By Murray Dobbin
Word-warriors
Vancouver
There is a very important freedom of expression fight going on in Vancouver, pitting the Asper family and their CanWest media empire against a long time Vancouver peace activist and Palestinian advocate, Mordecai Briemberg.
Briemberg is guilty of nothing more than handing out a few copies of a tabloid parody of the Vancouver Sun — highlighting the biased coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He had nothing to do with producing the tabloid.
CanWest is engaged in what is known as a SLAPP suit — the acronym for strategic lawsuit against public participation. It is a form of litigation often used by large corporations to silence their opponents and more often than not involves cases that have no merit and little chance of winning.
The point is to bankrupt their critics with big legal defence bills and keep them so pre-occupied with that defence they have no time for further political action. They are pernicious and anti-democratic, but often effective in silencing dissent.
Ostensibly the suit is about copyright infringement but no one takes this claim seriously. What is serious is the concerted attack on Briemberg in the Writ for having the audacity to criticize Israel. That is why he is being sued and it is something anyone concerned about freedom of expression and democracy should not ignore.
Please visit the web site of the group defending Briemberg at seriouslyfreespeech.ca for more details or simply sign the petition at:
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/don't-let-canwest-slapp-briemberg-and-you
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