this post was submitted on 05 Oct 2024
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Police In Canada Warn Lawyer Over Her Social Media Posts On Israel (youtu.be)
submitted 1 month ago by ininewcrow@lemmy.ca to c/ontario@lemmy.ca
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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/30385203

BACKGROUND

Joanna Berry is a Canadian immigration and refugee lawyer in Ontario, Canada. On October 2, two Niagara Police Officers, one of them a sergeant detective, paid her a visit to her home. They told her they were there on behalf of the Ottawa Police Department because of her "personal social media." They begin to tell her that "10 lawyers who are of the Jewish faith" have filed a complaint with the police about her social media. As you can tell from the video, Joanna Berry, is outraged by the visit and clearly distraught. I reached out to the Niagara Regional Police for comment but they did not respond to my inquiry. I spoke with Joanna Berry also and she gave OTL Media permission to publish the video. She told us that she wants Canadians to see it and for the video to be a warning.

"This is very Orwellian"

On The Line Media is run by Samira Mohyeddin, a multi-award-winning journalist, documentary maker, and producer at CBC Radio One’s The Current.

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[–] ArbitraryValue@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

the police would have stated that is what they were there for

She didn't exactly give them a chance to talk.

[–] ininewcrow@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

If it were a serious criminal matter ... they would not have allowed her to interrupt them

They couldn't speak over her because they knew full well that they had no right to be there. These are probably two of the dumbest cops in Ontario to have allowed themselves to be filmed like this.

[–] ArbitraryValue@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

They had a right to be there since she invited them in, and then they no longer had a right to be there after she told them to leave so they did. The events in the video could well be an attempt to illegally intimidate a person for expressing political views, but they could also be an attempt to resolve a case of harassment without having to involve the courts, in which case the fact that they left doesn't necessarily mean that she won't get a summons later.

[–] ininewcrow@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 month ago

Whatever reason why they went in or whether or not they had a right to or not .... they basically spent an hour out of their workday of investigating more serious crimes in their area to go over to a woman's house to tell her to stop saying bad or disagreeable things online to unknown (or unidentified) people. Sure the video is only 7 minutes long but it takes time to drive to someone's house, then drive back and then spend whatever amount of time at the office to get informed about the visit and get organized for it .... all that work, just to tell a woman to stop saying things online.

Murders, car thefts, robberies, assaults and actual threats and they had to ignore all that for an hour just to tell a woman to stop saying things online.

[–] jerkface@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 month ago

they could also be an attempt to resolve a case of harassment without having to involve the courts

as police detectives famously do