BPC Bulletin: Toronto Publisher and Editor Convicted of Promoting Hatred
News Reports and Commentary Selected by Franklin Carter of the Book and Periodical Council’s Freedom of Expression Committee
On January 24, 2019, the publisher and editor of Toronto’s Your Ward News were convicted in the Ontario Court of Justice of wilfully promoting hatred against Jews and women.
LeRoy St. Germaine and James Sears will be sentenced on April 26. They plan to appeal.
REPORTAGE
Colin Perkel of the Canadian Press reports:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/your-ward-promoting-hate-1.4990806
CityNews reports:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pzyFJgeIZs
CTV News reports:
https://barrie.ctvnews.ca/dark-day-for-christianity-says-man-found-guilty-of-promoting-hate-1.4268141
In The Canadian Jewish News, Paul Lungen reports:
https://www.cjnews.com/news/canada/your-ward-news-proprietors-found-guilty-of-promoting-hate-against-jews-women
At Vice, Mack Lamoureux reports:
https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/qvypjp/james-sears-editor-of-canadas-most-racist-paper-guilty-of-hate-charges
In The Star, Rosie DiManno reports:
https://www.thestar.com/opinion/star-columnists/2019/01/16/judge-must-decide-if-odious-your-ward-news-is-harmful-or-just-hogwash.html
COMMENTARY
In the National Post, Christie Blatchford comments:
https://nationalpost.com/opinion/christie-blatchford-hate-convictions-against-your-ward-news-editor-owner-a-badge-of-shame-they-richly-deserve
In The Globe and Mail, Marcus Gee comments:
At Ryerson University’s Centre for Free Expression, Abbas Kassam comments:https://cfe.ryerson.ca/blog/2019/01/winning-battle-losing-war-your-ward-news-conviction-win-against-hate%C2%A0
At the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, Cara Zwibel comments:
https://ccla.org/dialing-911-hate-speech-women/
The Book and Periodical Council was formed in 1975 as the Book and Periodical Development Council to provide a venue for members to discuss industry issues, address mutual concerns and undertake projects for the benefit of Canadian writing and publishing.