Emilie Taman Press Conference at Carleton University Article
Former federal lawyer, NDP candidate, and University of Ottawa law professor, Emilie Taman, stopped by Carleton University to host a press conference about her current legal battle with Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson; “Just because something is not unconstitutional doesn’t make it right” stated Taman. Taman along with two other applicants, Dylan Penner and James Hutt, have launched a legal challenge against the Ottawa mayor after being blocked on twitter for “engagement that is not cheerleading” as Taman described it during the press conference.
Emilie Taman was blocked by Mayor Jim Watson after a dispute broke out between the mayor and MPP of the Ottawa Centre riding, Joel Harden, who tweeted a video of himself in a legislature calling on Jim Watson to act in relation to the mass eviction of the residents of Heron Gate on Sept. 29. After, Watson replied to the tweet explaining that the situation had been rectified and insinuating that the MPP had done nothing to assist. Prompting municipal candidate Shawn Menard to respond saying that he had spoken to many of these residents that had communicated that they were still unsatisfied with Watson’s efforts. Watson then replied to Menard implying that the candidate was ‘obsessed with attacking him’. This is when Taman felt a need to speak up in defence of Menard after canvassing and campaigning for him as his chairperson. She tweeted “I think you can let the people of Capital Ward speak for themselves thanks. I’ve knocked on countless doors with and on behalf of Shawn in this campaign and can assure you that lots of people are explicitly looking to elect a councillor who will oppose your right-wing agenda.” Taman believes that this tweet is what sparked her blocking by Jim Watson shortly after it was posted.
This decision made by Watson came as a shock to Taman because she believed she was a generally courteous twitter user, noting that she had never used profanities or gotten personal with politicians that she criticized on the platform. This encouraged Taman to research some other people that had similarly engaged with and then been blocked by the mayor without ever using a profanity or using any kind of conduct that could be construed as harassment, by following the #BlockedbyJim hashtag. Through this she identified the two other applicants in her lawsuit against Watson, in which they will have a day of legal argument based on their affidavits and then a court will be asked to render its decision as to whether they will declare that Watson’s decisions have breached section to 2B of the Charter of rights and freedoms.
In response to Taman and others’ legal challenge Watson stated “This is my personal twitter account. I have the right not to be attacked and harassed … this type of behaviour would not be tolerated in a face-to-face debate.” However, Taman argues that the mayor’s decision to block constituents on twitter deprives them from participating in any public debate that might stem from the messages he puts out on twitter.
After being asked if the recent lawsuit filed against U.S president Donald Trump for similarly blocking citizens on twitter influenced her to take legal action against Watson at all, she stated “We would certainty be referring to that case in our lawsuit… the reasoning would likely be persuasive to a court here... and probably with hindsight planted the seed a little bit.”
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Sources:
https://twitter.com/JimWatsonOttawa/status/1046047227892953089
