CanWest goes to court over raid

By OLIVER MOORE
Globe and Mail Update

The corporate parent of the Ottawa Citizen is going to court to protect
material seized from reporter Juliet O'Neill, denouncing the RCMP raid on
her home and office as an unconstitutional attempt to frighten journalists.

The court challenge centres on the validity of Section 4 of the Security
and Information Act and charges also that the raids violates Section 2 (b)
of the Constitution, which protects freedom of the press.

Ms. O'Neill was the focus of an hours-long police search last week,
apparently because she included sensitive information in a story about
Syrian-Canadian Maher Arar, who had been deported for his alleged terrorist
connections.

If charged under the Security and Information Act, Ms. O'Neill faces up to
14 years in prison. But CanWest has come out swinging, and its challenge,
filed Wednesday, will be heard in Ontario Superior Court in Ottawa on
Thursday.

The court application attacks the constitutional validity of Section 4,
which jeopardizes and interferes with journalists' ability to receive
information from confidential sources on matters of grave public concern
and importance, the plaintiff's lawyers said in a statement. The challenge
also questions the legitimacy of the warrants used to justify a search of
Ms. O'Neill's home and office, saying that they are contrary to
constitutionally-protected freedom of the press and were intended to
frighten journalists.

The Justice of the Peace who issued the warrants failed to consider the
balance that must be struck between freedom of the press and
law-enforcement, and failed to include any safeguards to protect freedom of
the press, the lawyers argued. Further ... the warrants are an abuse of
process and were executed for ulterior motives, including the intimidation
of Ms. O'Neill and all journalists who receive information from
confidential sources.


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