Incident with Niagara reporter was violation of rights: Ontario ombudsman
TORONTO — Municipal staff in Niagara Region violated a reporter’s charter rights when they seized his equipment and called police after assuming he was trying to record a closed council meeting, Ontario’s ombudsman found in a report released Wednesday.
Paul Dube launched an investigation in December 2017, days after the incident involving a St. Catharines Standard reporter and a citizen blogger who were covering the meeting that went into a closed session.
While Dube’s analysis found the blogger’s rights were not violated, he found the Regional Municipality of Niagara acted inappropriately toward both men when their property was seized, police were called and they were asked to leave the region headquarters.
“It is my opinion that the region’s actions were contrary to law, unreasonable, unjust and wrong,” Dube wrote in his report.