to move up and down
Montreal woman arrested for posting photo of anti-police graffiti to Instagram
A Montreal woman is facing a criminal charge after posting a photo online of graffiti showing a senior police officer with a bullet in his head.
Jennifer Pawluck was placed under arrest on Wednesday, released under conditions and ordered to appear before a judge at a later date to face a charge of criminal harassment.
The picture she snapped is of a graffiti drawing of Cmdr. Ian Lafreniere, a longtime Montreal police spokesman and one of the most visible faces of the force.
Police defended the decision to proceed with charges. Spokeswoman Anie Lemieux says it’s zero tolerance when lawyers, judges or police officers are believed to be targeted. (Instagram)
‘Not every opinion is valid:’ Carleton University free speech wall torn down within hours
Only hours after students installed a “Free Speech Wall” at Carleton University to prove that campus free speech was alive and well, it was torn down by an activist who claimed the wall was an “act of violence,” against the gay community.
“What we wanted to promote was competition of ideas, rather than ‘if I disagree with you I’ve got to censor you,’” said Ian CoKehyeng, founder of Carleton Students for Liberty, the creators of the wall.
Installed on Monday in the Unicentre Galleria, one of campus’ most high-traffic areas, the wall was really more of a 1.2 x 1.8 meter wooden plank wrapped in paper and equipped with felt markers.
By Tuesday morning the wall was gone, destroyed in an act of “forceful resistance,” by seventh-year human rights student Arun Smith.
Don’t let the idiot speak: The case against Terry Jones
Jonathan Kay: It’s not censorship to tell Jones he’s free to spout all the hate he wants, but has no right to use the Ontario legislature as his sound stage.
Let the idiot speak: The case for Terry Jones
Marni Soupcoff: Banning Jones would be a disservice to Canadian Muslims, and blame the wrong person for extremist violence.
Is it smart to ‘pour oil on the fire?’: France slams magazine for publishing nude Mohammad cartoons
France stepped up security Wednesday at its embassies across the Muslim world after a French satirical weekly revived a formula that it has already used to capture attention: Publishing crude, lewd caricatures of Islam’s Prophet Mohammad.
Wednesday’s issue of the provocative satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, whose offices were firebombed last year, raised concerns that France could face violent protests like the ones targeting the United States over an amateur video produced in California that have left at least 30 people dead.
The drawings, some of which depicted Mohammad naked and in demeaning or pornographic poses, were met with a swift rebuke by the French government, which warned the magazine could be inflaming tensions, even as it reiterated France’s free speech protections. (Illustration by Gary Clement)
ACLU takes Ku Klux Klan’s case after Georgia rejects ‘adopt-a-highway’ application
A Ku Klux Klan chapter sued the state of Georgia on Thursday for rejecting the white supremacist group’s application to “adopt” a stretch of highway.
The KKK chapter, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, said Georgia’s refusal to let it join an adopt-a-highway program, which typically involves volunteers picking up trash and planting trees along roads, violated its free speech rights.
The state’s reasons for denying the application were “frivolous and pretextual” and were designed to “shift their duty to uphold free speech to a court instead,” the lawsuit filed in Georgia state court said.
“We decided to take this case because it is such a clear violation of the speech rights of the group,” said Debbie Seagraves, executive director of the ACLU of Georgia. “We can’t let that slide.” (Tim Parker / Reuters)
Pussy Riot found guilty of anti-religious ‘hooliganism’ for church protest
A Russian judge found three women from the punk band Pussy Riot guilty of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred on Friday for staging an anti-Kremlin protest on the altar of Moscow’s main Russian Orthodox church.
Judge Marina Syrova did not immediately issue a sentence but state prosecutors want there-year jail terms for the three women who stormed the altar of the Christ the Saviour Cathedral in February and performed a “punk prayer” asking the Virgin Mary to rid Russia of President Vladimir Putin.
The defendants “committed an act of hooliganism … based on motives of religious hatred and enmity,” the judge told the Moscow court as the defendants sat in a courtroom cage. (Photo: Sergei Karpukhin/Reuters)
Related: Canadian twist in Pussy Riot case sparks call for Ottawa to intervene
Charles Lewis: Hate-filled pastor should be shunned by the world
What do you do about a man like Jones, who represents every instinct that is anathema to the religion he purports to represent, and is a disgrace to anyone with an ounce of dignity? Here’s the answer. Shun him.
Lorne Gunter: The Koran-burning pastor is a moron, but not a murderer
Burning books (and flags) an old, sad tradition
