A former director of the NDP is happy the police gained greater rights to criminalize email campaigns. In a sign of his anti-Palestinian power worshipping, Karl Bélanger justified my exclusion from the leadership race based on an odious judgement that my supporters emailing the police represented “harassment”.
Yesterday, the president of the Douglas-Coldwell Foundation and moderator of the recent French language NDP debate, linked to an article about a judge ruling in favour of giving the police greater powers by noting, “Pour ceux qui doutaient de la décision du NPD d’exclure Engler de la course à la direction…” (For those who doubted the NDP’s decision to exclude Engler from the leadership race…) A longtime Jack Layton press secretary and Thomas Mulcair adviser, Bélanger linked to a hostile Journal de Quebec article about a ruling that subverts the public’s right to petition state officials.
In finding me guilty of three charges related to emailing the Montreal police, judge Karine Giguere established a terrible precedent. Giguere granted the police greater power to define respectful communication/pressure as “harassment” or “obstruction of justice”.
Every element of this case is appalling. To recap, extremist anti-Palestinian Dhalia Kurtz accused me of harassment for criticizing her support for Israel’s genocide on X. The police investigated the matter and then closed the file. Months later Conservative Party candidate and leading lawfare practitioner Neil Oberman pressured the police to renew the investigation. The police investigator then charged me and sought to muzzle my right to discuss the case. In response, I organized an email petition campaign criticizing the muzzle condition and charges. The police responded by charging me for “harassing” them and obstructing justice. I was jailed for five days in a successful bid to defeat an (illegal) condition and the prosecution subsequently dropped the Kurtz charge.
The personal implications of the judge’s ruling are limited — I’ve already spent five days in jail so it’s unlikely my sentence would be much more. The political implications, however, are vast. Judge Giguere has established a precedent. She made her decision despite the prosecution failing to present any caselaw where somebody was found guilty for promoting an email campaign to the police. The case could end up before the Supreme Court as it has significant implications for freedom of expression and email petitions.
As such, it’s not surprising that Saturday’s Journal de Montreal, Globe and Mail, Montreal Gazette, National Post, Vancouver Sun, Toronto Sun and other Postmedia papers published articles about the ruling. The Jurist and other media also covered the story.
For their part, Zionists applauded the ruling. Leviathan, Tafsik, Canada Israel Friendship Association and others all posted memes or statements celebrating the judge’s attack on the right to petition government officials. J-TV news posted, “This case underscores a critical reality: harassment and intimidation of law-enforcement officials, especially those tasked with investigating hate crimes, is not activism. It is criminal behavior.”
The Canadian Antisemitism Education Foundation took a more aggressive tack. They stated their intent “to file a Community Impact Statement at his sentencing hearing, arguing that his obstruction of Detective Crivello was part of a pattern of behavior of intimidation and mischief targeting members of Canada’s Jewish community.”
It isn’t a surprise that Bélanger aligned with the genocide advocates. He has long been anti-Palestinian. Bélanger publicly criticized NDP activists’ efforts to raise Palestine at the 2023 and 2018 conventions and has attended apartheid lobby events.
Rather than legitimating the NDP’s exclusion of my candidacy as per Belanger, the judge’s decision should embarrass the NDP. Might they have emboldened Giguere to rule against me by vaguely accusing me of “harassment” to justify excluding me from the leadership race at a time when the judge was deliberating on the case?
The NDP shouldn’t want to be linked to claims that sending respectful emails to the police constitutes “harassment”. If you oppose authoritarianism and genocide you should want this ruling to be overturned.
If you can assist with the legal appeal: yvesengler.com/donate/
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