreme court on this? Some sort of Provincial power pay?

So, two birds with one stone: a test case going up the though the court system so the Attorney General of New Brunswick gets his test case --- and by laying it on a powerless, poor, troublesome blogger, who local police have heard just about enough from, will shut him up while the case is before the courts - in this case, that could be years.

Police higher ups might find this amusing, ironic - screwing with people's lives can be funny when you're the bully. On the other hand I suppose they might think it's cold justice - since LeBlanc, from their point of view, has been making Officers lives miserable...

What this says about the professionalism of the Fredricton Police Force - I'll leave to your judgement.



mh

"Legacy Schools" - Orwellian Neo-con Privatization Formula

As part of a budget process in the City of Chicago, schools in poor neighbourhoods are funded without an appreciation that they need a 'leg up' to prosper (funding for social workers, nurses, food programs - all working together to counter balance social problems caused by unemployment, low wages, health and mental problems associated with low income communities).

Under funding the schools causes them to 'fail' (a metric from Bush II's 'No child Left Behind' federal funding formula) - and then they are closed and school districts amalgamated - and then the remaining over crowed schools are privatized. All unionized staff including Principals, Teachers, Administration, Janitors) are fired and a private education company takes over the management of the school, hiring all non-union staff.

This is the neo-con template for privatizing the public school system.

This is functioning right now in Chicago, and it's success there (but not with out a growing public out cry) and is spreading to New York and other cities.

Expect it here in Canada - soon.

The Real News Network has a piece on this - and Democracy Now did a whole show on it.

The Real News Network - "Despite public outcry, Chicago approves closure of 17 schools"


Democracy Now - "Occupy Education: Teachers, Students Resist School Closings, Privatizations, Layoffs and Rankings"





Understand the template, share, discuss with your neighbours, your elected representatives - and learn how we can fight it when it comes here to Canada.



mh

Convenience Parking in the Dundas Bike Lane across from 55 Division

A Video Bicycle Ride

Convenience parking in Bike Lanes, just past busy intersections, is extremely dangerous for cyclists.

This short clip of me cycling the Dundas Bike Lanes at Coxwell on 05March2012, shows pretty well the experience of the cyclist when dealing with a parked van in the bike lane just past a busy intersection.

I’m a veteran cyclist – and I bike this route regularly – so I wasn’t surprised to see a car parked in this dangerous situation. As you can see in the video, I see it half a block before I get to the intersection – so I have time to decide what I’m going to do. (I decide to make a movie 

What to Do?

Cyclist:
The best thing to do in this situation – if your lucky enough to notice it soon enough – is to change lanes well before the intersection, and take the middle of the centre lane through the intersection. If cars start honking at you use your left hand to signal a stop sign and continue calmly. Once they see the parked car in the bike lane they’ll wish they hadn’t done that.

Convenience Stopper / Parker:
For automobile drivers – if you can, if it’s not too far to walk for you, could you please pull your car as far up as you can from the corner – it gives unsuspecting cyclists time to change lanes or stop before they hit your car – or die in a collision.

Civil Society:
For the Toronto Police Services Board – could you please see to it that Officers enforce the Bike Lane no parking laws?

See more (and soon more) ‘Video Bicycle Rides’ at my Youtube Channel - http://www.youtube.com/user/michaelholloway111/videos

Reposted from @Blog_FreeWheel - my cycling Blog at BikingToronto.com
(http://bikingtoronto.com/michaelhollowayblog/2012/03/06/convenience-parking-in-the-dundas-bike-lane-across-from-55-division/)



mh